Todmorden Harriers’ club Fell Championship came to a close at the Tour of Pendle on Saturday. The 17mile race, which includes nearly 5000 feet of ascent and descent, is one of the toughest tests in the local area. Heavy rain, gale force winds and clag covered hilltops added to the challenge.
Starting from Barley village, a short road section took the runners straight to their first ascent of the landmark peak. After a steady descent to the Nick o’ Pendle the field turned towards Churn Reservoir, where a sharp climb took runners up onto Spence Moor. The spectacular ‘Geronimo’ descent down to the checkpoint at Ogden Clough brought out a sizeable number of spectators.
Another climb up and out of the Clough then took the runners back across towards the ski centre. They then took in an undulating course along the north side of the hill before the final stiff climb back up to Big End. A long final descent back to Ogden Clough led onto the final push back to the welcome finish at Barley.
Alistair Rhodes-Dawson was the first Todmorden runner to finish, consolidating his 2nd place behind Andrew Wrench in the club’s Fell Championship. Ben Crowther followed him in, with Chris Preston first Todmorden lady ahead of Elise Milnes.
On Sunday a trio of Harriers experienced slightly better conditions for the Rivock Edge Fell Race at Silsden.
The 6.3 mile course includes over 800 feet of ascent and was won by Lewis Banton in 53:02. First Harrier to finish was Simon Galloway – fresh from his recent Lytham St Annes 5k Monsterdash win – in 1:03:12. Chasing him in were Mick Craven and Peter Ehrhardt.
Andy McFie got his London Marathon training off to a flying start at the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k with a 218th position out of the 600 runners in a time of 37:56. Melanie Robertson had a fine run to finish in 51:55 and Debbie Fawcett stopped the clock in 1:03:25.
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