Northern Athletics 12 and 6 Stage Road Relays at Heaton Park, Manchester

Keswick AC fielded 12 men for the 12 stage road relays at the weekend.  The routes are made up of 6 long legs at just over 5 miles and 6 at just over 3 miles. Keswick AC also took 2 ladies teams to the event, made up of 6 runners each. The leg started with a flat section followed by a gradual climb for 250 metres before dropping down to the base of the longest climb. The course was very undulating which made it hard to pace correctly especially for the later runners who were running mainly in isolation. All 12 men and women ran really well considering most of the 3 teams were made up by fell runners while the majority of other competing teams were track and road specialists more suited to this type of event. It was great to see Keswick field 24 runners for this event and shows the club has a good core of runners all at a good level. The future looks fruitful at the club and things will hopefully go from strength to strength with some quality runners and so many people improving week on week. Keswick AC runners, position and times are listed below.  The men were 28^th from 73 teams, and the women were 12^th and 26^th overall out of 52.

        Phil Winskill    (26) 30:30

        Sam Stead        (25) 17:12

        Marc Brown       (29) 33:22

        Chris Brewer     (28) 17:45

        Peter George     (33) 33:41

        Stuart Edgerton  (34) 19:50

        Ian Davies       (36) 33:15

        Rob Wynne        (34) 18:17

        Christopher Edis (36) 34:20

        Lee Newton       (34) 18:31

        S Hebblethwaite  (29) 31:04

        Josh Hebson      (28) 17:12

 

        Samantha Ayers   (29) 19:51

        Jenn Mattinson   (22) 19:56

        Joanne Gillyon   (19) 21:06

        Catherine Evans  (19) 20:09

        Katy Moore       (13) 20:03

        Hannah Horsburgh (12) 18:15

        Helen Winskill   (39) 20:57

        Hayley Hodgson   (39) 22:19

        Siobhan Brewer   (37) 22:54

        Rachel Mellor    (34) 21:31

        Caroline Lyall   (30) 21:11

        Deborah Edgerton (26) 21:22

 

In an altogether different race congratulations to Andrew Slattery who finished the 32 mile Haworth Hobble in just over 5 hours. Also well done to Lyn Thompson for finishing a strong 3rd at Middle fell on Saturday.

 

British Masters AF UK 10mile Road Champs - Keswick AC results

British Masters UK 10mile road champs at Netherhall 10 on Sunday 23rd Feb.  (Very difficult weather)

BMAF champs results for eligible runners:
Russell Maddams 2nd M40, 4th overall
Julie Carter 2nd FV45
Dunc Overton 1st M65

Open Race Results
Marc Brown 10th
Chris Brewer 18th
Dave Burton 41st
Sam Ayres 50th 1st V40 
Rachel Mellor 63rd 1st V35
Kim Clark 85th
Juliet Grieves 86th

Blakes Heaven - Keswick Juniors

Nine hardy young fell runners turned out in their Keswick vests for the first race of the 2014 Keswick junior league last Saturday. The wonderfully named 'Blakes Heaven' race started from Lamplugh Green with tough routes around the fells under Blake Fell. The weather was freezing and so windy that some of the younger ones could barely run upright! However, they all put their hearts into it and returned exhilarated. Keswick had some excellent performances with Erin Stone taking first place in the Under 8 Girls and Emily Wightman with a perfectly timed sprint at the end (Mo Farah would have been proud!) to take first place in the Under 10s. Proving that athleticism runs in the family, Sam Stone took second in the Under 12 Boys on a tough straight up and down course. There were also excellent runs from Anne Mellor taking 3rd behind Erin and in the very competitive Under 10s race, Theo Coates took fourth with Zak Edginton in his first fell race coming in sixth. Isla Turnbull worked hard putting in a great performance to come in 4th behind Emily. We were also well represented in the older age groups with Ella Jackson winning the Under 14 Girls and Samuel  Macey taking fourth in the under 14 Boys. 

Results:
Under 8 Girls
1st  Erin Stone Keswick 8.38
2nd Fayth Bowness CFR 9.13
3rd Anne Mellor Keswick 9.31

Under 10 Boys
1st  Liam Bond CFR 5.38
2nd George Sidaway CFR 6.15
3rd Alex Rhodes CFR 6.19
4th  Theo Coates Keswick 6.49
5th Kyle Anderson CFR 7.29
6th Zak Edginton         Keswick 8.12

Under 10 Girls
1st  Emily Wightman Keswick 6.34
2nd Katie Russel CFR 6.36
3rd Alisha Bond CFR 7.46
4th Isla Turnbull Keswick 8.02

Under 12 Boys
1st Ryan Bond CFR 11.18
2nd          Sam Stone Keswick 11.58

Under 14 Boys
1st Joshua Boyle CFR 11.41
2nd Joseph Dugdale CFR 12.39
3rd Harry Greenbank CFR 15.38
4th Samuel Macey Keswick 16.35

Under 14 Girls
1st  Ella Jackson Keswick 16.21

Full results are on the CFR website.

The next Junior league race is at High Cup Nick on 22nd February. For more details see the Junior page of the Keswick AC website.

Pendle Fell Race

Hi All

If you're thinking of racing Pendle FR on April 5th, please enter very soon.  There are only 39 places left allocated to the men.  I think any number of women can still enter - it's not 100% clear.

Enter online here:

http://fellrunner.org.uk/races.php?id=2475

Also, many thanks for the great turn out to the training session on Tuesday.

Happy Running!

Sam

Blakes Heaven

Fierce weather conditions were experienced in this Senior Race.  Gale force winds met the runners as they climbed up Sharp Knott and over to Blake Fell.  This was combined with lashing rain and relentless hail showers stabbing every bit of bare flesh it could find.  Thankfully the 5 mile route meant a short degree of exposure. Any longer and racers could have easily been caught out with the conditions. 

The men’s race was an extremely close battle at the front.  Ellenborough’s Lee Amor took first place in a time of 37.05 followed by Martin Mikkelsen-Barron from Borrowdale Fell runners one second behind in 37.06 and in third Ellenborough’s Brian Taylor (37.08) who was also 1^st MV40.  1^st MV50 was Paul Cornforth from Borrowdale.  Pippa Maddams (Keswick AC) stormed to victory in the ladies race with a time of 39.44, about 3 minutes ahead of Hazel Robinson (42.42).  Third place was taken by Keswick AC’s Jenn Mattinson (45.35).  1^st FV40 was Julie Carter (Keswick AC) and 1^st FV50 Kate Beaty (CFR).  There were plenty of other Keswick AC runners braving the elements too.

Sam Stead 40.10

Lewis Taylor 40.17
James Christmas 40.53
John Beetham 41.32
Craig Smith 42.03
Rob Jones 44.11
Simon Thompson 45.16
Rachel Mellor 46.20
Philippa Wakefield 47.12
Sam Ayers 49.22
Siobhan Brewer 50.41
Victoria Haworth 52.06
Sarah Bennett 55.36
Kim Clark 56.03

Northern XC Championships 2014

Kind thanks to Harry Shakeshaft for these photos of Saturday's Northern XC Championships. Race report, courtesy of Ian Davies, below goes some way to explaining the conditions -a tough race as always at the Northerns, made to kneel by each of the boys, well done. Next stop the National XC, Nottingham, 22nd February!

Phil Winskill -has been in good form this winter

Ian Davies -back to some form after extended injury lay off

Steve Hebblethwaite -pleased after injury 
affected build up

Toby Cushion -using the race as part of his Three Peaks preparation

  photos © www.hsphotos.co.uk

Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships 2014

For the second successive year the venue for the 2014 Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships was Knowsley Safari Park.  The organisers once again put on a fine event as athletes from all over the north of the country travelled to Liverpool to represent their clubs in this prestigious cross country meeting.

The absence of five inches of snow would have pleased those who tackled the 2013 race but conditions were still testing for the runners facing the undulating course.  The persistent rain which has been omnipresent across the country for the last few weeks made for heavy going.  There was also a piercing wind blowing which further reduced the already chilly air temperature. 

As always, some of the best club runners from the north of England were in attendance in an attempt to land the Championship titles and to lay down a marker for the National Championships taking place in Nottingham in February.

There were over 600 runners in the senior men’s race which ensured the traditional stampede at the start of the race.  In a field of such numbers there is nowhere to hide as the competitors are constantly jostling for positions and fighting for the best line through the inch-thick mud.

There was a tight pack at the head of the field and in a close finish it was Daniel Garbutt of Durham City Harriers who dug the deepest to secure the Northern title.  His time for the 12km route was 41:17, some eight seconds of Andrew Jones of Stockport.  The third placed runner was also from Stockport, Jack Martin, who finished in 41:34.

In the 8km senior women’s race, Katie Walshaw of Holmfirth Harriers took the honours with a winning time of 30:22 in the field of 262 competitors.  Second place went to Rosie Smith of Durham City Harriers (30:37) and third to Susan Partridge of Leeds City (30:46).

Five Keswick AC runners took to the start-line for the senior men’s race.  Despite a troublesome ankle injury, Club Captain Steve Hebblethwaite put in a superb run to finish within the top fifty (46^th, 45:11) and will be looking to carry this form into the National Championships next month.  Having finished third in the Cumbria Cross Country Championship race in Cockermouth, it was no surprise that Phil Winskill was high up the field in the Northern Championship race.  Phil was just over a minute behind Steve finishing 70^th in 46:28.

Another Keswick runner who has had a strong winter of Cross Country racing is Peter George.  Peter finished third in the Cumbria League and would have been confident of a strong performance in the Northerns.  However, his run was to be curtailed due to a nasty hamstring injury and despite a manful effort was unable to complete the race.

Toby Cushion was using the race as part of his build-up towards the popular Three Peaks fell-race which takes place in Yorkshire in early spring.  The cross country would have been a useful speed and strengthening exercise and Toby put in a fine run to finish 285^th in 54:04.  Ian Davies has had a disrupted six months of training so was pleased to come through the race unscathed and finished 209^th in 52:04.

The English National Cross Championships will be taking place on the 22^nd February at Woolerton Park in Nottingham.