All Dressed Up

After another week of appalling weather and floods, and quite a few race cancellations, it was a welcome relief for our club members to let off some steam in fancy dress at the Hurst Green Turkey Trot. There has also been some road and fell running as well as some rather soggy parkrunning this week. Well done to everyone that braved the elements this weekend.

Club News and Announcements

Replacement for Guys 10 in 2015 Club Road Championship – details here.

2016 Club Championship races have been announced.  Choose from Road Championship , Fell Championship and, new for 2016, Trail Championship.

Sunday 13 December

Hurst Green Turkey Trot

Even more fancy dress than last year although rumour has it the mud wasn’t much worse! The Hurst Green Turkey Trot is a wonderfully silly affair that gets all competitors really in the festive party mood. 27 club members took part with some of them taking part for the first time and promising to return next year. It’s worth noting that there was someone dressed up as a famous Clayton-le-Moors Harrier too; imitation they say is the sincerest form of flattery.

Fell (or should that be Ellf) captain Dave Motley being chased down by a Ron Hill wannabe. Photo by David Belshaw

Irene Roche reports:

Following the usual great build up and planning for this year’s Turkey Trot, the event certainly delivered lots of fun and laughs as well as a last minute appeal to raise funds for the Cumbrian flood damage. On day entrants paid £10 which went straight into the fund bucket! Excellent thinking on behalf of the race organiser.

Team Clayton getting into the party mood at the Hurst Green Turkey Trot. Photo courtesy of Donna Airey

Most of the competitors were in fancy dress ranging from nativity story, Santa Claus, cross dressing, babies and many more. The route was obviously wet and muddy due to all the rain but this only lent to more fun. Totally enjoyed by all.

Chris Funnell reports:

Another great day out at the TT on Sunday with Team Clayton leading the party charge. Too many great costumes to mention with some dressing for warmth (Andy Bradley in his dragon onesie), some dressing for a stellar performance (Irene, Angela, Vicky and Julia), some running incognito (in a red morph suit) and some looking like they’d just come straight from a night out (see pictures of Andy Braithwaite).

L-R Chris Funnell, Andy Bradley and Chris Snell. Photo courtesy of Chris Funnell

First prize went to Sean Clare and his co wise men (reference is to the costumes) complete with trio of camels and authentic looking beards). Skipper Motley being a true pro gave me a few tips on how best to run in a full face beard without ingesting it. An excellently organised race with a good amount of money raised in support of the Cumbria floods.

Nicola Thompson reports on the junior race

Dexta Thompson winner of the Junior Turkey Trot. Photo by David Belshaw

We took our 4 children to run the annual Turkey Trot junior race and it all started well. Dexta came in first with another boy behind him. There is quite often a gap between Dexta and the next group of runners but after a few minutes we all started to think something wasn’t quite right, no one else was returning. After 5 mins we realised the rest must have missed the turning point and carried on however what we didn’t expect was that they would run and run and run in total 5 miles!

It was over 50mins before they all came back and there were some very worried parents. I was even thinking I might need to ring mountain rescue up! Thankfully they all returned safe but I think the organisers might be in hiding from angry parents.

Full Results

Longridge Xmas Pudding 7

Five club members chose to head over to Longridge for the seven mile race at Longridge. Richard Stevenson was our first finisher in 14th place with a time of 44:18.

Richard Stevenson Reports

After Guys 10 had been cancelled the week before, and on checking the weather forecast, I made a last minute decision to run the Longridge Xmas Pudding Race. It was a short drive over to registration where I met Martin and Jon on a brief warm up.

I did this race a couple of years ago and remember it being hilly but must have blanked out how long the climb up Jeffrey Hill was! It’s a good course of pretty much 4 miles up followed by a very quick 3 miles back down.

A little disappointed on the climbs where I seemed to struggle more than I should but overall happy with nearly 2 minutes knocked off my previous time and the little Xmas pudding given to you at the end.

Full Results

Mytholmroyd Fell Race

This 6.2 mile fell race with 1350 ft of ascent is mainly run over open moorland. Peter Browning and Linda Bostock were our sole representatives in this tough late season race ( most of you were bog snorkling in fancy dress around Hurst Green).

Report from Peter Browning

Peter Browning at the Mytholmroyd Fell Race. Photo by Woodentops

Under 90 runners set off on the 6.2 miles Mytholmroyd fell race, on a cold but mercifully dry December Sunday morning. Clayton were represented by Linda Bostock and Peter Browning. A steep climb up through the woods led to a long queue at an early kissing gate but a chance to get the breath back. Once up high on the moors, the route was fast and fairly level, though very wet in places. The second climb brought us back over the moors before the steep descent to the finish. Everyone seemed to get back safely, and for the record the men’s and women’s races were run by athletes from Pudsey &  Bradley and Calder Valley respectively.

Linda Bostock at the Mytholmroyd Fell Race. Photo by Woodentops

Full Results

Peak Raid – Round 4 Crowden

Sunday saw the final event in the 2015 series of 3 hour mountain marathons. This is a score format event with competitors visiting as many check points as possible is the 3 hour time limit. Katy Thompson has been competing in this series of score events in the Peak District over the year and sends this short report.

Peak Raid is a series of four 3 hour score events in the Peak District, using maps specially produced for the event. Prizes for the series are based on the best score from 3 events. The final round on Sunday was from Crowden Outdoor Centre. Lots of bog and tussocks but also more paths than I had expected. With hindsight I could have got more points as I finished early, but there’s a big incentive not to go over time – 50 points a minute penalty! I’ve managed to be first in my category in each of the events I’ve done, but having to miss one round meant I had to include my points from the first round where my shoe fell apart, so I didn’t manage to win the series prize. Next year’s events are already in the fell calendar for October to December next year; it would be good to see a few more Clayton competing.

Full Results

Parkrun roundup

It was a grim morning but as always lots of our members made it to parkrun. It was the santa run at Burnley so lots of costumes and silliness took the edge of the miserable weather.

Soggy Santas at the Burnley parkrun.

Burnley parkrun – A total of 191 runners took part.

Oakwell Hall parkrun – A total of 107 runners took part.

Pendle parkrun – A total of 30 runners took part.

Witton parkrun – A total of 106 runners took part.