The most recent counter for the English Fell Running Championships was held on the Isle of Man last Saturday. This was an unusual course entitled Sea-to-Summit. It went from Laxey seafront (with an optional paddle at the start) by a slightly convoluted route up to the summit of Snaefell to give a 14.5 km distance with 1130m of ascent. Whilst it was predominantly uphill, it also included a lot of fast running sections (and a free trip back down on the historic ‘mountain railway’).
As has been the case for the whole of the 2018 season, Keswick sent strong teams of men and women. The men were in particularly impressive form with Carl Bell winning in 1 hour, 15 minutes and 12 seconds, followed by James Appleton (2nd), Mark Lamb (4th), Steve Hebblethwaite (11th) and Sam Stead (16th). There was no question as to who would win the men’s team event!
Also doing well were Dave Prosser 3rd V55 and Mike Mallen 2nd V60.
The ladies, who had run first, were led home by Keswick’s Hannah Horsburgh in 1.31.37. The ladies do not have quite the same number of very top flight runners so the club tactic is to have plenty of runners. Some of these, the first four, will count for the team and the rest will pack in behind them and thereby hopefully disadvantage other teams. This was again successful with Keswick narrowly holding second place. The ladies came:
Jenn Mattinson 11th, Rachel Mellor 17th, Lindsay Walker 23rd, Zoe Webber 25th, Helen Winskill 27th (3rd V40), Vic Haworth 29th, Kerry Cornforth 35th.
Nicky Butler did very well coming 1st V55 and Lesley Malarkey came 2nd V65.
The race was followed for many of us with a dip in the sea and an excellent evening was laid on locally with excellent foodstuffs, a presentation and live music. A wonderful sunny end to a great day!
The next counter is Turner Landscape on August 11th when, again, we hope to field a large and strong team.
With so many runners at the Isle of Man, the mighty Wasdale race had a reduced field. It was won by Rhys Findlay Robinson from Keswick (sadly running for Dark Peak) in 3.59.55. One of the up and coming KAC runners however, Tobias Barthelmes, was in a very impressive 9th place having only recently completed his Bob Graham round.