It was off to the Lake District last
Saturday for the Longest Race in this year’s English and British Fell
Championships, the Ennerdale Horseshoe.
The race has 23 miles of running and
7500 feet of climbing in, but due to the forecast thunder and lightning the
race was shortened. The new route did not go to any of the mountain summits,
instead making its way to Buttermere and back via the cols. The route then had
a loop from Black Sail Hut which headed up towards the mountains of Great Gable
and Kirk Fell before descending back down to the Black Sail Hut. There was then
an 8 mile run down the road/track and then around the edge of Ennerdale to the
finish.
Jon Wright led the way for Todmorden with a solid run finishing just
over 3 hours in around 30th position. Next to finish was Ivan Gee a
great result in what was his first big lakeland race.
The ever improving Ben
Crowther finished next after another solid run, (again he was on the cusp of
championship points in the V40 category we wait to see the official results for
clarification).
New Toddie Dave Garner was next to finish not far ahead of Dan
Taylor, who overtook a tiring Paul Hobbs
just yards before the finish. This means the team got the 6 counters around for
qualification for the championship.
In
the ladies race Lucy Burnett stormed up the hills for a 16th place
result and some well earned championship points. Clare Harris and Kath Brierley
decided 21 miles wasn’t enough so added an extra mile going back to a
checkpoint they had missed.
A good day
out for all, even though the route was changed it was still a tough challenge.
by DT
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