Ennerdale Horseshoe Fell Race 2021.
At 23 miles with 8,000ft ascent the Ennerdale Horseshoe is one of the longest fell races in the calendar. This year it was also the first English Championship race. As well as the second race to count towards the Lakeland Classic Trophy.
The weather was hot, with a bit of a breeze and the ground was dry. It was almost perfect conditions for fast times on a long race.
315 runners turned out to tackle the course. Which visited the summits Great Bourne, Red Pike, Green Gable, Kirk Fell, Pillar, Haycock and Crag Fell. There was a brilliant turn out of 21 kes runners.
The race was won by Keswick resident Billy Cartwright, who runs for Matlock AC in 3:32:16. He took the lead by pulling away from Matlock teammate, and former Keswick AC runner, Dan Haworth, on the last climb up Crag Fell. Dan finished 2nd in 3:34:10. Brennan Townshend finished as the first Keswick AC runner in 3rd place, 3:37:58.
Billy’s girlfriend Nicola Jackson, of Keswick AC, won the ladies race, in 4:13:59. Beating 2019 Mountain Running World Cup Champion Sarah McCormack by 8 minutes. Sharon Taylor, of Helm Hill was 3rd, in 4:23:50.
Fresh from his win at the Duddon Valley Fell Race the week before Matthew Atkinson, aka the Braithwaite Babe, finished in 8th place. Despite taking a tumble on Green Gable and slicing his hand open. He tied a buff around his hand and battled on. At the finish line he had to wait for well over an hour till Jacob Tonkin had finished, so he could be taken to A&E to get it stitched up.
A lot of 21 year old lads would spend their weekends drinking and disco dancing in a nightclub. Whereas, young Harry Bolton, is becoming a formidable fell runner. He laced up his dancing shoes (really just his fell running shoes), and tackled the long climbs of Ennerdale. He boogied around in 4:00:19, finishing 31st. The future is looking very bright for Harry, he’ll need his suncream!
Maybe the biggest applause of the weekend should go to the amazing Lesley Marakey. She became the first V70 to complete all 7 Lakeland Classic Fell races (Duddon, Ennerdale, Wasdale, Buttermere, Borrowdale, Three Shires and Langdale).
Well done everyone!
Full list of Keswick runners results are below.
Brennan Townshend 3rd 3:37:58
Matthew Atkinson 8th 3:43:39 trip to a&e
Steve Hebblethwaite 23rd 3:56:42
Harry Bolton 4:00:19
Dan Mills 4:03:43
Tom Day 4:06:05
John Battrick 4:09:48
Sam Stead 4:13:51
Nicola Jackson 4:13:59 won
David Birch 4:14:30
Jim Haworth 4:54:06
Ekatrina Townshend 5:05:49
Dave Prosser 5:06:23
Jacob Tonkin 5:15:48
Kat Downie 5:37:26
Heidi Dyson 5:47:24
Rachel Findlay-Robinson 5:48:29
Scott White 5:50:51
Kerry Cornforth 6:01:11
Lesley Malarkey 7:15:01
Chad Dixon 7:43:43
(Harry Bolton doing the funky Chicken down Green Gable)
Langstrath Fell Race 
Another Long standing record was broken on Wednesday night by Jacob Adkin. He took 7 seconds off Gavin Bland’s record from 1999. Jacob was first back in 35:15. Some believe he was running that fast to avoid the midges!
Mark Lamb was in second place in 36:28.
Cat Spurden was 2nd lady, finishing in 47:53. It’s very good to see Cat back racing well!
Jim Downie was 1st MV60, finishing in 58:41.
There were 18 Keswick AC members out in total. A few of which would have still had Ennerdale in their legs! Well done to all who took place. A big thank you to Mike Hind of Borrowdale for organising the event.
Junior News!
Zoe Brannon took part in the Inter County Championship, finishing in 17th place. She’s hoping to be able to build on this result next year, as she’ll still be in the same age category.
Other news…
After keeping the website in tiptop condition for the last few years, Rachel Kearns has stepped down as Webmaster. We thank her for all her hard work in getting the new site up and running.  She passes the mantle onto Jacob Tonkin. If you’ve any news or anything you think he should know about, then please get in touch with him! Despite the dodgy Thirlmere WIFI, he’ll aim to get all bits of news published on here.