Race Date: Saturday 19th October 2024

One thing you know for certain when entering a race titled ‘British’ or ‘English’ is that you are going to be racing against the best of the best and it’s going to be hard – as it proved to be,

This year’s race was in Appletreewick in North Yorkshire, which has limited facilities and limited access and as such, the number of teams was limited. As we’re not a predominately fell running club, we never scored enough points to get automatic team qualification so had to enter the ballot for a place. The only successful category to get a team was MV 50, which happened to be my category, so I was happy but also sad that there wasn’t going to be the usual Striders large fun away day crowd going with us. So we set ouselves our target position in both category and overall – not finish last but more importantly have a great time.

Saturday morning weather was shocking and it rained most of the way to North Yorkshire. However, the forecast was for it to be brighter late morning, early afternoon and so it turned out to be.

As the gazebo and tent were both being used for the Northern XC relays event at Graves Park, I had negotiated space inside the Dronfield RC gazebo (who had only got an MV40 team in the ballot). Unfortunately, somewhere along the line they had not packed all the poles so we were all open to the elements. Once again, we said thanks to the weather gods!

Once we’d registered and got our magic porridge pot red plastic mugs (unlimited free tea and coffee to all runners, we wistfully wished it included beer later on too), it was time to study maps or just look around us at the physical terrain and exhale with a ‘oh shit, do we have to go up there!!! All legs started with the same climb and finished with the same descent. After that the legs varied somewhat in distance and ascent.

Leg 1 was Andy Rowland, fresh from his full IronMan heroics in Barcelona. Not only this but he had dropped down from MV60 to MV50 to compete. I have to say this because he told us this at every opportunity as he tried to justify why he wouldn’t do very well (it was as if Phil Howson was standing right next to me). We were very quick to reassure Andy that we wouldn’t be competing without him being there so he needed to get on with it and enjoy it.

Leg 1 was 5.2 miles with 1670 ft of climb and went straight up Burnsall Fell. The leg started at 11am and there was a mass start for leg 2 at 12.30pm. The aim was not to be in the mass start and that goal was achieved. Andy looked like the shell of the man that set off up ‘that hill’, when he got back. I think he found it tough.

Leg 1 stats:

159 runners.

Male Winner: Andrew Douglas, Westerlands CCC, 37.49

Female Winner: Sara Willhoit, Mercia FR 46.39

Striders Result

152nd Andy Rowland 1.14.12 (140th place overall)

Leg 2 was the long paired run, 8.7 miles and 3000 feet of climb. Al Cook was down to partner me for this but had been struck down by Covid so we roped a very unexpecting Diarmuid Cooper into the fold. He openly admitted that he’d not done anything like this and was worried he’d be out of his depth. Same as Andy Rowland, no Diarmuid, no team so enjoy it. Diarmuid said he was pleased to be partnering me as he thought I knew what I was doing … haha, if only he knew! That’s what I usually say to Ian Stinson when I get the Nav leg. Fortunately, this time all I/We had to do was drag our sorry backsides up and down some very big hills. Leg 2 included Simon’s Seat which as a wonderful ascent and great views (if you have the time to look, as I advised Diarmuid to do – he followed my instruction and immediately tripped into a bush. Eyes on the road! ) Leg 2 also went to Trollers Gill – I never want to go there again and am scarred after the all fours climb up the bank and the slide on my arse down the other side! Having watched the Leg 1 runners come back into the race HQ hurtling down ‘that hill’, I was a little anxious as we approached the end. I don’t think I’ve ever willed my legs to rotate through as many steps in such a short space of time just to stay upright. However, we made it to the end of leg 2, having passed a good number of teams and were 99% complete. There was definately a little bit of blood and skin left behind on that leg.

Leg 2 stats

159 runners

Male Winners; Bernie Houghton/Tom Spencer DPFR 1.08.37

Female Winners; Eve Pannone/Antonia Fan Ambleside AC 1.23.23

Striders Results

114 Nick Burns/Diarmuid Cooper 1.55.06  (121st overall)

Leg 3

The Nav Leg. 7 miles 1750 ft

Warren Brown and Chris Lawson were released by me as I was second down the hill, holding on to Diarmuid’s coat tails. Off they went wearing their shiny clean Striders vests and clean bodies. Oh did we laugh, when they reappeared 100 minutes later. Talk about dishevelled. They told us the first part of the nav leg had gone really well and they made up a load of places but then they took a ‘short cut’. Simon Bayliss, who was doing nav for Dronfield looked quizically at them and said that they had thought about that too but it had looked a bit sketchy – and so it turned out to be. Warren has tales of climbing up sheer river banks and almost getting to the top before falling about 20 feet straight back down it. There was also a tale of wading through waist high waters which were quite clear but deciding to leave the stream when the water got a ‘bit darker and we couldn’t really see the bottom’. Let’s just say Warren was quite muddy, scratched and a bit blood splattered when he returned.

Leg 3 stats

158 runners

Male Winners: Luke Fisher/Alexander Chepelin Carnethy A 58.01

Female Winners: Laura Robertson/Lisa Watson DPFR 1.18.15

Striders results

101st Chris Lawson/Warren Brown 144.48 (113th overall)

Leg 4

5.2 miles 1650 feet

Ian Stinson was the anchor leg. There was a mass start for all leg 4 runners of 3.30pm so everyone could safely get off the hills before dark. There must have been a good 60 or 70 runners in the mass start. When Ian had finished, he came and found us having a debrief in the bar(n). He had a big smile of his face but was also telling us of the woes of Trollers Gate and the aptly named Hell Hole that was adjacent to it. Ian is a veteran of this event and seemed very happy to be giving the nav leg a miss for once as he usually gets lumbered with me for it (sorry Ian)

Leg 4 stats

158 runners

Male Winner: Ben Rothery, Ilkley Harriers, 38.02

Female Winner; Nichola Jackson, Keswick AC 45.40

Striders Result:

113th Ian Stinson 1.02.31 (111th overall)

Joking aside, we all had a wonderful time. It didn’t take long for us to recover from our runs and decide that we had just had one of the most amazing days out. We’d like to thank Laura Rangeley for doing most of the organising and we sincerely hope we can get more teams out for this wonderful event next year.

Final results:

Male Winning team: Dark Peak 3.28.29

Female Winning team: Dark Peak 4.21.22

Striders Results;

Overall 111th/145  MV50 11th/12 Total time: 5.56.37

Full results: here