Spooky shenanigans, speakers and summits

What a spooktacular weekend it was! Lots of fun was had dressing up and racing at the Hurstwood relays helping to raise money for the victims of the Nepal Disaster earlier this year. As well as road racing, fell racing and some far-flung parkrun tourism as always you are a busy bunch.

Club News and Announcements

VLM Entries

London Marathon 2016 club places update – we have received confirmation that the club has been allocated 3 places for this year’s VLM. Club Secretary John Wilcock is planning on doing the draw on the 14th November so there is still time to apply for a place. If you’ve been rejected in the public ballot and wish to go into our draw, please send your rejection letter to John before the 14th.

Guest Speaker Evening

Social Secretary, Marie Greenwood

A big thank you to Denise Park for a wonderful evening. Informative, educational, entertaining (even a bit of Disney thrown in for good measure) what more could we ask for. Plenty of food for thought for our Clayton runners I think – there were quite a lot of ‘oops that’s me expression’ as you were being told what you shouldn’t be doing!

About 30 club members attended this interesting presentation at Padiham Football Club. Denise Parks gave a fascinating and useful talk about injuries and injury prevention for fell, trail and mountain runners drawing on an incredible wealth of experience in the field at the highest level.

Saturday 31 October

 Nepal Trail Relays

Held in the idyllic location of Hurstwood, Pendle and Burnley Grand Prix organisers put on a team relay event to raise money for Nepal. 33 teams took part. The official line was each team should have 1 cyclist, 1 senior runner, 1 vet runner and 1 lady runner. On the day, however, there were a few honorary vets and ladies on the course.

Sean Clare (or should that be Scare!) at the Hurstwood relay. Photo by Nicholas Olszewski

Fancy dress costumes were actively encouraged and both competitors and marshals threw themselves into it, thoroughly embracing the fact that the event was taking place on Halloween.

Helen Burn( in hell)ett at the Hurstwood Relays. Photo by Adrienne Olszewska

Some great team names were proffered, personal favourites were Motley Crew, Alice Nutters, Tutu Crew, Team Terrible, Devils and Barlick Bitches.

First leg was a mountain bike race. This was won by Paul Julian. Paul Hesketh finished in 3^rd and Elouise Pemberton was one of the few lady riders on this leg.

John Wilcock being chased by a zombie Barlick lass at the Hurstwood Relays. Photo by Nicholas Olszewski

Second leg was the Vets which was won by our own Mr Tangerine, Breton Holdworth. There were a handful of lady vets also running. Dave Motley was an honorary vet for this leg.

Breton Holdsworth, winner of the leg 2 of the Hurstwood Relays. Photo by David Belshaw

Third leg was the ladies. Laura Hesketh winning easily. Second was honorary lady for the day, Jacob Watson; great to see him recovering from injury and regaining fitness.

Start of leg 3 (mostly) ladies. Photo by Adrienne Olszewska

Fourth and final leg was the senior runners. Chris Holdsworth held off Barlick’s Jimmy Craig for a fast and furious finish. Danny Collinge finished in 4^th having already taken part in leg 1 for another team.

Start of leg 4, senior runners. Photo by Adrienne Olszewska

All in all a very entertaining event for a worthy cause.

 Race you to the Summit

Report from Martin Brady

Martin Brady at the Race You to the Summit event. Photo by Woodentops

This was the 49th running of this race (used to be called the Gale Fell Race). The race started as a bet between two people in the Gale Pub near Littleborough after a long drinking session. One said it was impossible to run to the White House Inn on the road to Ripponden and back within 30 minutes the other said he could do it. The race was run and he broke the 30 minutes.

Next year is the 50th and last running of the race. It is mainly trail running with steeper fell section. Kath and myself decided to do the hilly Parkrun at Watergrove near Wardle and then do the Race You To The Summit which was close by.

I have not seen the results of this yet. but the Clayton runners as far as I remember are:-

Robert Hirst and Kath Brady at Race You to the Summit. Photo by Woodentops

Full Results

Sunday 1 November

 NEWSAR Clwydian Hills Fell Race

 The NEWSAR Clwydian Hills Fell Race is held annually and is a 15km race with 3,000ft of ascent, over the Clwydian hills in North Wales, including the summit of Moel Famau.

Report from Peter Browning

The Clwyddian Hills is a hidden gem of a race held on the first Sunday in November from the hilltop village of Cilcain in north east Wales. We had a new course to tackle this year, but 159 runners still crossed some stunningly beautiful countryside made all the better by the unseasonably good weather. The warm sunshine blazing down from a pure blue sky actually left runners with running vest sunburn (yes in November!), on what was as good a running day as any experienced this summer. In the distance, the peaks of Snowdonia could clearly be seen, but Liverpool and Manchester were hidden under the blanket of fog that I am told enveloped East Lancashire for most of the day.

The magical sunshine brought out the full range of autumn colours, and for the record, the 9 mile race with almost 3000 feet of climb was won by Stephen Skates of Prestatyn in 82.58. As the only Clayton competitor, my time was a more modest 114.16 but my 75th place made the top half which is my target these days. It was good to see Clayton old boy Dave Nuttall winning the V50’s in 14th place overall. I reckon this was my 15th Clwyddian Hills race, and as it’s in my top 5 races anywhere, I will keep returning as long as I can.

Full Results

Peak Raid 2015, Round 2

Report by Katy Thompson

Having had a bit of a disaster at the first 2015 Peak Raid event, when my shoe fell to pieces, I was hoping for a better run in Round 2. Setting off from home in thick fog, it didn’t look very promising, but by the time I got to Glossop the sun was shining and it promised to be a lovely day. Unusually for me, I chose well, didn’t make any navigational errors, and managed to get back within the given time.

The Peak Raid events are ideal for anyone wanting to improve their navigation skills: 3 hour Score events – get to as many checkpoints as you can in the given time. There is a big incentive not to be out too long, as 50 points are lost for every minute over time! You can make it as hard or as easy as you want. It would be good to see more Clayton members at these events. Navigators are always in demand for fell relays. Details are on the Fixtures Calendar or the Fellrunner website.

Through the Villages Race

This is held over the unusually accurate distance of 8 miles 781 yards!

Full Results

Parkrun roundup

Some fantastic runs, some first time events and some far flung places this week. All over the UK and even as far away as Australia for Bianca Bennett.

Bianca said; “Clayton’s made it down under! Here’s to a 7am park run in the sunshine state in Australia!!! Clearly wearing the best vest out there today. Next stop… Sydney park run.”

Bianca ready for her Australian parkrun!

Katy and George Thompson took part in the inaugural Haigh Woodlands parkrun near wigan.

Katy Thompson reports:

The inaugural Haigh Woodlands Parkrun attracted a field of 199 runners. We set off along a tarmac track, but soon veered off into the woods on muddy paths.   Downhill for nearly 3k then a slightly shorter route back up to the Hall – a fairly familiar route if you have done the Haigh Hall races. Well worth a visit – just a few miles off the M61.

Burnley parkrun – A total of 298 runners took part.

Chelmsford Central parkrun – A total of 506 runners took part.

Dewsbury parkrun – A total of 99 runners took part.

Fell Foot parkrun, Newby Bridge – A total of 177 runners took part.

Gorleston Cliffs parkrun – A total of 182 runners took part.

Haigh Woodland parkrun – A total of 199 runners took part

Heaton parkrun – A total of 575 runners took part.

Pendle parkrun – A total of 89 runners took part.

Sandgate parkrun – A total of 314 runners took part.

Skipton parkrun – A total of 180 runners took part.

Watergrove parkrun, Rochdale – A total of 53 runners took part

Witton parkrun – A total of 163 runners took part.

Woodhouse Moor parkrun – A total of 415 runners took part.