From Jeff Green…

Now in its 40-somethingth year, the Otley Chevin Fell Race is short (4.5k) but sharp (210m climb). So sharp that, despite being a category C race, it only just falls short of the A category in terms of climb per km.

Numbers were a bit down on 2019, possibly due to some runners not having recovered from the Ilkley Half just three days earlier. Jack Cummings seemed to have recovered well and had a storming run, collecting 2nd place and a voucher to spend at Yorkshire Runner, who sponsored the race and provided all runners with a free pair of socks – if they could make it down the road to the shop after the race.

As COVID restrictions hadn’t been lifted as expected, runners were set off in waves every 10 seconds, based on their own predicted times. This reduced the potential for bottlenecks in the early stages of the race, but made results calculations more challenging and prizes had to be announced by email the following day. It also meant that you didn’t know whether digging a bit deeper on the home straight might make a difference to your position. Fingers crossed for a return to normal for next year’s race.

It was my first time at this race and I was happy to beat my predicted time by a small margin, but was still 20 seconds behind the leading MV50. Steve Ladhams also had a good run, coming in well ahead of his predicted time.

Results: Here

(1 Graham Rush, Leeds City AC, 17:31)

2 Jack Cummings 17:48

13 Jeff Green 21:58

33 Steve Ladhams 24:22

130 finished