From Rachel Carter…
This year the UKA British Hill and Fell Relays were held at Appletreewick with all the best fell teams coming to compete in this prestigious event of the race calendar. The relays comprise 4 legs – 2 solos and 2 paired – with Leg 3 requiring navigation to find 9 checkpoints after being handed a map at a few hundred metres into the race. There were rumours beforehand that the course wouldn’t be tough, with it being held in a relative backwater of the Dales, but I think many were surprised! Wharfedale Harriers’ hosting was superb with everything (including the weather) organised perfectly and so many people volunteering their time for car-parking, registration, bag checks, marshalling etc.
Our LV40 team won a place through the ballot and amazingly the team managed to stay the same from being arranged in early September with no last-minute changes required due to illness or injury. This meant those of us on the non navigation legs did fit in a couple of recces so we had knowledge of the terrain and most of the route.
Katie’s skills as a strong descender meant she was well placed on Leg 1, which included the punishing Burnsall Fell race route putting our team 7th of 17 in the LV40 category. Kate and I ‘ran’ Leg 2 – the longest leg at 8.7miles and 2600 ft. Kate’s endurance definitely pushed me to my limit for the 2nd half but I held my own on the descents and we moved the team up to 3rd. Alison and Jann did an amazing job on Leg 3, running over rough pathless ground, staying focused and using their skills to successfully find all the navigation checkpoints, enabling us to move into first place! Having been set off in the Leg 4 mass start, Helen had no knowledge that we were in 1st so could run her own race! By her own admission steep slippy descents are not her preference but she must have managed well as she ran a strong leg in a fast time to keep us in first!
I’ve not done these relays before but it was a great day and I Ioved it. The event has a real buzzy atmosphere as all the legs start and finish from the same point allowing opportunity to cheer fellow club mates on and enjoy the general amazing vibe that the fell running camaraderie provides. Winning the category was the icing on the cake and I don’t think any of us could quite believe it! Apparently this means Ilkley has automatic entry in the LV40 category to next year’s relays (3 1/2 hours away in Wales!). Thanks to all those IH members that supported all the teams on the day – marshalling, cheering on, bringing the tent and taking photos – it’s really appreciated.
From Nick Helliwell…
Rachel has already brilliantly summarised the great day out we had, and the wonderful location and organisation by Wharfedale Harriers, so straight into the mens’ summary:
Having home field advantage, and one of the best teams we could put out, we went into the men’s open category quietly confident of a good result. Which was shared by Ted Mason’s charity bookkeeping enterprise ‘BetTed’, who had Ilkley equal second favourites for overall victory, behind only Carnethy. But this race is highly competitive, and everything has to go right on the day. Sam Bentham led the team out, in his last race as an U18, trying to recreate his second place finish in the same leg in this race last year. Things were looking good to start with, Sam leading the pack at the top of the first (very) big climb. However, disaster struck on the first descent, with Sam falling on loose rocks, and injuring himself quite badly. But the adrenaline kicked in, he picked himself up and finished the leg in 7th, a remarkable achievement, considering the first aiders discussed a hospital visit afterwards! Thankfully it seems he’s okay, with just bruising, which a little rest should resolve. Jack Cummings and Nathan Edmondson took over from Sam, and by the top of the first major climb (Simon’s Seat) had first place in their sights. However, this was a highly competitive field, with a blistering pace being set, and they couldn’t quite hold on from there, finishing the leg in 10th overall. In stepped Tom Adams and Jack Wood, who ran a fantastic navigational leg, pulling the team up to 6th place, just 1m30s behind 3rd place, although with some serious competition ahead. But up stepped Ben Rothery, and racing is what he does best. Ben reeled in team after team, and returned to the event field as leg winner, comfortably in 3rd place overall, to jubilant cheers from the home crowd. We think 3rd place is Ilkley’s best ever result in this competition, and it gives us confidence to do even better in Wales next year.
When Ben Mounsey is racing in a ‘supervets’ Calder Valley team, you know your MV40 team is going to be up against it! Dan McKeown did a great job on Leg 1, the ‘Burnsall Classic plus’ route, coming back to the event field in 9th. Michael Odell and Gawain Moore then absolutely stormed Leg 2, putting the team up to 5th, ahead of even Bingley Harriers’ ‘A’ team! The navigational leg 3 was key, as many teams got lost or missed checkpoints, so Paul Carman and Iain Gibbon’s diligent job of hitting every nav point really paid off, while teams all around got themselves disqualified. Nick Kealey finished it off, and the team ended in a creditable 8th place overall.
We have a bunch of fast youngsters coming through, and some of our elite males already having hit 40, so we might very well have our own supervets team in years to come. We were even talking about some of our fast MV40s becoming elite MV50s, so may even be looking to dominate all three categories at some point. Watch this space!