The boys are back!

A quiet week for the ladies with just a couple of die-hard racers. This week we are mostly mad about the boys. Five Clayton men took to the hilly roads around Longridge and six men raced hard in the Mytholmroyd fell race. It was great to see Chris Holdsworth back on to his winning form backed up by some great perfomances from his team mates.

SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER

LONGRIDGE 7 MILE CHRISTMAS PUDDING RUN

Five Clayton men took part in this tough, undulating seven mile road race over the Longridge fells .Richard Stevenson was our first finisher in 9th place overall. Just hitting the top 20 was Daniel Isherwood followed by Daniel Plant in 43rd, Stephen Biscomb in 66th and Martin Brady in 121st. There were 331 runners in the race.

L-R Richard Stevenson, Daniel Isherwood, Daniel Plant, Stephen Biscomb and Martin Brady

Report from Richard Stevenson

A small gathering of Clayton men turned up for the Longridge Xmas Pudding event, which is a well organised race with a challenging (700 ft elevation) scenic route on country lanes around Longridge.

I’ve done it a few times now and really enjoy the atmosphere plus you get the added bonus of a Xmas Pudding for all finishers. Well done to Daniel, Dan, Steve & Martin, hopefully there might be a few more Clayton runners next year.

Full Results

MYTHOLMROYD FELL RACE

A fantastic run for Chris Holdsworth as he continues his return from injury with a hard fought win at this end of season fell race.

Chris Holdsworth, winner of the Mytholmroyd fell race. Photo by Woodentops

A bit of a battle between Dave Bagot and Peter Coates earned them 8th and 12th place and gave our men’s team first place to boot. Carl Helliwell was snapping at their heels in 14th. Stephen Fish and Andrew Walmsley completed our contingent of men with Linda Lord our sole representative for the ladies.

Linda Lord at the Mytholmroyd fell race. Photo by Woodentops

Report from Peter Coates

Mytholmroyd Fell race is a 6 mile fell race with 500 metres of climbing, organised this year by Calder Valley Fell Runners. It was also the 7th and final race of the Clayton Fell Championship. Myself and Dave Bagot were tied on points and it was basically going to come down to whoever finished ahead of the other in this final race.

David Bagot chased by Peter Coates at the Mytholmroyd fell race. Photo by Woodentops

I stuck with Dave for the first half of the race which started with a steep climb out of the valley but eventually the elastic snapped and Dave got a bit of a lead on a very runnable path section and then extended his lead on the final climb before the slippery descent to the finish in Mytholmroyd. Well done to Dave thoroughly deserved.

Chris Holdsworth was overall race winner and led from the start in front of a couple of class runners in Ilkley’s Jack Wood and Calder Valley’s Karl Gray. Well done Chris absolute superb performance. Clayton with Chris, Dave and myself won the first team prize.

Report from Dave Bagot

This was a race I wouldn’t have normally done had it not been a club championship race, but it was a cracker and would definitely recommend, with a record entry of 179 people completing the tough 7 mile course. The route set off straight into a steep climb, and with over 700ft of climbing in the first mille, the field really spread out. The route then undulated for the next mile or so before a really fast, yet slippery, descent.

Up until this point I had been closely tailed by Pete Coates (both tied in 1st place going into the final race of the club fell championships), but I manged to stretch a slight lead on the decent before edging away along the road section that followed. We were then sent up another steep climb which I managed to run a good amount of and so drawing in the 2 runners ahead of me. A very fast few miles followed, ending with a tricky descent into the finish. At the finish I was pleased to see that Chris Holdsworth had won his first fell race back after a few months out injured. The win was even more impressive given the strong front runners he was up against with Jack Wood and Karl Gray finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. I managed 8th place, followed by Pete Coates in 12th – which was enough to see us win the team prize. Carl Helliwell wasn’t far behind in 14th, followed by a group of Clayton runners with Stephen Fish in 139th, Linda Lord in 144th, Andrew Walmsley in 145th.

Full Results

PEAK RAID 3 – CROWDEN

This was the final event in a series of 4 3-hour mountain marathon (long scoring orienteering event) that were staged in the Peak District.

Katy Thompson and Jean Brown took part as solo competitors. Katy finished in 72nd place with an overall time of 2:48:59 and 245 points. Jean finished in 76^th place with a time of 02:47:36 and 235 poinjts

Full Results

SHITTERN SANTA SAUNTER

This 8km / 350m (4.97m / 1148ft) race takes place mainly over open moorland above Glossop with some tracks. The route takes in the summit of Glossop Low, shooters path junction, Dog Rock and Lightside top fence.

Report from Ivan Whigham

This race was run for the first time by the Glossop mountain rescue  and was 4.7 miles with 1000 ft of ascdnt. Climbing was well marshalled and flagged although it was very claggy on top. I was top twenty and I was the only Claytoner  about 70 ran.

Awaiting Results

PARKRUN ROUNDUP

Burnley parkrun – A total of 249 runners took part.

Coventry parkrun – A total of 485 runners took part.

Dewsbury parkrun – A total of 120 runners took part.

Fell Foot parkrun, Newby Bridge – A total of 108 runners took part.

Pendle parkrun – A total of 57 runners took part.

Witton parkrun – A total of 65 runners took part.