Last Saturday saw the inaugural run of this race which will hopefully continue to feature on the fell running calendar.  It was part of Honisterfest, a new fun event held at the quarry.

As it was part of the festival, the race attracted an interesting field of runners from experienced fell runners to those who had never tried fell running before.  Some were daunted when they realised what was involved but all set off in high spirits, walking or running and generally just enjoying the experience.

The race started, in cool and windy conditions, with a quick, if you were lucky, dash up to the summit of Dale Head and an exhilarating run down.  Sprinting through towards the mine entrance, the runners paused to gather carefully ordered helmets and head torches for the real fun part of the race.  For about one kilometre the participants ran, climbed stairs and generally scrambled through the mine emerging half way up the back of Fleetwith Pike, abandoning the helmets and racing off towards the summit in bright sunshine and perfect running conditions.  Having bagged that summit, off and away across the fell to Grey Knotts and then a headlong dash back to the mine.  KAC’s Geoff Henderson had an excellent run finishing well up the field and Lesley Malarkey and Nicky Butler were delighted to finish in 3rd and 4th places.

A huge thanks to the organisers for a very memorable race.

Keswick AC’s Lesley Malarkey and Nicky Butler