ByHelen Stevens

March Roundup

Welcome to the March Roundup.

As ever, if I’ve missed anything out, please let me know so I can make corrections. Race reports are desperately needed – you can email these to me – roundup@claytonlemoors.org.uk.

It’s been a busy month with the end of the Cross Country Season, and hardly time to pause for breath before the start of the Fell Season. Later in the Roundup you’ll find details of the senior fell training sessions, courtesy of Mark Nutter.

The Club’s Junior and Senior Awards Presentation evening was held on 22nd March at Burnley Football Club. Marion Wilkinson and John Roche were our comperes for the evening, announcing the winners of the awards, which were presented by Club President Dave Scott, with David Belshaw taking photographs.

Winners at the Awards Presentation (l-r) Richard Briscoe, Tara Robb, Carl Helliwell, Michelle Abbott, Donna Airey. Photo by David Belshaw

Juniors at the Awards Presentation, with junior compere Marion Wilkinson and the other junior coaches. Photo by David Belshaw

Multiple Award winner, Irene Roche, with senior compere (and husband!) John, and Club President Dave Scott. Photo by David Belshaw

All the prize winners are listed in the programme – Awards Evening 2019.

More photos from the evening can be seen on David Belshaw’s running photos page.

Fell Training News – Mark Nutter

Senior Summer Fell Training – Every Tuesday at 6.30pm

Now that Summer is coming, from April fell training now moves each month to various venues. There are usually 15-20 runners out each week but we can cater for more. Everyone is welcome, no matter what ability. Everyone stays together and no-one gets left behind (not usually anyway!). If we have sufficient numbers we can split into groups of similar ability – that way everyone gets a good run.

The runs take place on exposed fells so you will need to bring with you a bum bag containing waterproof jacket and trousers, hat and gloves. Most runs are about 90 minutes in duration, so a drink and an energy bar might be a good idea too. Post-run refreshments are always enjoyed at a nearby pub. There’s no need to ‘book’ a place – just simply turn up at the venue and be ready to run at 6.30pm.

The monthly venues are listed below and on the Clayton website, but if you need further details contact Mark Nutter on 07899 995181.

Month and Time	Venue
*APRIL 6:30pm	Sabden – meet at public car park in village, BB7 9EW
*MAY 6:30pm	Barley – meet at public car park in village, BB12 9JX
JUNE 6:30pm	Worsthorne – meet at Village Green, BB10 3NH, for fell and trail runs
*JULY 6:30pm	Worston – meet at Calf’s Head car park, BB7 1QA
*AUGUST 6:30pm	Accrington – meet at Peel Park, Turkey Street BB5 6EW
SEPTEMBER 6:30pm	Barrowford – meet at public car park adjacent to Old Bridge Inn, Gisburn Road BB9 6AJ. A head torch is required later in the month.

* Note that the Summer Series Races are held on 23rd April, 21st May, 30th July and 13th August at these venues.

Summer Series of Fell Races – Races with a Difference – Predict Your Time!

If you haven’t tried the Summer Series of races then you’re in for a treat! The 2019 Summer Series consists of five Tuesday evening races for members of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers only, with a minimum age of 16 years. As well as the usual prizes, there are prizes in each race for the closest pre-race predicted time to the actual time taken. Watches are only allowed if the time is not visible! A runner’s best three races will count for the overall series prizes.

Prizes in each race are usually alcohol or chocolate, with the overall series having printed T-shirts as prizes too.

Entry is just £4 per race (£4 for two races on 30th July) and is on the day only.

The first race on 23 April from Sabden is the original route of the Witches Clough fell race that was organized by Linda and Peter Lord in the late 1980’s. It featured on ITV’s ‘Treasure Hunt’ where Anneka Rice (in her helicopter) had to find and chase Linda dressed as a witch. This route has not been used since so it promises to be a good start to the Summer Series.

As with the Summer Training, there’s no need to book a place – just simply turn up and be ready to run at 6.30pm.

Details of the races are listed below (along with a link to the maps) and on the Clayton website, but if you need further details contact Mark Nutter on 07899 995181.

Date	Time	Race	Route	Venue
23rd April	6:30pm	Witches’ Clough 4M/1000′	Map	Public car park, Sabden BB7 9EW
21st May	6:30pm	Ogden Valley Round 6M/1500′	Map	Public car park, Barley BB12 9JX
30th July	6:30pm	Race 1: Uphill Fell 1.8M/1280′ Race 2: Downhill Fell 2.9M/1355′		Calf’s Head, Worston BB7 1QA
13th August	6:30pm	Coppice Trail (three laps). In memory of Tony Aspin. 5.5M/1000′	Map	Peel Park, Turkey Street, Accrington BB5 6EW

Team Managers’ Reports

Road Report – Richard Stevenson

Men’s 12 Stage Road Relays

The Northern Athletics 12 stage Road Relay championships were held on Sunday 24th March at a bright and blustery Birkenhead Park. I was last at these relays 2 years ago in Blackpool but this year was my first as Team Captain, the event doesn’t disappoint and is a great experience with a chance to test yourself against some of the best road runners in the north of England. The event consists of 4 x long legs (approx. 8K) and 8 x short legs (approx. 4K).

Ryan Bradshaw got us off to a good start on the tough first long leg where it’s very easy to start too fast amongst the mass start. Craig, Matt, Iain and Danny all then put a great shift in on their legs to maintain our position before Jason, James, Gary and Andrew F managed to pick off a couple of teams to move us forward. By now the runners were very well spread out so it can be a lonely run on your leg but Dom and Briscoe managed this to maintain our position and handover to Andy Webster fresh from the Howarth Hobble a couple of weeks back he’d had a long wait for his leg to start but he powered around and picked off another team to finish in 46th place.

Today was all about the experience as a majority of the team were either new club members or new to relay racing so I’d like to thank them for stepping out of their comfort zones (some a long way) and put their names forward to have a go, hopefully they all enjoyed the experience and will be there at the NA Autumn Relays in September alongside more team mates who fancy giving it a go. Don’t be shy fellas!

46 Clayton-Le-Moors Harriers 3:53:32; 1 Ryan Bradshaw (49) 27:03; 2 Craig Nicholls (54) 15:05; 3 Matthew Duckworth (54); 28:14 4 Iain Wilkinson (53) 14:35; 5 Daniel Fleming (49) 27:43; 6 Jason Pier (47) 1:15:21; 10 Dominic Clayton (49) 15:30; 11 Richard Briscoe (48) 15:15; 12 Andrew Webster (47) 14:58

Cross Country Report – Donna Airey

The last XC was held at Cuerden Valley early March. What a great turn out for our seniors. The Ladies team battling for silver and bronze placing and the men to stay up in Division 1.

Cassie was our first lady back followed closely by Michelle who showed team spirit running in Rachel from Burnley AC who was struggling. Myself, coming in 3^rd Clayton lady to make up our A team which finished 5^th. Our B team, Lisa Ellis/Irene Roche/Rececca Bradshaw finished a good 16^th place.

Our V35 team finished 2^nd overall, V45 – 8^th and V55 – 4^th

Ladies Final results

League 1 team -Silver, F35 – Bronze, F55 – Bronze. (no pressure next season ladies!)

The men had a battle of relegation on their hands. Ryan Bradshaw being our first counter back. The men’s team finished a fantastic 3^rd overall. Thank you to those who turned up and ran to help keep our men’s team in league 1!!!!

The Mid Lancs season overall has been fantastic. As always there has been blood, sweat, tears (from the men), cheers and cake.

A special mention to Helen Harrison, who had never done XC before, improved so much as the season went on. Completed 9 Palladium races and competed (finishing in our A team) at the National XC Champs.

Also, Jane Hyland, Sue Allen, Christine Leathley and James Dunderdale who completed all in the Palladium and Tara and Mark our XC Club Champ’s.

I really hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

Junior Report – Alan Dorrington

Cuerden Mid Lancs XC

There were team places and individual series medals up for grabs at the last round of the Mid Lancs Cros-country series at Cuerden at the beginning of the month. It’s a challenging course at Cuerden with lots of short sharp elevation changes meaning the racing is far from flat and fast.

Helana White used her climbing legs to good effect to take 2^nd in the U13G, and followed up by Amelia Halstead, Sianna Smith and Eleanor Edwards our U13G took a fine 2^nd place team on the day which clinched their 3^rd place team in the series overall. Coming back from injury, Robbie Smedley continued to build his fitness and took 7^th in the U13B.

Our U15G team of Ella Dorrington, Imogen Ferguson, Hannah Eccles and Beth Wheatcroft had raced hard all season and were rewarded with 3^rd place team in the series after a strong outing at Cuerden.

Jackson McKay was 7^th in U15B and Nicola Moynihan continued to race well with 4^th in U17G followed by Briony Holt in 5^th.

An individual Mid Lancs series win after a long hard-fought season went to Helana White in U13G whilst Jackson McKay was 5^th U15B in the series.

Well done to all our Juniors who raced all season long in this, and the Red Rose series – some great team spirit kept the results coming.

Clough Head Junior FRA Champs

The English Junior Fell Championships series started this month in the Lakes at a fantastic new venue for fell racing, Clough Head above Threlkeld. This was a proper fell course featuring plenty of steep climbing and for the U17 and U19 runners a tough and technical in places descent from high up on the fell.

Sadly there were no Clayton Juniors running in the U9 to U13 categories, but Robbie Smedley (10^th boy) and Helana White (3^rd girl) both had great runs in their first year at U15 level. Christopher Brown was 18^th in U15B with Guy Whalley getting stuck into Lakeland fell racing for the first time in 35^th. Hannah Eccles was 22^nd in the U15G.

In the U17s, William Nicholl was 24^th boy and Ella Dorrington 14^th girl both stepping up to courses that were considerably harder than what they would have run at U15 level.

Briony Holt climbed fantastically well on the U19 climb that went on and on and descended well too to take 4^th in U19G, whilst Charlie Parkinson also had a fine run against some really quick lads to take 9^th.

A special mention goes to the four Clayton Juniors who were selected to represent Lancashire in the Inter Counties XC Championships – Helana White, Jackson McKay, Nicola Moynihan and Briony Holt. Helana, Nicola and Briony were also selected for the Lancashire Schools team for the English Schools Championships this month – well done to all of them on their well-deserved selection.

Race Reports

Inter Counties Cross Country

Report by Rachael White

It was a busy March for the Inter-Counties athletes.

March 9th Inter-Counties Competition – Loughborough

4 Clayton Junior athletes were selected to represent Lancashire, Briony Holt, Nicola Moynihan, Jackson Mackay and Helana White. We arrived to find the club tents were situated outside the main event field, which was disappointing as this left those in the tent feeling left out, and we were less able to cheer team mates on, whilst getting changed but this was outside Lancashire’s control.

Clayton Juniors representing Lancashire Schools (l-r Jackson Mackay, Nicola Moynihan, Briony Holt, Helana White). Photo by Rachae White

The day was a complete mixed bag of weather, from dry to very windy with rain thrown in. (Vicky McKay can testify to the wind after coming off worst when a flying tent flattened her, but that is a whole different story). The course is undulating and unforgiving, although it was not the mud bath of the previous year. All 4 athletes had great races, and had great results for Lancashire.

Jackson Mackay. Photo by Rachael White

Jackson’s race was first up, and he powered round in 71st (3rd Lancashire Counter).

Next was Nicola & Briony’s race, and they luckily avoided the mass fall at the start just behind them. Nicola was 99th (3rd Lancashire Counter), Briony, who is only just coming back from injury at Christmas was 173rd.

Helana was the last of the Clayton Juniors to race, and came in 16th (1st Lancashire Counter).

What stands out for me from this day is the team spirit that Clayton Juniors have. Everyone was checking on each other when they were spotted, yelling for their club mates around the course, running to take photos of each other and congratulating each other at the end. – This teamwork is what makes it such a great club.

Results

March 16th English Schools Inter-Counties Competition – Leeds

The following week-end was the English Schools Inter-Counties at Leeds, and this time we had two athletes, Helana and Nicola make the team and get on the team bus on the Friday night. This time the race was at Temple Newsam Park, Leeds. Nicola and Helana stayed with the team the night before the race, leaving us parents to travel on our own to watch them on the Saturday.

It was a VERY wet day, with more or less constant rain. – The course is great for spectators as it is looped, so you can stand still and see the athletes in several parts of their race.

Helana White. Photo by Dave Woodhead

First up was Helana, who had to start at the back of the pen as she qualified in 8th position. This is the first time she was old enough for this race, the team coach told her (and another Year 8 girl), to aim for top 200. – The course suited her, and with typical determination, and wanting to justify her place, she fought her way through to the front of the field, to come in 38th and 3rd Lancashire Counter. This helped the Lancashire Junior Girls team to get 2nd place overall.

Nicola Moynihan. Photo by Dave Woodhead

Nicola had to wait a little longer for her race (more rain and cold ensued). The seniorgirls had a long hard race, with the field now completely churned up, slippy and muddy. Nicola will say that she does not really like mud, and prefers road –but I am not so sure, as she had a cracking race against some top athletes and finished 134th place and 5th Lancashire Counter.

Both girls were at the bottom end of this age group – so will stay in the same age groups next year, when others go up.

Jason Pier’s March

After doing very little in terms of racing in 2018 due to one reason or another, I decided something had to change. January saw me go the whole month without a alcohol. (Something I’ve never managed before). I upped my training include a long run on Sunday’s, followed by treadmill sessions on Monday’s and Friday’s along with my usual training with the SoS group and Clayton Juniors. With the no alcohol rule and more sensible eating I soon shed some of the extra weight I’d gained with my inactivity. I felt much fitter and training became more enjoyable. Next was to choose a couple of races to focus on.

First up was the Podium 5k. Sat. 2nd March.

I arrived at a very wet and windy Steven Burke track hoping that my training would pay off and a new 5k pb would come my way. I’ve never managed to run under 20.57mins before so I entered the B race and after a good warm I was off. The first mile went great 6.00mins dead (slow down you fool or you’ll blow up). Next mile was more like it 6.30mins. With the wind getting stronger and more encouragement from Marion I tucked in behind another runner and gave it my all until the finish line. Quick glance at the clock and 19.41mins. Got to be happy with that after only 6 weeks training. Still room for improvement.

Results

Jason battling at a very wet Podium 5k. Photo by David Belshaw

Next up the Irwell Valley 20 miler. Sat. 10th March.

Along with my good friend and training partner Gary Moore we booked on the Irwell Valley 20 mile off road race. With both of us never running that kind of distance before this was definitely going to test us. Training went well with our first long run session being 12 miles. We upped the distance by a mile each week until we reached 18 miles. This seemed to work really well for us both. It also gave us the opportunity to find new training routes.

Race day came and the weather conditions were pretty awful with heavy rain, sleet and snow showers. After a slight delay we were off along with fellow Clayton runners Donna Airey, Robert Morrison and Colin White. Race pace over the first few miles was much quicker than I’d planned, but surprisingly I felt good, helped by Donna’s company for the first 12 miles, before she moved ahead of me. Miles 15, 16 and 17 saw my pace drop a little as I began to doubt I could finish the race. I managed to get back to my race pace for the last 2 miles all the time telling myself you can do this. 20 miles came and no finish line in sight, (few choice words came out). The course was actually 20.3 miles long. So I gave it everything I had for the last third of a mile to come over the line in 2hrs 44mins 57 secs. Absolutely buzzing to have finished 50th out of 338.

Thanks to Donna for helping me through the first half. Well done to Robert and Colin on your runs.

You can almost feel the pain…

Special thanks to Gary who’s been such a great training partner.

For anyone wanting a 20 mile race as part of their marathon training I can highly recommend this race. Very well organised with great marshals encouraging and cheering you along. Plenty of goodies at the end too.
Results

Results Roundup

2nd March – Cuerden Valley (Mid Lancs Cross Country League) – Results

2nd U13G – Helana White;2nd U13G Team (Helana White, Amelia Halstead, Sianna Smith); 3rd U15G Team (Ella Dorrington-Levy, Imogen Ferguson, Hannah Eccles); 2nd Ladies Over 35 Team (Cassie Darling-Smedley, Michelle Abbott, Donna Airey); 3rd Senior Men’s Team (Ryan Bradshaw, Matthew Duckworth, Daniel Fleming, James Dunderdale, Alan Dorrington, Andrew Holt); 3rd V60 Man – Brian Horrocks.

Mid Lancs Series – Results

1st= U13G – Helana White

2nd March – Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round – Results

2nd MS – Andy Laycock; 1st M70 – Jack Holt; 3rd M70 – Kieran Carr; 1st F60 – Katy Thompson.

2nd March – Podium 5k – A Race Results – B Race Results

2nd in B Race – Peter Stevens.

3rd March – Ron Hill Accrington 10k – Results

1st Senior W60 – Irene Roche; 1st Senior M60 – John Roche.

10th March – Trafford 10K – Results

1st V40M – David Edmondson; 1st V35W – Laura Hesketh

10th March – Irwell Valley 20 Miles – Results

10th March – Roddlesworth Roller – Results

17th March – Thirsk 10 Mile Road Race – Results

17th March – Trimpell 20, Lancaster – Results

24th March – Birkenhead (Northern Athletics U15 & U17 5k Road Championships) – Results

24th March – Birkenhead (Northern Athletics Women’s 6 Stage Road Relay Championships) – Results

24th March – Birkenhead (Northern Athletics Men’s 12 Stage Road Relay Championships) – Results

24th March – Garstang Gallop 10k – Results

27th March – Brenda and Colin Robinson’s 5k Cowm Race – Results

Upcoming Races

Fell Races

DATE	RACE	CATEGORY	COUNTRY	REGION
Sat 13/04/19	Eskdale Elevation	AL	England	Lake District
Sat 13/04/19	Kong Kettlewell	Unknown	England	York. Dales
Sat 13/04/19	Wardle Skyline	BM	England	South/West Pennines
Sun 14/04/19	Arant Haw	AS	England	York. Dales
Sun 14/04/19	Kong Mini Mm Round 2	MM	England	Lake District
Tue 16/04/19	Bunny Run 3	CS	England	South/West Pennines
Wed 17/04/19	Grisedale Grind	AS	England	Lake District
Sat 20/04/19	Newlands Race	AM	England	Lake District
Sat 20/04/19	Rivington Pike	BS	England	South/West Pennines
Sat 20/04/19	Teenager With Altitude	AL	England	Lake District
Tue 23/04/19	Bunny Run Relay	Relay	England	South/West Pennines
Sat 27/04/19	65th Three Peaks	AL	England	York. Dales
Sat 27/04/19	Mourne Highline	AM	N.Ireland	BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP
Tue 30/04/19	Orchan Rocks	AS	England	South/West Pennines

Road races

Sun 14th Apr – Flat Caps 10k (Sowerby Bridge Snails)
Sun 14th Apr – 3 Bridges 10K, Lancaster
Wed 17th Apr – Billy Knox Cowm 5k Race
Fri 19th Apr – Salford 10K
Fri 19th Apr – Caldervale County 10 or 4 mile race (Hilly road race)
Wed 24th Apr – Roger Colson Cowm Reservoir 5k
Sat 27th Apr – Wray Scarecrow 10K
Tue 30th Apr – Geoff Doggett Memorial 5k
Or if you fancy a bit of off road running:Sun 7th Apr – Rivington 10 mile Trail Race (Mad Bull Events)

Sat 13th Apr – Burnsall Trail Half marathon (Due North Events)
Sun 14th Apr – Radcliffe Trail 10K (Radcliffe AC)Information about most of the above races can be found at: https://www.ukresults.net/2019cal.html

Parkrun Roundup

Date	Venue	Name	Age	Time
2nd March	Burnley	Tj Ellis	JW11-14	29:32
9th March	Clitheroe Castle	William Nicholls	JM11-14	21:10
23rd March	Burnley	Helana White	JW11-14	18:48
		Jonny Hall	SM25-29	18:56
		Candice Louise Heys	VW40-44	21:02
		Olivia Huyton	JW11-14	27:58
	Clitheroe Castle	William Nicholls	JM11-14	20:30
		Craig Nicholls	VM40-44	21:19
		Emily Nicholls	JW10	25:46
30th March	Burnley	Rebecca Rimmington	VW35-39	20:37
		Eliena Lusty	JW10	23:49
		Helen Harrison	VW50-54	25:50
		Olivia Huyton	JW11-14	25:55
	Clitheroe Castle	Mark Taylor	VM35-39	21:37
	Witton	Paul Thompson	VM45-49	19:19

Junior Parkrun Roundup

Date	Venue	Name	Age	Time
3rd March	Burnley	Helana White	JW11-14	07:13
		Olivia Huyton	JW11-14	09:06
	Clitheroe Castle	Emily Nicholls	JW10	08:51
24th March	Burnley	Eleanor Edwards	JW11-14	08:29
		Darcy Hirst	JW10	09:38
		Owen Edwards	JM10	09:53
		Phoebe Jackson	JW10	10:01
31st March	Clitheroe Castle	Emily Nicholls	JW10	08:51

ByHelen Stevens

February Roundup

February might be our shortest month, but it’s given a lot of great racing which has inspired a bumper month of race reports. Thanks so much to our contributors (in no particular order) Alan Dorrington, Richard Stevenson, Donna Airey, Sarah Helliwell, David & Jill Scott, Michelle Abbott, Craig Nicholls, Lisa Ellis, and David Belshaw. Wow! If you enjoy reading race reports, please consider writing your own for inclusion here – with a couple of photos if you have them.

This month, sadly Mick Hughes and Luke Turner have stepped down from their roles captaining the Men’s Cross Country and Road/Trail Teams. I’m sure everyone in the club would like to thank you both for all your hard work and dedication over the time you’ve been in post.

As ever, if I’ve got anything wrong or missed anything out, please contact me and I’ll try to correct it.

Helen Stevens

Introducing our New Road/Trail Captain – Richard Stevenson

Richard Stevenson. Photo by Deborah Stevenson

Most of you will know me but if not let me introduce myself – I’ve been a Clayton member for 5 years now and a member of the Clayton Juniors coaching team for the last couple. Over the years I’ve tried my hand at a variety of races from flat 5K’s to Trail marathons and pretty much everything in between. I’ve also represented Clayton in numerous team events including XC, road relays, Ian Hodgson Fell relays and the Calderdale Way relays. So I’m hoping these experiences will help me in my new role. My first task as captain is to get a team together for the Northern 12 Stage road relays so if anyone is interested in joining me this month give me a shout.

Ladies’ Cross Country Report

by Donna Airey, Ladies’ Cross Country Captain

Mid Lancs XC Leigh Sports Village
The 5th Mid Lancs XC race was held at Leigh Sports Village. Not an ideal XC course, flat and a fair bit of trail. The usual pre race topic of conversation was a must for this fixture, spikes, fell, trail.
The ladies had a great race, Rebecca Rimmington our 1st lady back in a cracking time and position. Followed some way behind by myself and Michelle to make up our A team, which finished 8th and our F35 team which finished 4th
Our V45 team, Jane Hyland, Rachel Gilmore and Helen Harrison finished 11th
V55 team, Yvonne Wickham, Christine Leathley and Sue Allen finished 5th.
Thank you to all the 12 ladies who represented the club and well done!

The National XC Championship, Harewood House
I’ve never done the Nationals before, I have never seen so many club tents and flags in one field before. By far one of the best experiences I’ve had whilst running. The atmosphere and buzz around the start was amazing and they could not have picked a better venue with a cracking course. Even the sun made an appearance!
Cassie Smedley was our first lady back. Followed by myself, Rebecca Bradshaw and Helen Harrison who made up out A team.
Also representing the club once again, Christine Leathley and Sue Allen. These 2 are an inspiration.
A very enjoyable day out for the team and well done to all that ran.

Some of our Ladies At National Cross Country Championships – Donna Airey, Rebecca Bradshaw, Cassie Darling-Smedley, and Michelle Abbott. Photo by Dave Woodhead

Junior Roundup February 2019

by Alan Dorrington

The Lancashire Schools Championships on 2 Feb was the first big race for our Juniors in February. Held at the traditional Witton Park venue, a good number of our Juniors were in unfamiliar vests, representing their local authority teams and aiming for selection to represent Lancashire in the English Schools.

Selection went to Helana White with a fine 8^th place in Inter Girls (Yr 8 and 9) and to Nicola Moynihan and Briony Holt with 4^th and 8^th in the Senior Girls race. Nick Hennessey was 13^th in Senior Boys and Amelia Halstead had a fine race for 2^nd in Yr Girls with Eleanor Edwards in 8^th. Good luck to our Juniors in the Champs race in March.

U15 Clayton Girls running together in different schools vests – Imogen Ferguson and Hannah Eccles (Burnley Schools), Helana White and Sianna Smith (Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Schools), and Ella Dorrington (Rossendale Schools). Photo by David Belshaw

Amelia Halstead running for Blackburn Schools. Photo by David Belshaw

Nick Hennessey running for Burnley Schools. Photo by David Belshaw

Nicola Moynihan running for Burnley Schools. Photo by David Belshaw

The following week, The penultimate Mid Lancs XC at Leigh was the usual flat fast affair and stand out results came form Helana White in 2 win the U13G race and on-form Nick Hennessey who was 4^th in the U17B race. Importantly, the U13G and U15G teams continued their good run setting them up for team medal positions after the final Mid Lancs round at Cuerden

The English National Cross Country Championships held at Harewood House at the end of the month was the usual grand affair – over 8000 runners competing and the backdrop of an English stately home as you sprinted for home.

Jackson Mackay at National Cross Country Championships. Photo by David Belshaw

Well done to all our Juniors who got valuable big-race experience, and hopefully had a great sunny Spring day out in Yorkshire:

U13 Girls.
Amelia Halstead

Eleanor Edwards
Helana White
Sianna Smith.

U13 Boys.
Guy Whalley
Robbie Smedley

U15 Girls.
Imogen Ferguson
Hannah Eccles
Ella Dorrington – Levy
Bethany Wheatcroft

U15 Boys.
William Nicholls
Jackson McKay
Lennon Jackson

U17 Girls.
Nicola Moynihan

U17 Men.
Michael Stevens
Peter Stevens

Results:

Kong Mountain Marathon – 3 February 2019

Report by Alan Dorrington

The Kong Mini Mountain Marathons are a series of 1-day 4 hour score events, held in mountain or moorland locations and spaced through out the year. The 2019 series started on 3 February in Snowdonia, with an event HQ at Capel Curig. Heavy snow in the days beforehand were always likely to make things a little more interesting, and sure enough the organisers took out some of the higher controls in the Carneddau with reports of thigh deep drifts at higher spots and in sheltered features.

It snowed! Photo by Alan Dorrington

A heavy cold that sent me to bed the day before wasn’t the best preparation but I vowed to get out and have a good day on my feet without too much hard running. Armed with a race vest full of extra warm kit, and plenty of food, I figured that despite the reduction of controls at higher altitudes, there was still fun to be had picking off controls over Galt Yr Ogof and Y Foel Goch and over toward Tryfan and the Ogwen Valley. Unfortunately, a howling wind and near zero visibility above 700m meant there was little to see, but the extra navigational challenge of finding the small controls in a huge whited-out mountain landscape stopped it from being too tedious…
Dropping off into the Ogwen Valley it all suddenly cleared revealing stunning views of the neighbouring mountains. With 2 hours left on the clock and a long but straightforward run back to the finish, I set about picking off controls on the lower reaches of the Carneddau picking my way between alternating patches of iced up bog and stream to slide around on and deep drifts to fall in. The temperature had risen fast late in the morning, and the melt was in full swing leading to heavy going in softening snow, aided by a big shower that blew in from Lyn Ogwen.

The sun appearing over the mountains. Photo by Alan Dorrington

Another final drenching on the tracked run back to the finish control, and I was back with 8 minutes left on the clock and having had no major navigational errors. The Kong MMM events are great social affairs afterwards and put on great food for tired and weather beaten runners and it was over some fab pea and mint soup I was pleased to discover my approach of very steady running and concentrating on navigational accuracy had put me 5th in my V50 class. Up and off to the Lakes for the next round – if you fancy some mountain navigation in a very low key but well organised event then come and give them a go.

Winter Warmer 10K – 3rd February 2019

Report by Craig Nicholls

Following on from my success at the Ribble Valley 10K (the write up rather than the actual running) I thought I should perhaps have a crack at another low cost local 10K and stumbled upon the Blackburn Road Runners Winter Warmer.
To my delight (and then disappointment) I found that this race was (and then wasn’t) part of the Team Clayton Road Championships. I needn’t have worried though as this race doesn’t need to be a point scoring event to be worthwhile entering.
The weather in the run up to the event was absolutely brutal. Not quite the ‘beast from the east’ that we had to endure last winter but an arctic blast nonetheless that covered all the roads with a treacherous layer of ice. Fortunately the Blackburn Road Runners had a plan and not only were the roads and pavements cleared in time for the race but they had also done the athletics track at Witton Park where the race would start and end.

The starting line-up at the Winter Warmer

If we thought the weather was brutal then the course was even worse. A gentle trot round the running track was followed by a seemingly never ending climb to the Clog & Billycock at Pleasington which gave meaning to the tagline #beatbuncer that I’d been reading about all week. Fortunately it was pretty much all downhill after that and aside from one last climb after about 6.5K there was plenty of opportunity to get your breath back and then attempt to pick up the pace back to the finish line.

A speedy finish from Craig. Photo by David Belshaw

The Marshalls were outstanding and there were literally dozens of them along the route to provide words of encouragement and keep everyone motivated on the way round before we entered back onto the athletics track for a rousing finish. Anyone thinking they might ease off for a gentle finish was in for a shock as hundreds of supporters lined the track to spur you on and make sure you pushed yourself right to the line.
With pacers on hand to help you keep on schedule, Marshalls and spectators spurring you on and a cake stand in the main hall to fuel you up for the race this race is an excellent opportunity to get a really solid time on a lovely, scenic, challenging course and I fully intend doing it again next year.

Mr Sparkle’s Dark Un

Report by Alan Dorrington

There aren’t many night time fell races around during the winter, perhaps for obvious reasons! However, Mr Sparkle’s is a gem with its well marked course, large numbers of marshalls and moorland disco attracting a diverse crowd of runners from whippets to fell-fun runners (that’s an official sub-group of fell runners from now on…).

Photo by Alan Dorrington

It’s a madcap dash through the dark woods above Roddlesworth Reservoir before a long drag and stiff final pull onto Darwen Moor. Heading toward Darwen Hill and the Tower the runners are treated to a suitably lit moorland disco scene with S Club 7 on the sound system bringing back the memories for us oldies. It was all very surreal but there was no time to party as there was then a helter-skelter descent back down to the pub to finish. My eyesight is rubbish at the best of times so I run with an industrial searchlight strength headtorch, causing one of the runners I caught on the descent to moan that it was ‘like being chased by the sun..’ Hopefully he got a tan as I swept past on the way to the finish and my first (and probably last) top 10 fell race finish – 9^th overall and 2^nd V50.

Bleasdale Circle Fell Race

Report by Sarah Helliwell

Unusually, for this time of year and especially for this race the sun was shining and visibility was great, with the ‘Brucie Bonus’ of both myself and Carl being child free and both being able to race. There was a great turn out for the first club championship race as runners warmed up in the warm February sun. It was a record turn out as we all congregated outside the village hall and started to head up the lane towards the fields and Fair Snape fell.

The line of runners made their way through the farm as the climb started to gradually rear up before getting harder and finally into hands on knees as we gained 300m in a lung busting ascent. It was then a good mile of runnable paths along the tops to Parlick before the grassy descent down to the farm and the tough slog back through the fields to Bleasdale. There were some good runs with Peter Coates as first Clayton home in 5th place followed closely by Carl Helliwell and Will Herman, missing out on the men’s team prize to Bowland by 3 points. Also well done to Michelle Abbott, first Clayton lady home followed by Vicky Heys and Teresa De Curtis to win the ladies team prize. Jack Holt won the V70 and Ivan Whigham was given some birthday cake.

Personally I was chuffed as I had nearly knocked 5 mins off my previous time and. Well done everyone who ran on a glorious day and near perfect conditions underfoot. Let’s hope the weather is just as good for the next championship races in May, Hameldon followed by Pendle Cloughs. See you then Sarah

Oulton Park 10K

Report by Lisa Ellis

So Jane & I felt we had some 10k unfinished business so decided to do the Oulton Park 10k. After preparing for what we thought was going to be a warm run forecasted to be 12-15 degrees for the race, it was a very cold & very foggy 4 degrees & I had dressed for summer! It was difficult trying to judge the direction of the track when you couldn’t see far enough in front especially when all the other runners spread out. Regardless, it didn’t stop our determination to achieve our PBs and as a bonus we both won our age categories. All the winter training has paid off, thank you JR and the rest of the Clayton family.

Lisa Ellis. Photo by Asics Race on Track

Lisa Ellis – 1st Female V35. Photo by Asics Race on Track

Jane Hylands -1st Female V45. Photo by Asics Race on Track

Lisa and Jane celebrate together on the podium. Photo by Asics Race on Track

Ilkley Fell Race

Report by Michelle Abbott

Right. Well the day after the Leeds XC and my first ever DNF due to injury and my compartment syndrome flare up. I thought – I’m not going to be beaten and let it get me down so I went onto to try out out the Ilkley fell race the following day. I arrived and met up with fellow Claytoners who, may I add, are proper fell runners. I made my way to the start, but stayed at the back as didn’t know what to expect – bit of a bottle neck start straight onto the climb which was hills within a massive hill,lots of technical climb and a bit of descent then more climbing till we finally got to the top. Then, with a rocky run along the top of the hill and after inhaling a massive fly, I finally reached the descent back may I add only about 1 k of it with another hill thrown in for good measure then the finish sprint back into the field. The views are amazing, Marshalls were fantastic, runners were fab as they had to put up with my nattering all way round, and the supporters which of one who my I add I don’t know approached me we had a chat said I was such an inspiration and bought me a hot chocolate , lovely ,a very tough little fell race but will be definitely doing again.

David’s words of Wisdom…

by David (and Jill!) Scott

Dave Scott, Lancashire Cross Country VM75 Champion. Photo: Donna Airey

Jill asks, ‘Is he an anorak or is it a case of OCD?’

Looking at James Dunderdale’s very muddy running shoes as he pulled them out of his bag prior to the XC run at Cuerden on Saturday, prompted me to pen a few lines to add to Helen’s round-up.

When I started teaching PE in the early 1960’s I wore white Dunlop pumps, that were only EVER worn in the gym, Every Friday night I removed the laces and washed them by hand in warm soapy water. The pumps themselves were gently scrubbed with water before Meltonian Whitening was applied, using a sponge applicator. Newspaper was pushed inside and they were allowed to dry overnight.

My running shoes still get similar treatment. Soles checked every time, especially after a JR training session in the dark. XC races usually mean 3 pairs of shoes to be cleaned on a Sunday morning. One pair to walk to the course and jog round/warm up; a pair to race in, Walsh P.B.’s these days; and Jill’s!!!! They are cleaned in cold water using a small scrubbing brush, stuffed with newspaper and if not raining put outside to dry. Sometimes it needs 2 lots of newspaper to dry them out before being put away for the next race.

I’m not sure that OCD was a named condition in the 1960’s, but Jill thinks I suffer from it!!!

Results Roundup

3rd February – Capel Curig (Kong Mini Mountain Marathon Series) – Results

3rd February – Winter Warmer – Results

9th February – Leigh Sports Village (Mid Lancs XC League) – Results

2nd U13G – Helana White; 3rd U13G Team (Helana White, Sianna Smith, Eleanor Edwards);3rd V60M – Brian Horrocks.

9th February – Windy Hill Fell Race – Results

2nd M60 – Alan Archer.

10th February Barbondale (Kendal Winter League) – Results

1st LV60 – Wendy Dodds

10th February – Valentines 10K (Lancaster) – Results

1st MV50 – David Edmondson; 1st W – Laura Hesketh.

15th February – Mr Sparkle’s Dark Un – Results

16th February – Bleasdale Circle Fell Race – Results

1st MV40 – Peter Coates; 3rd MV40 Carl Helliwell;1st MV65 Stephen Fish; 3rd MV65 Andrew Walmsley;1st MV70 Jack Holt; 2nd Men’s Team; 1st FV45 Vicky Heys; 2nd FV45 Teresa de Curtis.

17th February – Great North West Half Marathon (Blackpool) – Results

1st Lady V55 – Avril Duckworth.

17th February – Longsleddale (Kendal Winter League) – Results

23rd February – Harewood House (National Cross Country Championships) – Results

24th February – Oulton Park 10K – Results

1st Female V35 – Lisa Ellis; 1st Female V45 – Jane Hylands.

24th February – Ilkley Moor Fell Race – Results

24th February – Sedbergh School (Kendal Winter League) – Results

1st LV60 – Wendy Dodds.

Parkrun Roundup

Date	Venue	Name	Age	Time
2nd February	Pendle	Helen Harrison	VW50-54	30:45
9th February	Clitheroe Castle	Andrew Priory	VM50-54	22:23
16th February	Burnley	Daniel Fleming	SM30-34	17:54
		Peter Stevens	JM15-17	18:42
		Charlie Parkinson	JM15-17	19:23
		Helana White	JW11-14	19:25
		Imogen Ferguson	JW11-14	22:20
		Eliena Lusty	JW10	24:05
		Emily Nicholls	JW10	24:50
		Jane Hylands	VW45-49	25:06
		Sophie McIntosh	SW25-29	27:57
		Natalie Nicholls	VW35-39	30:29
23rd February	Burnley	Mark Magee	SM30-34	17:11
		Phoebe Jackson	JW10	30:10
	Clitheroe Castle	Andrew Priory	VM50-54	22:09

Junior Parkrun Roundup

Date	Venue	Name	Age	Time
10th February	Burnley	Helana White	JW11-14	07:25
	Clitheroe Castle	William Nicholls	JM11-14	07:22
17th February	Burnley	Francis Woodruff	JM10	09:05
	Clitheroe Castle	Emily Nicholls	JW10	08:58
		Emily Johnson	JW10	11:30
	Burnley	Helana White	JW11-14	07:22

ByJim Hickie

Moorhouse’s sponsorship

Clayton-le-Moors Harriers are delighted to announce that Moorhouse’s Brewery are proud sponsors of our Pendle Fell Races and Club Fell Competitions for 2019.

All adult finishers in the Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round, Pendle Fell Race, Pendle Cloughs Fell Race, Mearley Clough Fell Race and Pendleton Fell Race will receive a bottle of Moorhouse’s beer. And Clayton-le-Moors Blonde ABV 3.9% will provide much needed refreshment for tired runners in the local pub after each race.

Moorhouse’s prizes will be awarded to members successful in our 2018 and 2019 Club Fell Championship, Pendle Aggregrate Trophy Competitions, and John North Trophy competitions. Clayton-le-Moors Blonde ABV 3.9% will enhance the celebrations at our annual Awards Evening held on 22nd March at Turf Moor.

Clayton-le-Moors Harriers are not only passionate for fell running but also for the mystical landscape of Pendle Hill, famous for its long-told myths and legends. We look forward to sharing some of Pendle’s secrets with Moorhouse’s during 2019.

ByHelen Stevens

January Roundup

It appears to have been a quiet month, race-wise. Don’t be fooled though – some of our veteran ladies and gents have been leading the way in the Kendal Winter League, with a special mention to Jean Brown (who seems to be amazing at evey discipline), Wendy Dodds (two 1sts), Linda Lord (a 1st at Giggleswick AND 2 Parkrun PBs), Katy Thompson, and Jack Holt. VM75 David Scott was also victorious at Lancashire Cross Country Championships – see his race report further down.

As a special feature, I asked David Edmondson, who recently won an England vest for 10K, to write about how he has managed to improve his form over recent years. I hope you find this interesting and useful.

As ever, many thanks to all our contributors for helping make the roundup possible. Cheers!

The Long Road Back: From Injury to an England Vest

by David Edmondson

I have been running competitively for over 40 years, to a moderate level of success. Frequently plagued by injury; like most. Especially over the last few years, maybe it’s inevitable? Since 2013 I’ve never felt like I was running well.

Now my wife Tracy who has been teaching Pilates for 14 years has been pointing out areas of improvement for some time, in particular to do with posture and dynamic posture: running gait in other words.

My problems included:
• Hyper extending knees
• Head too far forward
• Pelvis hiking
• Shoulders too far forward
• Week core
• Glutes not firing

You can see some of the faults in the cross country picture.

Cross Country

Over the last few years something has clicked, maybe my engineering background helped. We are very much design to run so why do we frequently get injured? I put months of thought and analysis into the problems a couple of years ago. In fact I enjoyed that so much I eventually resigned form my teaching career to join Tracy teaching Pilates. Some of my classes specialising in Running.

What did I find was the solution to my problems? A real concentration on getting that posture right, improving stability, running gait and crucially, ensuring my glutes are not only strong but firing properly. I’ve slowly altered my running gait, minimum necessary change each time. Much of these gains made through Pilates with some work that I’ve called Pilates Plus; the same principles but with weights or resistance. The picture form Telford 10K perhaps demonstrates some of these improvements; still with some gains to be made.

Telford 10K

How have I improved? I returned to road running last summer after perhaps 3 or 4 races since 2009. My 4th road race of 2018 I ran 10 miles in just over 63 minutes to grab the V50 Lancashire 10 Mile Champs and a few weeks later ran just over 37 minutes at the Telford 10K to get an England selection. Not stunning times but over the last 12 months I’ve only averaged 25 miles a week; my lowest average for some years! Now I have the correct movement patterns, stability and strength I can begin building the mileage up again and we’ll see what I can do?

I’m running for England V50 10K team in May and then hope to focus on an Autumn marathon; aiming for an England vest at that distance.

Lancashire Cross Country Championship 2019

Race Report by David Scott

It was a cold January Saturday, with rain forecast for the afternoon, so my usual stalwart supporter, Jill (aka Dave Scott’s wife) decided not to come. I first ran in the Lancs. as a Senior in 1965 and have run numerous times since. In those days, I was more concerned about my position, but in recent years I now look at how many runners are behind me when I finish. As a Vet60, I beat 30, and then steadily the numbers dropped to 22 as a Vet 65 and then 20 as a Vet 70. Last year when I was not quite 75, I beat 4! This year I improved to beat 7!!

I’ve been running at Witton Park since I was 15 and years ago running up ‘The Saucer’ was one of my strong points. Nowadays I can just about run up it on each of the 3 laps. The worse thing that has happened is probably that I can no longer set off ‘fast’!!!! In 2018 I was last at the end of the starting straight, but managed to pass 4 in the next 2 laps but that was it; the others a looong way ahead. This year, 2019, I was last but only by ONE metre and soon overtook others and managed 7 by the finish.

The underfoot conditions over the past 2 years have been some of the best that I can remember and even the notorious muddy gate at the bottom of the hill (which the fast guys fly through with no obvious slowing down) was only 3 or 4 muddy strides.

Receiving a Lancs. medal standing on the podium being photographed is one of the great things about the Championships and although this year there were less than 10 people still watching as I stood on the top step, I still felt very proud to win a Gold and represent Clayton.

Dave Scott, Lancashire Cross Country VM75 Champion. Photo: Donna Airey

Ladies’ Cross Country Report

by Donna Airey

Back to back XC races during October, November and December. It weird when your hit with the 4 weeks break. I, and I’m sure others too, was happy when it was back to putting the spike on.

First up (feels like ages ago now) was the Lancashire XC Championships at Witton Park. A fantastic course, drier than previous years but still good fun. Great turn out from the seniors with the ladies team finishing 5th overall. Everyone did fantastic, well done!
Our ladies Vet team finished an impressive 3rd and bagged themselves a bronze medal
Also impressive performances by Julia Rushton (2nd V55), Karen Goss (1st V65 and 1st V70) and Christine Leathley (2nd V65) who all finish on the Podium.

Some of the Ladies’ Team at the Lancashire Cross Country Championships. Photo: David Belshaw

Week after we were back to Mid Lancs League. Held on our turf, we once again had a good number of ladies taking part. Well organised by Trawden, results were up before I’d even got my spikes out the bag. Being able to hear when Burnley (well Fulham) scored was also a bonus!

We had good results and currently ladies stand in the league joint 2nd place in Division 1. V35 – 3rd. V45 3rd. V55 3rd. We need as many as you as possible for the 2 remaining fixtures, please!

5th “A”— 22 Tara Robb 25, Jean Brown, 29 Rebecca Rimmington
11th ‘B’ 118 — 36 CDarling-Smedley, 39 Michelle Abbott, 43 Donna Airey
F35 – 3rd— 13 Jean Brown, 16 Rebecca Rimmington,19 C Darling-Smedley
F45 – 4th— 9 Jean Brown, 26 Irene Roche, 28 Julia Rushton
F55 -4th — 4 Irene Roche, 29 Susan Allen, 30 Christine Leathley

The last January fixture was the Northern Athletics XC Championships held at Pontefract. Thank you to all that put their name forward to represent the club, especially after the committee decided to affiliate to NA so our members could take part in these big events.

My 4th year doing the Northerns and a different venue each time. There’s just something special about taking part in this big event, the atmosphere, the talent, the challenge of a longer course. Well done to those who ran and hope you all had a good day out and we see more of you put your name forward next year!

Junior Report

by Alan Dorrington

The first race of the month was one that many of our Juniors had been targeting all season – the Lancashire XC Championships. Witton Park can be very muddy at this time of year but conditions were surprisingly firm and even the infamous Saucer descent was relatively mud-free.

Helana White powering to the finish to become Lancashire Cross Country U13G Champion. Photo: David Belshaw

Helana White led the U13G race from early on with her usual focus and took a comfortable win to become Lancashire Champion and achieve her second County vest. Backing up her win with great runs also, her team mates Sianna Smith (13^th), Amelia Halstead (15^th) and Eleanor Edwards (23^rd) helped the girls to 2^nd Team.

U13 Girls’ Team (L-R Amelia Halstead, Helana White, Sianna Smith, Eleanor Edwards). Photo : David Belshaw

In the U11B, Charlie Fee continued to progress in 17^th place and Fraser Anforth was 56^th. We had 5 girls running in the U11G race, with Eliena Lusty tantalisingly close to the top 10 in 11^th, Emily Nicholls 26^th, Lottie Smith 35^th, Phoebe Jackson 49^th and Ellisia Smedley 54^th.

U11 Girls' Team (L-R Lottie Smith, Emily Nicholls, Phoebe Jackson, Ellissia Smedley, Eliena Lusty). Photo: David Belshaw

U11 Girls’ Team (L-R Lottie Smith, Emily Nicholls, Phoebe Jackson, Ellisia Smedley, Eliena Lusty). Photo: David Belshaw

By comparison, unfortunately we had no boys running in the U13B race, for the first time coaches can remember – here’s hoping the boys bounce back and we can field a good team in future races.

Jackson Mackay finishing strongly to earn (hopefully) a Lancashire Vest. Photo: David Belshaw

Jackson McKay just missed out on automatic selection for the County team with 7^th in U15B so fingers crossed he still gets another vest, whilst Will Nicholls was 27^th, Lennon Jackson 42^nd and Will Barlow 43^rd.

U15 Boys (L-R Jackson Mackay, Will Nicholls, William Barlow). Photo: David Belshaw

Ella Dorrington led our U15G home in 18^th, closely followed by Imogen Ferguson (23^rd), Sophie Ashworth (27^th), Hannah Eccles (34^th) and Beth Wheatcroft (45^th).

U15 Girls’ Team (L-R Sophie Ashworth, Ella Dorrington-Levy, Bethany Wheatcroft, Hannah Eccles, Imogen Ferguson). Photo: David Belshaw

The U17B attacked the race with their usual commitment in a really strong field with Nick Hennessey 17^th, Charlie Parkinson 18^th, Michael Stevens 24^th and Peter Stevens 27^th and finally Caleb Thornber 31^st. Nicola Moynihan was our sole representative in the U17G race with a fine 9^th place.

U17s (L-R Charlie Parkinson, Caleb Thornber, Peter Stevens, Nick Hennessey, Michael Stevens, Nicola Moynihan). Photo: David Belshaw

The following week, our cross country Juniors returned to the local fixture in Towneley Park, as part of the Mid Lancs series. There were top 20 performances in the U11 from Eliena Lusty and Charlie Fee, and Helana White took a gritty second in the U13G with Amelia Halstead, Sianna Smith and Eleanor Edwards helping the girls to 3^rd team.

Jackson Mckay was just pipped into 2^nd after a close race in the U15B and with William Nicholls and Lennon Jackson, the boys took 3^rd team.

Our U17B team was on fire at their home fixture and with Nick Hennessey (4^th), Michael and Peter Stevens (9^th and 10^th) and Charlie Parkinson (11^th) they won the team prize. Fantastic work lads!

The Kendal Winter League is a well established series of races that can best be described as cross-country on steroids or fell racing-lite. Either way, they are a great way of keeping some fell fitness and experience going over the winter months and fell devotees Ella Dorrington and Christopher Brown attended several during this month. Ella placed 2^nd U17G at Giggleswick and 3^rd at Whitestones in Cumbria, whilst Christopher was 10^th in U15B at Scout Scar, 11^th at Giggleswick, and 7^th at Whitestones.

Finally, a sizeable team made their way across to Pontefract racecourse for the Northern Athletics Cross Country Champs, a high quality race with large fields. All our Juniors raced well against the best runners in the region, on a fast but draggy course round the infield of the racecourse.

1st January – New Year’s Day Awakener, Whitworth – Results

1st F55 – Yvonne Wickham; 2nd M50 – David McMullan.

5th January – Lancashire Cross Country Championship – Results

1st U13G – Helana White; 2nd U13G Team (Helana White, Sianna Smith, Amelia Halstead, Eleanor Edwards); 3rd Ladies (Vets) Team (Jean Brown, Michelle Abbott, Cassie Darling-Smedley); 1st VM75 – David Scott.

6th January – Scout Scar Fell Race (Kendal Winter League) – Results

1st LV60 – Wendy Dodds; 2nd LV50 – Jean Brown; 1st MV70 – Jack Holt;

13th January – East Lancs Hospice 10K – Results

1st M50 – David Edmondson; 1st M60 – John Roche; 2nd M45 – Robert Morrison.

12th January – Towneley Park – Mid Lancs Cross Country – Results

2nd U13 Girl – Helana White; 3rd U13 Girls Team (Helana White, Sianna Smith, Amelia Halstead); 2nd U15 Boy – Jackson Mackay; 3rd U15 Boys Team (Jackson Mackay, William Nicholls, Lennon Jackson); 1st U17 Mens Team (Nick Hennessey, Michael Stevens, Peter Stevens);3rd Ladies Over 35 Team (Jean Brown, Rebecca Rimmington, Cassie Darling-Smedley); 1st Vet 70 Men – David Scott; 3rd Vet 70 Men – Richard Lawson; 2 Ladies Over 50 – Carol Life; 3rd Mens over 45 – Craig Eccles.

13th January – Giggleswick School (Kendal Winter League) – Results

1st LV70 – Linda Lord; 1st LV60 – Wendy Dodds; 2nd LV60 – Katy Thompson; 2nd LV50 – Jean Brown.

19th January – Inskip Half Marathon – Results

1st V55M – Kevin Davies; 3rd V60M – Alan Clarkson; 1st V55W – Avril Duckworth.

20th January – Whitestone (Kendal Winter League) – Results

26th January – Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships, Pontefract – Results

27th January – Birkrigg Common (Kendal Winter League) – Results

1st LV60 – Katy Thompson; 1st LV50 – Jean Brown.

Parkrun Roundup

Date	Venue	Name	Age	Time
1st January	Burnley	Alfie White	JM15-17	21:14
5th January	Burnley	Stephen Green	VM60-64	21:23
	Hyndburn	Linda Lord	VW70-74	27:48
12th January	Burnley	Olivia Metcalfe	JW10	33:05
	Hyndburn	Craig Nicholls	JM40-44	21:52
19th January	Burnley	Ryan Bradshaw	SM20-24	17:37
		Alan Archer	VM60-64	24:07
	Clitheroe Castle	Andrew Priory	VM50-54	23:02
		Andrew Dugdale	VM55-59	24:31
	Witton	William Barlow	JM11-14	23:41
26th January	Burnley	Alan Archer	VM60-64	24:03
		Helen Harrison	VW50-54	26:11
	Clitheroe Castle	Natalie Nicholls	VW35-39	32:22
	Hyndburn	William Barlow	JM11-14	24:33
		Linda Lord	VW70-74	27:45
		Bryn Barnes	VM65-69	27:49
	Witton	Paul Thompson	VM45-49	20:22

Junior Parkrun Roundup

Date	Venue	Name	Age	Time
6th January	Burnley	Eliena Lusty	JW10	08:36
13th January	Burnley	Francis Woodruff	JM10	09:22
20th January	Burnley	Imogen Ferguson	JW11-14	08:01

ByHelen Stevens

December Roundup

Happy New Year Team Clayton!

Pendle on Christmas Eve 2018 (pics; Mick Hughes & David Belshaw)

Pendle on Christmas Eve 2018 (pic; Mick Hughes & David Belshaw)

The start of December seems ages ago, but a wet start to the month saw the first real mud at the cross country races, and a chance to test my washing machine’s capabilities of removing the mud and returning the twins’ racing vests to their pristeen Daz whiteness. Despite the rain, the weather has been relatively kind (at least we’ve had none of the white stuff), and our runners have been all over the place representing the club. If you were in a race I haven’t covered, or you’re entering a race I might not know about, please let me know so I can include it. Also, please consider writing a race report – we really don’t need many words, even one of our juniors has contributed this month.

Good luck for 2018’s running, I’m hoping my ankle is finally sorted and that I will be pulling on my race vest sometime this year.

Helen Stevens

‘Fields, Frost & Festivities’

(Senior Men’s Cross-Country / Festive Season Report)

by Mick Hughes – Mens XC Captain

Hello Harriers.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The last Cross Country before we headed into serious festive mode was the Mid-Lancs ‘Hyndburn’ fixture at Woodlands, Clayton-le-Moors. In all honesty it was not without glitches and some errors on the day with course direction and timings. But, hey ho, frustrating as it was, these days happen and we have to remain positive and move forward… and that we did. Great turnout from the guys and ladies and once again it was most pleasing to see debuts from new athletes putting themselves forward to represent the club. I want to mention Shaun Sturdy who bravely came along and really had a good go and enjoyed himself ! (note to others pondering!)
It was a diverse lapped course of winding woodland trails, a couple of streams to cross, muddy slopes and open field sections. The biggest and arguably worse enemy on the day was the small tree stumps dotted about in both the woods, a few of the lads fell and got minor injuries but on the flipside a lot of the lads said they had enjoyed the different course and the experience. It was, I think a difficult course to get up to pace and remain consistent at. Mark Magee continued his superb form and did not disappoint with another 1st counter for us, crossing the finish in 40;19, the experienced Matt Duckworth ran in a great 2nd to Mark in 40;47. The quality and attendance we have come to appreciate from Andy Holt, Ryan Bradshaw and James Dunderdale proved once again to show our strength as they also all put great runs in with sub 43 minute finishes. For many, it was a cold, wet, glitchy afternoon that they may want to forget, but to me it was still a good reflection of our presence, quality and ‘get on with it’ spirit.

James Dunderdale continues his fantastic form.
Photo: Gillian Hughes

Andy Quinn getting stuck in! (pic; Gillian Hughes)

Ryan Bradshaw in action at Hyndburn with another great run (pic; Gillian Hughes)

Quite a few attended the festive favourite ‘Turkey Trot’ at Hurst Green on December 15^th , a rainy day but great attendance and some very creative colourful costumes on the day.. I cannot recommend running in full Star Wars villain attire though! It is said to be the last Turkey Trot, but If this is the case, I do hope someone takes over the helm at this festive fun one, as it’s a good fund raiser and light- hearted race after the years serious competing. Many clubs enjoy the banter.

Wayne Mcintosh, Cassie Smedley and Michelle Abbott getting into the spirit (pic; David Belshaw)

Me chasing Gillian Hughes down (pic; Steve Harling)

No year would be the same without the traditional Clayton run up our beloved Pendle on Christmas Eve. Some had a change and went to Worsthorne where I believe a similar great route and time was had. I assisted David Belshaw and took one of his camera’s up to capture a mix of the seniors and juniors on the routes up and at the trig. A good turnout across all ages and the views on that bright morning were magnificent.

Pendle on Christmas Eve 2018 (pics; Mick Hughes & David Belshaw)

Next Mid Lancs Cross country fixture is Towneley Park on 12^th January.

*PLEASE REMEMBER* as long as you are a registered EA athlete with us you can register on the day at Mid Lancs fixtures and we would really appreciate your efforts

Thanks and appreciation as always to Donna Airey, Jason Pier, Cassie Smedley, Michelle Abbott, Helen Morphet Stevens, Gill Hughes and all others who have helped in any way.

See you at Towneley

And finally we get mud! Both December XC fixtures had lots of it.

Women’s Cross Country Report

by Donna Airey – Women’s XC Captain

The final Red Rose Fixture was held at Todmorden in real XC weather. A new venue and it didn’t disappoint. Organised superbly by Todmorden Harriers, I said in the car on the way over, they like a hill! A good turn out for the ladies, 14 taking part. Well done all.
Cassie was first Clayton lady back, followed closely by Liz Mullan and Michelle Abbot to make up our ladies team who finished 6th.
Vet team, Cassie Smedley/Michelle Abbot/Vicky Heys finished 5th
Congratulations to Christine Leathley who finished the series 3rd place F65, well done Christine!

Next up, Mid Lancs Hyndburn. Once again, a good lady turn out. The start was a bit of a shambles. After the U15B/U17W start was delayed, the ladies start was also delayed but with no indication for how long which made keeping warmed up a pain. Setting the men off on time also caused issues for the second half of the ladies. The paths were tight enough with us ladies out there never mind when the man caught up and tried to get past. Luckily, even with a few tumbles, all our ladies came back unharmed. Well done to all our ladies on a very tough day!
Ladies A 5th Tara Robb/Jean Brown/Michelle Abbot
Ladies B 13th Cassie Smedley/Lisa Ellis/Vicky Heys
Ladies F35 3rd Jean Brown/Michelle Abbot/Cassie Smedley
Ladies F45 3rd Jean Brown/Vicky Heys/Irene Roche
Ladies F55 3rd Irene Roche/Yvonne Wickham/Karin Goss

Ribble Valley 10K – 30th December 2018

If the number of race reports we received for this is anything to go by, it’s a very popular race! So here you get a couple of different perspectives…

Craig Nicholls

A tongue in cheek comment about there not being enough me in the monthly roundup was met with a suggestion that I provide a report myself and I was subsequently given the task of doing a write up for the Ribble Valley 10K. So here it is.

Having completed the 2018 Pendle & Burnley Grand Prix and entered my name and my two little runners William and Emily onto the hallowed list of the PBGP Grand Slam club I had decided to take a little break from the constant pressure of running and racing. A decision that backfired spectacularly when I decided to return to the fold in time for the cross country season and realised that my summer vacation had not been kind to my legs or lungs and that something resembling a small wok had appeared where I once hoped a six pack might reside.

The obvious solution was to make a firm commitment to JRs Winter Training programme and put my faith in Clayton’s answer to Gareth Southgate to rescue the situation and transform me back into something that the club might want to call one if it’s own again. Ten weeks of Tuesday and Thursday training with cross country races at the weekend followed and the marginal gains started to appear as week by week my Strava segments started to improve as did my finishing positions in the cross country races so I decided to book onto the RV10K and see whether or not I was in good enough shape to think about a new tarmac PB.

The morning of the race finally arrived and suddenly the pressure of being competitive beyond my ability started to suck all the fun out of the occasion and I spent most of the morning imagining how disappointed I was going to be if and when the race went badly. These feelings however were swiftly dispersed when I arrived at the start line and was met with over 1,300 runners of all shapes, sizes, ages and ability who were all just as excited and nervous as myself. With no less than 39 Clayton members in attendance it’s virtually impossible not to feel inspired and motivated about being part of something bigger and better than your own personal running goals so I made my way to the start line ready for whatever the race happened to have in store for me.

The race started and the elite runners were quickly out of sight and out of mind leaving the rest of us to negotiate our way round a challenging but fun tour of the Ribble Valley countryside. Each and every runner was greeted by cheers and encouragement literally every step of the way and the kilometre markers seemed to fly by meaning I was soon counting them down to the finish splitting my time equally between watching where I was going and staring at my watch whilst constantly recalculating my target finish time.

With 2K to go and my motivation starting to ebb away I was greeted by the sight that nobody at a Tuesday or Thursday session ever wants to see. John bloomin’ Roche appeared by my side (not a road to Damascus apparition though – it really was him) and I knew that any attempt to slack off before the race was complete would not be tolerated. With his trusty sidekick Mr Wilcock by his side the two Johns carried me (not literally – that would be cheating) through to the finish line and a new sub 42 minute PB.

A worried Craig gives John W a sideways glance...

A worried-looking Craig gives John W a sideways glance…

NOTE – I’m only messing about by making this race report all about me. Hopefully readers will note the subtle references to the excellent training sessions put on by JR, the brilliantly inclusive series of cross country races we’re all entitled to attend and the uplifting experience of being a small part of this wonderful club.

Marion Wilkinson

The tradition of running the Ribble Valley 10k with my daughter Lisa started when I was 65years old, and my time then was 52:28, I only started running a couple of years before.

Lisa could not run it this time so I stood in the 1000 plus crowd without my best friend.
We always wished each other good luck and then off we would go to do our own thing.
I had started to get slower as the years passed from my first race at Clitheroe, but this year my fitness had improved since having my operation for glaucoma three years earlier.

This year I wanted to get under 60mins. My first 10k in 2018 and I did it 58:47, so so pleased, but that means no retirement for another year.

Going to do a few more 10ks in 2019, onwards and upwards lets see if I can make some more progress

Marion Wilkinson at RV10K. Photo: David Belshaw

1st December – Todmorden XC (Red Rose Cross Country League) – Results

3rd U13 Boys Team (Robbie Smedley, William Woodruff, Jenson Bentham), 1st U13 Girl – Helana White, 2nd U13 Girls Team (Helana White, Amelia Halstead, Sianna Smith), 2nd U15 Boy – Jackson Mackay, 2nd U15 Boys Team (Jackson Mackay, William Nicholls, Lennon Jackson), 3rd U15 Girls Team (Ella Dorrington-Levy, Hannah Eccles, Imogen Ferguson), 2nd U17 Men’s Team (Nick Hennessey, Michael Stevens, Peter Stevens), 2nd U17 Women’s Team (Briony Holt, Nicola Moynihan, Millie Stubbs).

1st December – Podium 5K – ‘A’ Race Results – ‘B’ Race Results

2nd December – Myerscough 10 – Results

8th December – Hyndburn (Mid Lancs Cross Country League) – Results

2nd U13 Girl – Helana White; 1st U13 Girls Team (Helana White, Amelia Halstead, Sianna Smith); 3rd U15 Girls Team (Ella Dorringto-Levy, Imogen Ferguson, Hannah Eccles); 3rd U15 Boy – Jackson Mackay; 3rd V35 Ladies Team (Jean Brown, Michelle Abbott, Cassie Darling-Smedley); 3rd V45 Ladies Team (Jean Brown, Vicky Heys, Irene Roche); 3rd V55 Ladies Team (Irene Roche, Yvonne Wickham, Karin Goss).

15th December – Hurst Green Turkey Trot – Results

15th December – Tandle Hill (SE Lancashire Cross Country League) – Results

1st U13 Girl – Helana White

Tandle Hill Race Report by Sophie Ashworth

Nicola Moynihan at Tandle Hill. Photo: Rachael White

‘Too Cold for Boys’

We pulled up onto to Tandle Hill Road, through a gap between two houses to get to the start. Nearly had Rachael breaking her foot after falling through a stile, lucky Helana was there to catch her. We walked the course avoiding the two foot drop into a hole. The ground was rock hard with patches of ice. Even though this was a cross country race, the hills made it more a fell race. Representing team Clayton were: Helana White, Hannah Eccles, Nicola Moynihan and myself. Helana ran first and no surprise for her to win quite comfortably. Next up was Hannah and myself both had a great start and with Hannah finishing 8th and unfortunately I dropped out due to falling over on my ankle. After that Nicola was up with a great finishing position with 4th place. Meanwhile, whilst Nicola was racing I was still up at point K waiting in freezing conditions for the St. John ambulance to arrive.

Overall good race and amazing effort from everyone braving the cold and wet weather.
Well done girls!

15th December – Kong Winter Fell Series Race 2 – Results

26th December – Whinberry Naze Dash Fell Race – Results

1st MU21 – Charlie Parkinson; 1st FV60 – Karin Goss; 1st MV60 – Peter Dugdale; 3rd MV60 – Andrew Firth; 3rd FU21 – Ella Dorrington-Levy;

27th December – Wansfell Fell Race – Results

1st FV70 Karin Goss; 2nd FV60 – Wendy Dodds; 3rd MV60 – Andrew Firth; 3rd MU18 – Michael Stevens.

30th December – Ribble Valley 10K – Results

Parkrun Roundup

Date	Venue	Name	Age	Time
1st December	Clitheroe Castle	Andrew Dugdale	VM55-59	25:29
15th December	Clitheroe Castle	Mark Taylor	VM35-39	22:02
		Andrew Dugdale	VM55-59	24:57
		Yvonne Wickham	VW55-59	28:27
22nd December	Clitheroe Castle	Alan Life	VM50-54	21:34
	Hyndburn	Bryn Barnes	VM65-69	28:04
25th December	Witton	Alan Life	VM50-54	22:27
		Carol Life	VW50-54	27:34
29th December	Burnley	Daniel Fleming	VM30-34	18:04
	Hyndburn	Andrew Orr	VM45-49	22:13
		Bryn Barnes	VM65-69	28:01
		Robert Mitchell	VM65-69	29:21
	Pendle	Hannah Eccles	JW11-14	25:33

Junior Parkrun Roundup

Date	Venue	Name	Age	Time
1st December	Burnley	Fraser Anforth	JM10	09:10
		Francis Woodruff	JM10	09:53
16th December	Burnley	Olivia Huyton	JW10	09:11

ByHelen Stevens

November Roundup

I can’t believe that November has passed by so quickly, and the countdown to Christmas is upon us. Cross country fixtures have come thick and fast, with my Saturdays spent driving round the county ferrying 2 or 3 youngsters to cross country fixtures. On a personal note, both my washing machine and I have been quite relieved that the weather has been pretty mild and dry this month, although I know most runners love Marl Pits just for the mud.

Again, I’m still on a learning curve with regards the Roundup, and despite my best efforts, will have missed things out. Please message me and let me know anything you think I need to include. Thanks for all the reports, particularly those from our first-time race reporters. If you want to have a go, just message me, include a few photos, and I’ll put your report in the Round Up.

Cross Country Ladies’ Team Report

by Donna Airey, Ladies’ XC Captain

November has been a busy Month for XC with 3 fixtures taking place. Well done to all our ladies!

Red Rose Bolton 10th November, a good XC course with a bit of everything. Lacking mud but still very enjoyable. A cracking 14 ladies took part, Liz Mullan was our 1st lady back in 29th place. Followed up closely by Cassie and Michelle to make our team 7th place overall. Cassie, Michelle and I made up the vet team who finished 4th overall.
Red Rose Marl Pits 17th November, everyone looks forward to this fixture. Even the fell runners are seen here at Marl Pits. I have never done the course before, having spectated last year I could see why it was so popular with our runners. Once again, our extremely dry summer let us down on the mud. A good course with some muddy parts. I personally wanted waist deep, always next year! Another good turnout for the ladies with 14 taking part. Tara Robb our 1st lady back with Rhiannon Wickham and Liz Mullan making up the team who finished 4th overall. Cassie, Michelle and I made up our Vet team who finished 3rd overall.

Mid Lancs Sefton Park 24th November. The 2nd fixture in the Mid Lance league is held at Liverpool. This is the British Athletic Cross Challenge race which includes the European Cross Country Championship Trials. In other words, a lot of fast lady runners wearing knickers and crop tops. With Liz Mullan pulling out last minute it was left to our other ladies (Cassie and Michelle) to make some places up. My prep talk before the race (don’t be ***) obviously worked, they both took the pressure well and had a fantastic race. Michelle being our 1st lady back who finished 37th overall on a very fast, flat and dry course. We had a superb 11 ladies take part.

Senior A 11th — Michelle Abbott, Cass Darling-Smedley, Donna Airey
Senior B 25th — Irene Roche, Lisa Ellis, Julia Rushton
V35 5th — Michelle Abbott, Cass Darling-Smedley, Donna Airey
V45 12th — Irene Roche, Julia Rushton, Jane Hylands
V55 3RD — Irene Roche, Christine Leathley, Susan Allen

‘A month of fast laps, mixing with the elites and the return of proper mud!’
(Senior Men’s Cross-Country Report)

by Mick Hughes – Mens XC Captain

It’s incredible really to think how the fixtures come so thick and fast now, so much so that we have had four league races since my last report! … and how diverse they have been.

Firstly and most importantly can I just reiterate how genuinely proud I am of every Clayton runner that has travelled, worn the vest with pride, conducted themselves fantastically and represented the club so well. Of course, I have to report on the top end of the results but what’s stood out to me and pleased me most, time and time again is the team spirit amongst us and those whom have put themselves out there regardless of confidence and pace. These conditions are not easy to run on but as I’m sure you will all agree, certainly very rewarding to have completed. It’s a great team ‘away day’ and please do continue to attend and encourage one another.

November 10th was a local trip to Bolton Leverhulme park (Red Rose). Three large laps for the guys on what was to be quite firm underfoot on the day. Many of us deliberating whether to don spikes or stay in fell shoes. Tricky winding bends through the woods to start, a few paths to cross, one shocking short but steep climb out of the woods (the muddiest patch that day!), then what felt like a long way around the park’s perimeter in the wide open, where if you had paced well, you could maintain a fairly good speed. Well over 10 senior guys in attendance for us and as ever some gutsy performances. Mark Magee continues his blistering form and was our first counter, followed closely by Richard Stevenson and Ryan Bradshaw.

Senior Men at Bolton. Photo by Lisa Ellis

November 17^th saw the return of the infamous, brutal favourite for many ..Marl Pits (Rossendale – Red Rose). Notorious for being a total lung-buster and including the dreaded swamp! It did not disappoint. I have to admit for the first couple of laps I took the line of sticking to the left of the trees as opposed to going straight through the absolute bog! Eventually though, I decided that it was congested there and many of us were getting cuts from the brambles! Eventually I went straight through and it at least made for potentially the best action shot photo I have had !..well worth the three falls I had on the day. It was very good to see the return of Peter Coates and Carl Helliwell to the squad and this helped bolster our already competitive team. Peter and Carl finished as our 3^rd and 4^th counters in fantastic times of 31;24 (Peter) and 32;10 (Carl). Ahead and running excellently as we have come to expect from him was Ryan Bradshaw (our 2^nd counter) in 31:08. There seems to be no stopping Mr. Magee as Mark flew in 1^st for us again in an incredible 30:50. You have to have respect for anyone completing Marl Pits. It has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. Well done all.

The ‘swamp’! Photo by Steve Bateson

Next up was an entirely different proposition all together. A real away trip up the motorway to Sefton Park, Liverpool. This was not only a Mid Lancashire League fixture, but also a British Athletics European Qualifier. Time to mix it up with the elites! on what was the driest, fastest cross-country course I have ever experienced. The pace throughout all of our club runners reflected this as the times we’re more akin to those of a road race! I’ll tell you how fast the leader was able to complete it in, Liverpool Harrier’ Charlie Hulson finished in 28:06!. Of course, I was more interested in the real athletes in orange and white!. Fast finishes for Richard Stevenson and Ryan Bradshaw, well up there in the senior rankings. That man again, Mark Magee was our first male counter and to put into perspective how successful his run was overall, he finished in 49th place out of a field of 324 seniors. It was great yet again to see a good attendance from juniors, ladies and guys who gave up a considerable chunk of their Saturday to travel to Liverpool. Really positive stuff.

As I write this, we have just completed the finale of the Red Rose League with the Todmorden fixture in true cross-country conditions. Many of our members have been asking ‘when are we getting real mud?!’. We certainly got that on a challenging Todmorden Vale Park course. Many of us hadn’t realised how many hills we would have and by the time the guys lined up at 2.15 the course was a real bog. I have to commend in particular Matthew Duckworth’s dedication in making the journey back from Leeds to run for us. Matt was running strong, as was Peter Coates and Andrew Holt, all finishing in great low 40’s times. The last Red Rose fixture was successful yet again for Mark Magee, leading the points for us with another first Clayton finish. Many of us had a night out later that evening and I can tell you there was plenty of chat about it and enthusiasm for the remaining Mid Lanc’s fixtures. Long may that continue.

Andy Quinn (showing his XC experience and running well again). Photo by Gill Hughes

Craig Nicholls (on great form and looking stronger every fixture) pic Gill Hughes

James Dunderdale (another strong finish at Todmorden) pic Gill Hughes

Jason Pier (on the descent) pic Gill Hughes

Michael O’Donnell (Great effort as always) pic Gill Hughes

The final positions and full results for the Red Rose League can be found via the SportSoft website (www.race-results.co.uk) but here’s a brief breakdown;
Our senior men finished overall in 5th place (out of 13 clubs)

Some Individual overall positions for those seniors qualifying;

Mark Magee (17th), Andy Holt (39th), James Dunderdale (49th), Michael O’Donnell (59th), Alex Cran (73rd) myself in (77th), Craig Nicholls (83rd), Jeremy Bradshaw (91st), Martin Brady (99th), James Hickie (104th).

Under 17 Male Harriers;

Nick Hennessey (7th), Michael Stevens (8th), Peter Stevens (11th), Harrison Codd (21st)

All that remains for me to say is congratulations on all your efforts at all recent fixtures and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the next (Mid Lancs) fixture at Hyndburn this coming Saturday (8th December).

Thanks and appreciation as always to Donna Airey, Jason Pier, Cassie Smedley, Helen Stevens, Gill Hughes and all others who have helped by arriving early / stayed late, helping with the tent, brought tasty treats, took pictures or just cheered us on. Plenty of hard work goes on behind the scenes to make the fixtures a continual success.

Have an absolutely fantastic Christmas and don’t forget…
‘Tis the season to be……..MUDDY’!

Junior Cross Country Report

by Alan Dorrington

In Belgium, where the National sport is cyclocross racing, there is a period over Christmas where the races come thick and fast and keep both the professional and amateur riders super busy – the Kerstperiode.

November has been the cross-country equivalent of the Kerstperiode with races every weekend, and the action extending on into December for good measure. Our Juniors have been out battling away in both Red Rose and Mid Lancs fixtures with some super individual performances and great team efforts alike. Whilst not all the Juniors make the top 10 or the team placings, the coaching team have been loving seeing ALL our Juniors racing with focus and guts – well done to all of you!

The Red Rose series reconvened for the 2nd race of the series at Leverhulme Park, Bolton on 10 November and a dryish day meant the course was a little faster than usual, but still featuring Leverhulme’s long open drags and that stiff climb up through the woods. Charlie Fee improved significantly on his first Red Rose race to enter the top 10 with 9th in the U11B race, with Eliena Lusty also taking a top 10 in the U11G race.
Helana White chucked her more conservative pre-race plan out of the window early on, hitting the front before the big second lap and was unchallenged all the way to the line in the U13G race, backed up by Sianna Smith and Amelia Halstead to take 1st team. Jackson McKay took a fine 3rd in the U15B and with Will Nicholls and Lennon Jackson, 3rd team. Also taking 3rd team was the U15G trio of Sophie Ashworth, Ella Dorrington and Imogen Ferguson. Michael Stevens and Nick Hennessey were 9th and 10th in the U17B and with Peter Stevens, 3rd team. With Briony Holt 4th in U17G, Nicola Moynihan and Millie Stubbs took 3rd U17G team.

Helana White taking 1st U13G at Leverhulme Park. Photo by David Belshaw

The following week it was off to, shock horror, a dry and barely muddy Marl Pits. Undeterred and unfazed by the miraculous lack of mud, Eliena Lusty repeated her 10th place in U11G and Will Woodruff edged closer to the top ten in U13B with 11th. Helana White fought hard to take another win but had to settle for second in the U13G with Sianna and Amelia again ensuring the girls were 3rd team. Jackson repeated his 3rd place from the week before with Will and Lennon making up the 3rd place team in U15B, whilst Nick Henessey was 9th in U17B with the team of Michael and Peter Stevens taking 2nd. Briony Holt improved to 3rd and Nicola Moynihan was running really well for 6th in U17G.

Jackson Mackay in the mix on the infamous (but mud-free) downhill at Marl Pits. Photo by David Belshaw

Sefton Park, Liverpool traditionally sees the hybrid Mid Lancs and National Cross Challenge series fixture where huge fields belt off at unfeasibly high speeds, and our Juniors get to measure themselves against the very best in the country. This year was no exception and there were some strong performances from all our Juniors in what can be an intimidating atmosphere of hectic and super quick racing, large crowds and a larger PA. There were notable performances too from Helana White (2nd Mid Lancs and 18th overall) and Jackson McKay (8th Mid Lancs) in league fields swelled by extra competitors from across the NW club scene.

With another 2 back to back weekends for the Red Rose final round where individual and team positions will be decided and more Mid Lancs action at Hyndburn, it promises to be a great December for our Junior Harriers!

4th November – Leeds Abbey Dash – Results

by Mark Magee

Mark Magee during the Abbey Dash. Photo by Julie Bradshaw

I did the Leeds Abbey Dash on the 4th November. I’d been training towards it with my coach Phil hall at track. My aim was to get a pb which was currently 35.45 which I achieved at Trafford 10k (2nd Sep) Phil started giving us 1km reps x 2 at the end of the Tuesday sessions to help with strength when tired. I managed a pb of 34.53 which I was over the moon with, my ambitions target was sub 35. On mile 5-6 I had to really dig deep and was in a world of pain but managed to keep my momentum and achieve the sub 35. I think 1km really did help during that last mile. Ryan Bradshaw also ran Leeds abbey dash, my training partner, he also achieved a pb of 36.40, you may need to check though.

Mark Magee and Ryan Bradhsaw. Photo by Julie Bradshaw

4th November – Lancaster Half Marathon – Results

Avril Duckworth – 1st V55W, 3rd Woman overall.

4th November – Through the Villages Race – Results

Stephen Biscome – 1st M65.

10th November – Leverhulme Park, Bolton (Red Rose Cross Country League) – Results

Helana White – 1st U13G. 1st U13G Team (Helana White, Sianna Smith, Amelia Halstead). Jackson Mackay – 3rd U15B.3rd U15B Team (Jackson Mackay, William Nicholls, Lennon Jackson). 3rd U15G Team (Sophie Ashworth, Ella Dorrington-Levy, Imogen Ferguson). 3rd U17M Team (Michael Stevens, Nick Hennessey, Peter Stevens). 3rd U17 Women’sTeam (Briony Holt, Nicola Moynihan, Millie Stubbs).

10th November – Cheshire 10k – Results

10th November – Shepherd’s Skyline – Results

11th November – Windmill Remembrance Day 10K – Lytham – Results

by Rachael White on behalf of (faffing) Alfie

Alfie has only done a few 10K races in the past, as he has only just turned 16, he entered this as he was told it this was a fast, flat one.. but could be a little windy.

The day did not start well. I asked him to put the postcode into the Sat nav, as I vaguely remembered reading that the start had been changed, and thought this would make life simpler early on a Sunday morning..… Well it would have if Alfie had put the correct postcode in, and not a random postcode for a house in a housing estate near Stanley Park Blackpool!. Cue great confusion as I was approaching Stanley Park and calling Alfie a numpty when I stopped and read the postcode he had entered compared to the ACTUAL postcode. We then had a view of Blackpool Tower, the lights and the Pleasure beach as we drove along the promenade back to Lytham.

When we arrived it was wet, windy, cold, a great start for the race, people were huddled under shelters, and only removing layers at the last minute to go into the starter funnel. We found an equally cold Michelle Abbott under the same shelter.

The 2 minute silence for Remembrance day preceded the race and was respectfully observed. After that the race was ready to be started. The start and finish in front of the Windmill was on grass, which meant it was a little slippy and leg draining at the end, according to Michelle but the majority of the race is on the promenade, with views of the beach and the sea (although I am not sure how much the runners were taking notice of that).

The expressions about waiting for buses was the case for Clayton runners, as first few runners came through, and then we had several Clayton Harriers arriving within a couple of minutes.

First Clayton Harrier back was Kevin Davies, in 43:34, quickly followed by Alfie White who was chasing the clock down to get a PB and his first sub 45 min. He came in at: 44:45.38, followed by Michelle Abbot in 45:39.09, who must have got the award for the loudest “encouragement” as she was yelling at Alfie to “go” all down the back straight when she could see Alfie in the last 600 metres and could see how close he was on her watch.

A Quintet of ladies finished shortly after in quick succession to complete the Clayton Harriers runners (where were the men??). Well done everyone!

Alfie acting cool, with Michelle. Photo by Rachael White

17th November – Tour of Pendle

by Colin Woolford

This Tour was different. I felt ready for this one. I have had a good period of consistent
running – not the distance, but I definitely have the time in my legs (and on my feet!) and I run very much as a head game – if I feel good I tend to run good. I’d even got a couple of good recce’s in over the previous few weeks to refresh my memory of the route having missed it in 2017 due to a last minute work commitment cropping up.

So I started the race at just after 10.30 am on Saturday 17th November feeling good, strong and light on my feet. The first few miles bore testament to this, I was where I thought I should be in the field, some familiar faces around me in the pack. the usual bench marks of performance (“if I run *this* uphill bit I am running well”) I was trotting over quite smoothly. My breathing was good from the word go – since running with a race vest rather than bumbag I have noticed my breathing has been better, where as I have in the past struggled to get my breathing right early on in a race. There was some good banter with fellow fell runners and club mates on the way up, including supporting a chap new to the race (and as it turns out fell running! – what a way to start!?). All in all a great way to start one of the toughest races in the calendar.

And that’s how it continued. I even took a gamble on an experimental line across the moor from CP 1 to CP 2 which paid off – I (and Dave Naylor) got ahead of several faces in my immediate pack as I crossed the CP1 hurdle – some came back at me (well done Vicky!) and got back ahead by CP3, some did not. Result! Even the cut off at CP4 (be through by 12.30, at the bottom of the legendary ‘Geronimo’ descent) I knew I would get through, but to do it by the best part of 25 minutes was very pleasing. Plenty of chatter to the marshals and some thank you’s as well, in the most stunning of conditions – even the mist lifted to offer a ‘haze’ against clear skies. It was a cold wind for sure, but not so strong as to impede progress.

The only point I had to dig deep was on the final climb, from CP9 to CP10. up the Big End, from its lowest point on the moor to its highest just before the actual summit. Truth be told – everyone has to dig deep here and it’s fair to say that I gain a degree of motivation from schadenfreude ethically right or not it works for me! I focused on a steady step pattern and keeping as light as I can on my feet as I passed a few on the way up. It seemed to work. I got to the top able to keep moving, where as some around me were pausing for breath. I even donated my final Babybel to a mate who was bonking big time.

So what motivated me to write this out then? Truth is I need your help…. my finish time was 4.12 on my Garmin. The official results are not out yet as I write this, suffice to say I was very pleased with 4 hours 12 minutes. I wanted sub 4.30 and got it comfortably. I was buzzing! I would have been happy with a 4.29! I am on the whole not one to obsess over times, if I ran well; I am generally happy, better than the aim I set myself – I am more pleased. Better than the previous years’ time – I am over the moon. Having said that I never look the previous times up before a race, preferring to run on feel rather than time pressure. When people ask me what my Tour PB is I always say its about 3.45 I can never remember what it actually is… so 4.12 is quite away short, but that’s okay I was happy with the time and more importantly the way I ran and felt all the way round. SO in getting home to record the result on my log of races (GEEK) I casually check what my PB is… 3.43. gosh, quite a way short then. That prompted me to look over previous results:
2011 first Tour – 4.44 (It hurt. Lots.)
2012 PB 3.43 (I learnt a lot that year about fell running!)
2014 3.50
2015 Weather shortened course – 2.45 (doesn’t count)
2016 In the snow – 4.09.

Making 4.12 in 2018 My second worst time running this race!!! How does that work?? How can I have felt so good, had great conditions and seemingly ran so well to deliver as duff a time as that! I was slower than the snow year where you couldn’t actually pass anyone or else you were in knee deep snow!

So can someone please contact me with an address for the running gods. I
have a complaint, or at least a strongly worded letter to put to them.

( That said, see you in 2019 on the TOP!)

17th November – Marl Pitts (Red Rose Cross Country League) – Results

Helana White – 2nd U13G. 3rd U13G Team. Jackson Mackay – 3rd U15B. 3rd U13B Team. 2nd U15B Team. Briony Holt – 3rd U17 Woman. 3rd Ladies Vet Team. 3rd Senior (Vets) Team.

24th November – Sefton Park, Liverpool (Mid Lancs Cross Country League) – Results

Helana White – 2nd U13G. Richard Stevenson – 2nd V40M. 3rd Ladies Over 55 Team (Irene Roche, Christine Leathley, Susan Allen)

25th November – Wilmslow 10K – Results

Report by Michelle Abbott

Well what can I say? Less than 24 hours after running a PB at Liverpool XC, me and Cassie venture over to do the the Wilmslow 10k – a new one to us so didn’t know what to expect (well apart from a hill about 8 k we heard a few people say). Anyway we headed off to the start and squished our way in, being towered over by all these tall fellas, braced ourselves, realising we are near the sub 40 pacer. Oooppps well that ain’t gonna happen!

We set off nice and chilled chatting up to about 5 k, when we split up a bit so carried on enjoying the views waiting for this hill. So, here goes, the hill is here! Ermm, well ,10 secs of it ! What was that, thought you said hill? So I had a quick glance at my watch, realised I was running a pb! All I had to do was speed up a bit and knock a 4 min last km out, so went for it. Well sort of! I saw the photographer at 400 metres to go, so gave him the thumbs up first, then went for the finish. 43.58 pb and sub 44 whoop! So I trotted through, was told to move on – no chance, I was waiting for Cassie. I saw her coming through. Me: you’ve got a pb! Cassie: no I haven’t. Me: ermm yep you’ve got under 45 and you were not over a minute behind. Cassie checks watch 44.39 – whooo! Double pbs and subs, get in! Fantastic end to the weekend, been a long time coming , and what better way to do it than with your partner in crime? We will be going back next year to Wilmslow, brilliant route and support all round.

25th November – Lee Mills Relays –

Ladies Report by Sarah Helliwell

It was another fine day in the Rossendale Valley as runners descended on Stubbylee Park for the annual Lee Mill Relays; you could have said that it was almost tropical in comparison to previous years! The popularity of these relays is growing ever year as more different teams enter and the calibre of the runners improves year on year. This was further proven as all course records went with the ladies, men’s and different teams’ records being broken.

There was a light rain as runners warmed up, however it subsided as the leg 1 runners congregated on the track. Rhiannon Wickham and Vicky Heys were running for the ladies teams as they made their way towards the quarry and up the steep banking onto the ridge. Both ladies had a good run with Rhiannon just coming in over the hour mark.

Rhiannon Wickham – photo by Mick Fryer

As Claire Vincent and Angela Shian started leg 2, reports were coming in that the ground was pretty good and there was only 1 bad boggy bit. On leg 3 were Tara Robb and Kath Wallis with both of them clocking great times with Tara doing a great leg in just under the hour. Lastly were Jean Brown and Fiona Glen bringing both teams home. The ladies A team had a great run and finished a very respectable 4th and just over a minute behind 3rd. The ladies B team, were 2nd V40 and came 11th overall out of 16 ladies team. The overall event was a massive success for Rossendale Harriers as it raises a lot of money for the local Mountain Rescue and local charities.

Claire Vincvent – photo by Mick Fryer

Thank you from me!

On a personal note I would like to say a massive thank you to all the ladies who have put their names forward over the year and run in the Calderdale, Hodgson, British and Lee Mill relays. We have got more fresh faces running on the fells and as a club we have had some great results and hopefully fun! Have a good few winter months, there are some good off-road events and I am hoping to don my Shirley Bassey outfit for Whinberry Naze on Boxing Day. Hope to see you there (they usually hand out smarties at the trig) and here is to a good 2019!
Many thanks Sarah

Junior Roundup

The junior section continues to go from strength under the leadership of Marion with excellent coaching in her team of Jason Pier, Alan Dorrington, Michelle Abbott, Cassie Smedley, Richard Stevenson and Phil Hall. Their hard work has been recognised this month at the Lancashire Sports Awards where Clayton-le-Moors Harriers Juniors have been awarded Club of the Year.

Jason proud to accept Club of the Year 2018 award

In addition to this, we are super proud of our very own Briony Holt who was awarded Highly Commended in the Young Achiever category.

23/11/2018 Lancashire Sports Awards 2018

and of Jason Pier for his Highly Commended in the Volunteer category (looks like he was having a good night!)

23/11/2018 Lancashire Sports Awards 2018

A word from Marion:

“Once again Clayton Juniors have been recognised for their outstanding progress and

commitment to sport over the last few years. In July we won the Burnley Community Club Award and have now gone on to win the Lancashire Community Club Award.

I am extremely proud to be part of this success. Sport inspires achievement and produces inspirational coaches, participants and volunteers.

Our rule at Clayton Juniors is to make sport happen and help others achieve personal success.”

November saw us welcome some new junior members – Olivia Metcalfe, Caleb Thornber and Charlie Parkinson (who joins us from Rossendale Harriers and will provide even more competition for our older juniors). After Charlie’s first race he remarked to Marion that he enjoyed the run, but found it strange looking down to the white, orange and black vest. We are sure you’ll grow to love it as much as we do Charlie!

Finally, Marion has asked me to include a bit about how proud she is of Michael Stevens’ efforts outside the sphere of running. This month Michael was asked to play The Last Post at the Remembrance Service at his school (St Christopher’s CE High School in Accrington, where he is Head Boy), and also at Cliviger and Huncoat Remembrance Services.

Michael Stevens playing the Last Post. Photo by Helen Stevens

Michael Stevens in more usual surroundings. Photo by David Belshaw

Parkrun PB Roundup

Date	Venue	Name	Age Cat	Time
3rd November	Burnley	Eliena Lusty	JW10	24:31
	Pendle	Neil Hardiman	VM50-54	20:53
10th November	Hyndburn	Karin Goss	VW70-74	32:37
17th November	Burnley	Daniel Fleming	SM30-34	18:18
	Hyndburn	Yvonne Wickham	VW55-59	28:45
24th November	Burnley	Francis Woodruff	JM10	27:16
	Hyndburn	Paul Laurence Walsh	VM60-64	32:20

Junior Parkrun Roundup

I’m including a roundup of our Juniors’ achievements at the shorter 2km Junior Parkruns this month as these youngsters are demonstrating huge improvements thanks to the excellent coaching of the team led by Marion.

Date	Venue	Name	Age Cat	Time
4th November	Burnley	Guy Whalley	JM11-14	08:35
11th November	Burnley	Theo Burfield	JM11-14	08:17
18th November	Burnley	Imogen Ferguson	JW11-14	08:09

ByJim Hickie

Lancashire Sports Awards 2018

Clayton-le-Moors Harriers are proud to be Club of the Year at the Lancashire Sports Awards 2018!

Also at these awards, Briony Holt was Highly Commended as Young Achiever of the Year, and Jason Pier, one of our Junior coaches, was Highly Commended as Volunteer of the Year. Well done Briony and Jason!

The club, Briony Holt and Jason Pier were nominated for their awards by Burnley Council.

ByHelen Stevens

October Roundup

It’s been a while since the last roundup. I’m using October as a practice, and I’m sure it will improve as I get more used to it. But remember, this is your club – you are a diverse group, racing on road, hills, trail, short races , long races, every month – I need your race reports!! We would all love to read about it. All you need to do is send a few words, and perhaps a photo, and I can include it in our round-up so everyone can read about it. The next generation of runners are also reading – so go on and INSPIRE THEM!!!

Special Fell Running Report

Sarah Helliwell, Ladies Fell Racing Manager

As many of our members know and for those who do not! I am the ladies fell manager. My role over the last 2 years has been to increase participation (especially female) on the fells locally and further afield! As a club Clayton Harriers has a long history of fell running, many a running legend (still winning national age categories this year!) and many experienced fell runners who are more than happy to share their knowledge and encourage are younger contingent into an amazing side of our sport. The beauty of fell running is the constant changing scenery and terrain, with the majority of races being in some of the most beautiful areas of our country, the Yorkshire Dales, Lakes, Snowdon, the Highlands and not forgetting our doorstep of the Pennines.
October is the month when the fell running calendar reaches it pinnacle with the Hodgson Brothers Relays in Patterdale and the British Relays, which was hosted by Ambleside AC in Grasmere this year. Both events usually include the top fell runners in the country, who thrash it out on the fells to be crowned the best teams. For anyone who has not run in a fell team relay event, the majority of these events are run as pairs. Therefore the pair needs to have a variety of experience between them. From being able to map read and navigate, support each other over some tough terrain and interesting weather conditions and to finally appreciate some spectacular scenery!

Hodgson Relays
The ‘Hodgson Brothers Mountain Relay’ is the longest-running mountain relay in the country and is one of the toughest relays to get an entry into. As a club we have supported the relay for many years with the ladies team and what is now known as the Z team and are lucky enough to have 3 teams consisting of a men’s open team, a men’s vet team and a ladies team. The race is a tough one, with 4 legs each throwing up their separate challenges, including hard climbs and steep descents on difficult terrain.
It was a fresh and mainly dry day as the Clayton teams assembled on the playing fields in Patterdale with the other 70 teams. Running the first leg was Richard Stevenson and Calum Holmes, Chris Funnell and Ivan Whigham and finally Rhiannon Wickham and Briony Holt. All 3 teams took the sensible option and left the field in a comfortable pace as nearly the 1st half mile on road and track to the foot of the climb, before making its way over to Angletarn which can mean suffering later on if you have gone too fast on the flat bit. It was great to see 3 young fresh faces of Briony, Rhiannon and Calum doing their first Lakeland fell relay, with all of then having a great run on leg 1 alongside Richard, Ivan and Chris. It was also an excellent start for the ladies as Rhiannon and Briony nearly beat the men’s vet team to the changeover point at Hartsop. Next time girls, we’ll have them

Leg 1 runners – Briony Holt, Rhiannon Wickham, Calum Holmes, Chris Funnell, Ivan Whigham & Richard Stevenson. Photo: Tina Holt

Leg 2 – starts off with a monster of a climb from the valley up onto High Street before eventually edging back round to Kirkstone over the craggy section before the decent back down to the pub. From what I heard there was a good view from the top of High Street, however quite a bit of suffering occurred as the young legs of Andy Laycock and Dave Bagot gained places for the men’s team. Whilst Z-team stalwarts Mark Nutter and Ralph Baines put distance between themselves and the ladies team with Anna Kelly and Claire Vincent running a solid leg for the ladies team.

At the end! – Katy Thompson, Tara Robb, Jean Brown, Chris Brown, Wendy Dodds, Barbara Savage & Mike Wallis. Photo: Sarah Helliwell

Leg 3 – kicks straight up from Kirkstone Pass onto Red Screes with runners deciding to either take the path or off piste option. Once on top the wind was starting to pick up as runners started to take a variety of options. In the words of Barbara she wasn’t going to argue with Wendy and once Wendy has her bearing on her compass there is no changing her 😉 no matter the terrain. Andy Firth made young Simon Stansfield work hard for the vets team, while Will Hardman and Chris Snell gained more places as they descended hard into Sykeside, where quite a group of team Clayton were now supporting and cheering the runners on. Young Chris Brown did a cracking job as a spotter and coming back down to the change-over to give the next leg runners some prior warning.

Russell Clarke & Carl Helliwell descending back down to Patterdale at the end of leg 4. Photo: Jo Perry

The wind was channelling down the valley as the leg 4 runners made their way up onto Fairfield then St Sunday. Old man Helliwell was made to work as Russell set of fast; however Carl came into his own on the climb making the younger man work hard. It was then back to Russell on the descent as he and Carl pushed the men’s team back to Patterdale and the men’s team came in 20th position. Next it was over to the vet’s team as Mike Wallis and Paul Thompson gained places back for the vet’s team and even cruised past Team Hodgson on their way back to 45th position, as Chris Hodgson said “they flew past us”. Lastly Tara Robb and Jean Brown made each other work hard and picked some good lines as they brought the ladies team home in 62nd position.
One thing that I feel I need to mention is that there was a 50 year age gap between Briony Holt (16) and Wendy Dodds (66) both running for the ladies team. I bet no other club could match that!

Vets team – Chris Funnell, Simon Stansfield, Andy Firth, Ralph Baines & Mark Nutter. Photo: Sarah Helliwell

Well done to everyone who ran and it was fantastic to see some new younger faces running in the relays teams. If this is something you would like to have a go at next year, get yourself onto the fells and especially up into the Lakes for more experience. This is a fantastic team event and one the club is proud to do.

Men’s Team – Will Herman, Russell Clarke, Carl Helliwell, Chris Snell, Andy Laycock & Dave Bagot. Photo: Sarah Helliwell

British Relays – Grasmere
All week the weather had been perfect, mild, clear and great running condition. So it was sods law that when Saturday morning arrived it was grey, overcast and when we turned off the M6 at Kendal the rain started! 250 teams had entered the championships and we had fielded 5 teams into the different categories. On a personal note I have been trying to encourage more women from the club onto the fells and especially up into the Lakes. So I was extremely pleased that we fielded 2 ladies team into the event. The British Relays has a different format to the Hodgson. Legs 1 and 4 are run as individual legs, with leg 4 opened to 16 years plus. Leg 2 and 3 are run as pairs, with leg 3 as a pure navigation leg, where the runners are only given the map for their route as they set off. They then have to find the best route to the different check points before making their way back to change over at the event field.
In the week up to the event Mark Nutter and the Z-team set the challenge of the ladies team trying to beat them, I put it towards the ladies and they said “yes, game on!” All the routes went up onto the fells north east of Grasmere, covering a variety of classic fells and climbs from Fairfield, Seat Sandal, Great Rigg, Stone Arthur, Heron Pike and Rydal Fell. The rain was coming down hard as the leg 1 runners set off, Carl Helliwell was running for the men’s team, Andy Stubbs for the men’s vet team, Chris Funnell for the Z team, Rhiannon Wickham for the ladies and Vicky Heys for the Ladies vet team. Carl came in first in 47th position giving the men’s a good start and lead over the vet’s team. Chris had also put the Z-team into a good position, however Rhiannon came in not too far behind (151), keeping the pressure on them, with Vicky bringing in the lady vets in 204th.

Carl after finishing leg 1, me trying to organise and worrying about numbers and dibbers! with 6 month old Fergus having a snooze on my back. Photo: Ralph Baines

Next was the paired leg with young Laycock and Bagot battling it out and pushing each other once again with a fantastic run by both and 32nd on their leg. Paul “I’ve forgotten my hat” Hesketh and Alan Dorrington ran for the vets, Andy Firth and Andy Howarth for the Z’s, Claire Vincent and Donna Airey (first timer) for the ladies and vet stalwarts Linda Lord (vet 70 and still putting many of us younger ones to shame!) and Kath Wallis all battled the elements and tough terrain leg 2.

Kath Wallis and Linda Lord (see if you can spot her) on leg 2: Photo Beau Day Photography

Kath Wallis and Linda Lord (see if you can spot her) on leg 2. Photo: Beau Dog Photography

The navigation leg can cause a problem for some clubs as having good runners who can read run fast whilst reading a map, navigate and reach the checkpoints is a hard skill to do well. This is what led to Keswick AC down fall who were winning the relays by roughly 2 mins at the start of leg 3. The navigation pair got lost and lost nearly 32 minutes and 71 places! I feel that this is an area where we have been fortunate to have some very experienced runners. It was then over to Will Herman, Russell Clarke, Mike Wallis, Neil Hardiman, Ralph Baines, Mark Nutter, Jean Brown, Tara Robb, Wendy Dodds and Barbara Savage as they all set of into the clagg (fog) to find their checkpoints. All 5 teams had very strong runs on this leg and picked some good if different route choices between them all.

Mike Wallis and Neil Hardiman getting ready for the navigation leg. Photo: Ralph Baines

The last leg was a tough lung buster with a great steep descent, which was perfect for our young Briony Holt who completed the leg for the ladies team. This is what Briony had to say about her first experience at the British Relays:
“This year’s relays were held in Grasmere; well known for its brutally steep climbs, I’m pretty sure we all knew it was going to be tough (Andy Stubbs proved us right when we saw him hobbling back to the car upon our arrival – obviously being beaten by the better man – Carl)!
I was on the last leg which is run on your own, similar to leg 1. The weather was wet and foggy which made the already tough courses even harder. With runners finishing and some setting off, it was hard to know when to get ready. I started to warm up and soon after we got called over to the starting pen. The officials said to set off whenever people were ready to give people plenty of time to get to the top of Heron Pike. So off we went.
The uphill was 30 minutes of brutal climbing, with the check points acting as a rest spot. Then you went on a runnable path that took you from the top of Heron Pike to the third check point before the fast and technical descent to the finishing field. Although the uphill went on for ever, I loved the course especially the part just after Stone Arthur!
Thank you to the team managers for organising the teams for this event, and hopefully I’ll be able to run some more Lakeland relays in the future!”
The other runners on leg 4 were Chris Snell, Tim Edwards, Tracey Mitchell and the mythical legend of Peter Dugdale, who all brought the different Clayton teams home safely.

Paul Hesketh and Alan Dorrington running for the vet’s team. Photo: Beau Dog Photography

Andy Walmsley, the very experienced and wise manager for the Z-team has kindly passed on some words from the Z-team, this is what he had to say about the day:
“The Z team were able to field a strong and very [in some cases very-very !] experienced team.
In the weeks prior to the event, being short of work, we had managed to do some recces and all agreed that each leg was tough in its own way. Ambleside had devised a test even for the best.
The gauntlet was thrown down and the challenge accepted by the ladies! Perhaps our special lines would give us an edge?
Leg 1 a long fast climb steepening to the summit of Seat Sandal then a long fast descent with a sting in the tail climb and fast run in. Chris [Funnell] took it in his stride running a superb leg in1:04:19 setting the tone for the rest of the relay and putting us in 124th place!
Two Andrews [Howarth & Firth] set off on the Queen leg 2: big climb and long technical descent. The Ladies snapping at our heels …could we make experience count? Another great leg covered in 1:39:29 increasing our advantage over the Ladies but still close.

Ralph Baines running for the Z-team. Photo: Andy Firth

Over to the navigators ! Anything can happen on a navigation leg. We needn`t have worried, Mark and Ralph [Nutter & Baines] revelled in the challenge making good route choices to run into the finish comfortably before the mass start for leg 4 [which had been brought forward to protect the marshals ] having nailed it !
Leg 4 : big climb and fast hair raising descent ! Peter [Dugdale] who had been fired up for a fortnight and warming up for half an hour set off like a scalded cat. Surely all would be well?
Briony [Holt] set off two and a half minutes later in the mass start in hot pursuit! At the finish we didn`t know the true gap and waited a little nervously for leg 3 Ladies to arrive. Peter didn`t know how much advantage he had and just got on with it. Briony was on a stormer and passed Peter at Alcock Tarn. Peter did more “getting on with it.”
Briony for the Ladies arrived at the finish minutes before Peter but crucially he had enough of a buffer from previous legs to give the Zs a 3 min 45 sec advantage and a finishing position of 125th.
A good team performance, no mistakes and strong on each leg. Well done to the Ladies it was close! As for next year we will need to cling to the slender hope that the young and talented Ladies don`t make any progress before then!”

Andy Laycock and Dave Bagot on leg 2. Photo: Beau Dog Photography

The club had a fantastic day, with some very strong performances from a number of different runners. It was great that we could field 5 teams into the event consisting of 2 ladies teams. As Jean commented it has been a long time since we have had such a young ladies team at the British Relays and is hopefully a sign of good things to come. We ended up 4 minutes behind the Z team and made them sweat at times. We are getting closer ladies. There were a number of runners who ran the relays for the first time and it is important that we keep getting new and fresh blood onto the fells to carry on the Clayton legacy.

Team	Time	Leg 1	Leg 2	Leg 3	Leg 4	Overall
Men’s	4.33.33	47	32	57	71	42nd
Men’s vet	4.55.02	98	130	69	38	72nd
Z- team	5.29.12	124	191	82	166	125th
Ladies	5.33.57	151	201	112	90	136th
Ladies vet	6.08.30	204	230	145	190	193rd

There are a number of ways to get out onto the fells throughout the year. Barley Badgers (Mark Nutter) run on a Tuesday night from the Pendle Inn at Barley at 6.30pm over the winter months. There are the Normads (Keith Prosser) who do steady off-road runs on a Tuesday night. John Roche takes his group off-road over the summer months. The ladies group meet every Thursday across East Lancashire and the Great Harwood group meet at 6.30pm every Thursday at Memorial Park. The juniors have great access to the knowledge and guidance of Alan Dorrington and Andy Armstrong who can give them vast experience and great training tips. Then over the summer months there are the PBGR races, the Rossendale series, the Darwen tower races and many of our own club events. However, to race in the big relays you need to get some Lakeland experience, there are always a variety of races over the summer and usually the Grasmere and Ambleside Sports races are always a good starter. The BOFRA races are always a good introduction and also have junior races.
One thing that can be said about fell running is that you cannot meet a bunch of people who are so down to earth, love eating cake (or ice-cream in the summer months) after a race and where you will see the winner of the race enjoying a pint of real ale with the last person of the race in the pub afterwards, sharing each other’s adventures.
Hope to see you on the fells soon.
Sarah Helliwell

3rd October – BOFRA 2018 Championship Presentation

Helana White was crowned the U12 Girls BOFRA Champion 2018 (British Open Fell Runners Association) at the BOFRA awards evening. These traditional, challenging fell races vary in location including Alva, Coniston, Burnsall and Farleton Knott. – Each different venue offers new terrain and challenges.
The best 8 scores from a possible 15 races are counted for the overall series scores. Helana only needed to complete the minimum 8 races to secure the victory, as she won her first 7 races , scoring maximum points, and came 2nd in her 8th race (she had had worked out she only needed to come in the top 6 to secure the series, so decided to save her legs as she had a triathlon in Blackpool the following day). The BOFRA win comes on the back of being awarded Joint 2nd place in the FRA League, and finishes off a successful year on the fells, a discipline she loves to race.
A BIG thanks goes to Alan, Andy, Richard and Jean for organising and supporting the Junior Fell training throughout the Spring and Summer, without their support & help Helana would not have this award. – Helana had targeted this series at the beginning of the year as her main goal, and is thrilled to have won it.

Grit and determination on Helana’s face. Photo: Dave Woodhead

Helana with her shield and trophy. Photo: Rachael White

7th October – Withins Skyline Results

13th October – Leigh (Red Rose Cross Country League) Results

This is the XC race that our juniors prioritised. Helana White came a close second in U13 Girls, overtaken on the line. Our Teams achieved 2nd U13 Girls’ Team, 3rd U13 Boys’ Team, and 2nd U17 Men’s Team.

13th October – Ulverston (Mid Lancs Cross Country) Results

Donna Airey (Ladies’ XC Captain)

Ulverston was the 1^st fixture in the Mid Lancs league and was the last fixture back in March. I remember the course well cold, windy and undulating but missing mud. Glaxo Hoad Hill must have read my complaint and decided for this fixture to give us some mud, and lots of it. It was also cold, windy and extremely wet. Great XC conditions! We had a good turnout considering the travel time. 10 Ladies and 14 men, with the ladies gaining a vital 5 points to help our start to secure our league 1 status. The men had a great start too with Mark Magee being our first male counter on his 1^st XC race. Well done to all those that ran.

Cross Country League begins again! (A report from Ulverston with the senior men)

Mick Hughes (Men’s XC Captain)

How fast does this time of year come round?! .. Many of us were perhaps only beginning to contemplate digging out those spikes when suddenly the 13th October was upon us and both the Mid Lancs and Red Rose Leagues started with a clash (Ulverston and Leigh the fixtures). Proper cross country conditions too, plenty of rain and mud (slightly more so at Ulverston as I believe Leigh was a little firmer under foot).

I am honoured to have been asked to captain the men and after plenty of networking and rallying the troops I was most happy with a great response and brilliant turn out at each fixture. With the club predominantly concentrating on Mid Lancs, I travelled up to Ulverston to support the teams on as I had a half marathon early Sunday so was not able to run myself (as much as I was tempted!). Over 10 senior men and a great atmosphere amongst both the guys and ladies that made the journey undeterred by the weather and long drive to Ulverston. A similar turnout at Leigh and I believe with good performances from both venues.

The team at Ulverston was a mixture of well seasoned XC veterans and a few first time XC debuts at both the venue and for the club. Mark Magee (one of our excellent new harriers with real talent) was first Clayton to finish his laps and cross the line in 29th position in 38;05, followed by strong performances from Matt Duckworth (38;43) and Ryan Bradshaw in 39;08.

Despite great times and performances, I was more concerned that the team spirit would be great and that inclusion continues within our representation at these events with lads and ladies of all abilities putting themselves forward and having a good ‘away day’ team experience. The main thing is that both our men and ladies remain competitive and doing well in these leagues. I was not disappointed, this proved the case and there were good reports from all ages and abilities within the athletes I spoke to and had feedback from both at Ulverston post-race and at Club training the following week. Ulverston impressed me with its high corners and short steep muddy banks, laps of that circuit looked a great one to do regardless of ability.

I have experience of Leigh and know how despite the fairly flat circuit, the laps can easily wear you down, especially when the wind hits you on the cross sections and wide open sections. Nevertheless a strong Clayton showing and many good race reports and leading performances from the likes of Michael O Donnell, John Wilcock, Alex Cran and Gareth Berry coming in excellent times in the low 40’s(!) with others attending as their first XC fixture and experiencing racing in the mud. I know ever last runner was cheered in at Ulverston and hopefully likewise across the miles at Leigh.

Thanks must also go to Jason Pier and Donna Airey for organisation and support at both venues, Helen Stevens for collating the Roundup and of course those who stand and cheer us on week in week out across the counties fixtures.

I look forward to the next fixture (Red Rose League at Bolton) Sat 10 November, where I will also be lining up alongside the guys and getting stuck in myself!

Well done all our teams on a great start to the season, Keep up the great attendance and team spirit!…. see you in the mud!

Dave Scott – the rain and the mud can’t dull our mood! Photo: Mick Hughes

Jez Bradshaw & Martin Brady looking strong. Photo: Mick Hughes

Mark Magee on his way to an excellent debut. Photo: Mick Hughes

Off we go – the season starts! Photo: Mick Hughes

20th October – Standish Hall Trail Race – Results

Richard Stevenson, 1st M40.

28th October – Accrington 10K – Results

1st MJ Michael Stevens (13th overall – 37:20), 1st F60 Irene Roche (50:40)

Michael Stevens smiling to the end. Photo: David Belshaw

Irene Roche – 1st F60: Photo David Belshaw

30th October – Langdale Horseshoe – Results

Wendy Dodds, 1st W60.

Parkrun PB Roundup

Here are October’s Personals Bests at our local Parkruns (Burnley, Clitheroe Castle, Hyndburn, Pendle, Witton). If anyone achieved a PB elsewhere, please let me know.

Date	Venue	Name	Cat	Time
06/10/18	Burnley	Martin Terry	VM55-59	20:59
		Guy Whalley	JM11-14	21:49
		William Barlow	JM11-14	23:29
		Sophie Mcintosh	SW25-29	28:33
		Marion Wilkinson	VW75-79	29:12
	Clitheroe Castle	Emily Nicholls	JW10	28:59
20/10/18	Burnley	Amelia Halstead	JW11-14	22:28
	Pendle	Connor Jones	JM11-14	20:36
27/10/18	Burnley	Mark Magee	SM30-34	17:22
		Hannah Eccles	JW11-14	23:06
		Rebecca Bradshaw	SW25-29	24:31
		Eliena Lusty	JW10	25:33

Here is the link to this week’s Parkrun Consolidated Club Report

ByAlan Dorrington

From snowdrifts to snowdrops – the March and April Roundup

3 March – Mid Lancs XC League Round 6

This was the cross-country final that nearly wasn’t. Whilst the Beast from the East did it’s best to snowdrift the country into a complete standstill, the M6 northwards and western fringes of the Lake District were strangely replete of snow, allowing the Mid Lancs XC crowd to head north for this new fixture up in Ulverston, at the Glaxo site on the very edge of Morecombe Bay.

A bone hard and undulating course, with a somewhat coolish breeze coming off the Bay greeted the runners, with trail and fell shoes being the preferred option for most runners.

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Helana White to the fore. Photo:

Juniors

Amelia Halstead capped off a breakthrough xc season with a fine 4th place in the U11G, not far behind the winner and putting her into a series 4th overall. Her regular team mates Ellisia Smedley, Emily Nicholls and Joni Higgins helped the Clayton girls to 10th overall.

Charlie Barnes led the U11B home in 28th, and with Fraser Anforth and Josh McKay the boys took 12th palce in the team competition.

Helana White continued to blaze a trail at the front of the U13G with a fine 3rd, with Ella Dorrington in 9th and the fast improving Imogen Ferguson in 22nd. A few tense hours waiting for final results confirmed the U13G team in 3rd place overall just behind Blackburn and just ahead of Trawden, a great result for them after a full season of working hard toward that team prize.

Robbie Smedley in 3rd was followed by William Nicholls 13th, and Matthew Jackson 14th and this allowed them to claim 3rd place in the U13B team prize by one point.

Only Sophie Ashworth ran in the U15G race to14th, with the last minute start line addition of her race number!

Jackson McKay went out hard in the U15B race in an attempt to stamp his authority on the front group and it nearly paid off as he came in a hard fought 4th, with Michael Stevens 10th and brother Peter 13th. Lennon Jackson and Theo Burfield battled away for 22nd 25th. With Harrison Codd who ran in earlier races, the boys came 5th overall.

Josh Hall was our sole U17B in 7th whilst Brinoy Holt in U17G took a fine 2nd place overall in the series.

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Imogen Ferguson was flying in Ulverston. Photo: Cassie Smedley

Seniors

Donna Airey capped off a great season with 13th to give an overall season placing of 16th Senior Lady (8th Vet), whilst Tom Brewster took 15th to give and overall senior Men 9th place.

David Edmondson had a consistent season and took 2nd overall in the Vet 50 competition (7th Vet overall), Andy Holt a top ten in V40 with Calum Holmes 6th in U20 Men. Dave Scott was first in the V70 Men.

Gold Team Prizes (and promotion to Division 1) were awarded for the season to the Division 2 Ladies and V65 Ladies teams, with Silver for our Division 1 Senior Men, and Bronze for the V55 Ladies and V40 Men.

Donna Airey reports:

“Ulverston was the final fixture in the mid Lancs League, A new venue and it didn’t disappoint. In fact, personally one of my favourite’s. Cold, windy, and undulating. Just missing some mud! Great turn out considering the snow around Burnley and hour and half drive up the M6. With the XC season now over, many thanks those who have taken part. Special thanks to Jason for everything he does and those who have helped with the tent. We’ve had plenty of seniors turn up to most fixtures even with some being over an hour’s drive away. We’ve seen some newcomer’s taking part, hope you have all enjoyed it and we will see you again next season. Well Done everyone, here are some of our overall performances”

And that, as they say, was a wrap for cross-country 2017/18

10 March – Inter Counties XC

Briony, Ella, Helana, Josh, Robbie and training partner Jack Villiers with their vests. Photo: Rachael White

There’s mud, and then there is MUD. The 5 Clayton Juniors selected to run for Lancashire had probably never run in worse conditions underfoot and probably never want to again. However, it didn’t deter Helana White, Ella Dorrington, Robbie Smedley, Briony Holt and Josh Hall from donning their shiny white and red Lancashire vests and getting stuck in. All of them did their Club and County proud and we expect to see more of them, and their teammates in Lancashire colours.

Robbie Smedley. And some mud.
Photo: Woodentops

10 March – Stan Bradshaw Round

Andrew Holt on his way to a cracking 27th. Photo: David Belshaw

As if one wasn’t enough… Beast from the East 2 arrived in time to threaten loads of fell races this particular and the Stan Bradshaw Round on our beloved Pendle Hill was no exception. However, a judicious course alteration from organiser Colin Woolford and some heroic marshalling meant the race avoided the cancellation that befell many other races in the region.

The now shortened course followed the normal start route to CP1, CP2 then left along the next wall to Ogden Clough, down to upper Ogden Dam and what was CP5, then up to Fell Wood to an amended CP6 giving roughly 12k in all. And a thoroughly testing day out with cold winds, frozen turf in places and deep drifts to wade through in others.

There were 21 Clayton runners led home by Chris Holdsworth in 3rd overall. Tara Robb was 1st Clayton Lady home (5th Lady overall).

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Michelle Butschok, wrapped up against the cold. Photo: David Belshaw

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Chris Holdsworth, moving quick enough not to need tights! Photo: David Belshaw

Full Results

25 March – FRA English Junior Championships

It was the usual late March start for the FRA English Junior Championships series, and like 2 years ago, Todd Crag in Ambleside was the setting for the first race of the season. The snow had gone, the sun shone and the racing was fast but technical on a rough and steep Lakeland course.

Jenson Bentham was 12th in the U13B with Helana White chasing hard for 3rd place in the U13G.

Jackson McKay took 5th and Ella Dorrington 16th in the U15B and G races, whilst Peter Stevens got the better, just ahead of brother Michael in the U17B race, taking 22nd and 23rd respectively. Briony Holt was 5th U17G.

Jenson Bentham. Photo: Dave Rylance

Ella Dorrington. Photo: Dave Rylance

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Briony Holt. Photo:

Full Results

7 April – Pendle Fell Races

Wet and claggy weather was booked for Pendle again this year, to celebrate the incorporation of the Lancashire Fell Running Championships into this long-running club fixture. Two new organisers also took over this year, Mark Nutter (Senior race) and Alan Dorrington (Junior races).

Juniors

Jackson McKay – U15B Lancashire Fell Champion. Photo: Woodentops

In the Juniors there were Lancashire medals for Jackson McKay who was Lancashire Champion in U15B, Helana White with silver in the U13G and Ella Dorrington with silver in the U15G. Many of our other Juniors also took part in the races, with several top ten performances from the likes of Jenson Bentham (7th) and Matthew Jackson (8th) in U13B, Robbie Smedley (6th) and William Nicholls (7th) in U15B and Imogen Ferguson 7th in U15G.

Peter Stevens also impressed in the U17B, narrowly missing out on a medal in 4th, with Josh Hall in 6th. Sophie Ashworth was 5th in U17G with a very muddy and shoeless Millie Stubbs in 7th and Beth Wheatcroft returning from injury in 8th.

Helana White – a silver medal in the U13G. Photo: Woodentops

Ella Dorrington – also a silver medal in the U15G. Photo: Woodentops

Peter Stevens just missed out on a Lancashire medal in 4th. Photo: Woodentops

Junior Results

Seniors

Jim Hickie wonders if his watch has started after all. Photo: Woodentops

Jim Hickie wonders how his new watch is supposed to work, while Mr Go Pro man behind captures it all for Youtube. Photo: Woodentops

In the Under 19 Men’s race, held as part of the Senior race won by evergreen V40 Rob Hope, Nick Hennessey had a fantastic run to become Lancashire Champion.

There were top ten places in the Senior Men’s race for Matt Perry and Andy Laycock (9th and 10th) and a fine 6th place overall and 2nd U23 Lady for Rhiannon Whickam. Peter Coates took a bronze Lancashire medal in the V40s, and Geoff Gough a silver medal in the V60 Men.

Irene Roche was a silver medallist in the Ladies V50, Karin Goss Lancashire V60 Champ and Linda Lord Lancashire V70 Champ.

Senior Results

14 April – FRA English Junior Championships

There was a new (to FRA Junior Champs) venue for the 2nd round of the FRA English Junior Championships with Trawden AC taking the race to Blacko and the hills surrounding the iconic Tower. The sun shone, the barbecue was pretty tasty and there was some great racing over traditional grassy Pennine hills (and bogs).

Helana White bagged her first ever win in the Junior FRA series with a powerful performance to see off her closest rival, based upon disappearing up the hill at a vast rate of knots to put in some distance between them. Her strategy paid off and she was a clear winner in the U13G race (and 8th overall), a fantastic achievement at this level.

I got this - Helana White in determined mood at the start of her U13G race. Photo: David Belshaw

I got this – Helana White in determined mood at the start of her U13 race. Photo: David Belshaw

Ella Dorrington improved on her last FRA outing with 8th in the U15G and Briony Holt had a solid run for 6th in U17G.

Emily Nicholls celebreates her Birthday in style in the U11 race. All was well afterwards. Photo: David Belshaw.

Emily Nicholls celebrates her Birthday in style in the U11 race. All was well afterwards. Photo: David Belshaw.

Full Results

22 April – Ron Hill 10k

Clayton Ladies Claire Vincent and Michelle Abbott were age group winners in the Senior Ladies and W35 Ladies categories respectively at this popular local 10k, whilst Calum Holmes took the U23 Mens win and 6th overall.

Calum Holmes sets off quick with Nick Hennessey.

Full Results

28 April – 3 Peaks Fell Race

Is it a fell race, a trail race or a marathon with mountains? That all depends on your perspective but what it clear is that it is a classic, and a hard one to pace, to boot.

David Bagot led home the usual large Clayton contingent in 3 hours 27 mins.

Photo: Chris Holdsworth.

Andrew Webster took on the 3 Peaks for the first time this year – here is his report:

“I had never done this race before and was a bit nervous as I had struggled on the recce a few weeks ago on the back 2 peaks but I had had lots of good advice off people before race day.

I got there in plenty of time and caught up with several other Clayton runners before we lined up in our expected time orders. I had a stroke of luck and set off with Simon Stansfield who had given me advice about pacing and leaving a little for descent off Ingleborough. I had set myself 2 race goals – avoid the bus and walk the hills and run everything else so I made cutofffs. It was pleasant trotting on with Simon to the base of Pen y Ghent and Ii think I paced it ok – Igot up in just under 48 minutes. The descent off was nice and there was a temptation to tear off on the good running to Ribblehead but I managed to contain myself and kept a consistent pace. At Ribblehead I was heartened to see Andy Bradley in front of me him being the 1st other club member I had seen since Pen y Ghent. I was prepared for Whernside being tough but not the biblical bog at the bottom – I actually saw 1 bloke go in almost to his waist. Swerve that 1 I thought! I managed to get to the summit of Whernside only feeling like chucking up a little and on the plus side my calves where that sore they had actually gone past pain and were just numb ( a blessed relief!!). I managed to gain a little speed coming down and didn’t knock any walkers over thankfully and before I realised it I was at the Hill Inn and oh joy inside cut offs!! Only by about 18 minutes but I do admit I was relieved! at this point. I really knew I would finish the race and gathered myself for the looming bulk of Ingleborough.

Two fields in I saw Richard Briscoe and again this raised my spirits to see a fellow club member and managed to stagger past him. Just before starting the climb it hailed for just 2.5 seconds but I thought my world was going to end as I wasn’t feeling quite myself at this point and though this is all i need! The climb didn’t seem as bad this time and I was lifted to see Steve Berry near the top shouting encouragement and giving me a drink of water. He said ” Andy’s just a minute in front of you – he’s yours to take!” I replied that all I wanted taking was a me in a helicopter from the summit but he just laughed ( I was deadly serious but he’d thought I was joking!). On my way to the trig I saw Andy Foster coming down and we said hello.

This was the bit I was most bothered about now as I was tired and it is horrible on that limestone coming back ( in fact on our recce Alex ended up with 3 stitches in his knee falling along the route back). But I remembered Simon’s advice about the race really starting from here and luckily I had paced it so that I steadily overtook quite a few on the way down including Andy who had a bad cramp attack and was slowing rapidly. Even more unusually I didn’t fall. These Yorkshire folk must like value for money in a race, as several times on the way in people shouted just a mile and a half to go when it was more like 4. Even so I managed to gain a few more places till the finish took me by surprise popping out from that tunnel straight onto the field!!

It was a great event and a fantastic experience I will definitely do again. I was very pleased with my time as I had reckoned around 5 hours to 5 and a half mark but got in in 4:45. My thanks to the organisers, marshalls and support on this race – it truly is a classic and I’d recommend it to every club member wholeheartedly.

Martin Brady (2nd from L) and Andrew Orr (R)receiving their trophies for 21 3 Peaks completions. Photo: Andrew Firth.

Full Results

28 April – Fellsman

Fellsman regular Andy Armstrong and first timer Alan Dorrington set about this classic old-school ultra in the Dales, finishing together at the end of its 61 mile route with over 11,000ft of climb in just over 18 and a half hours.

For Alan it was a step into the unknown, given he hadn’t run more than 6 hours before but a combination of frequent refuelling with sausage rolls, pasta, hotdogs and flapjack and Andy’s experienced pacing and grit when he was unable to eat any of the above mentioned buffet for the last part of the race, saw them both round in good order. A great, if slightly lengthy day out over the many of the highest parts of the Dales.

Andy Armstrong and Alan Dorrington not taking things too seriously at the Fellsman. Photo: SportSunday

ByAlan Dorrington

Winter’s not over till it’s over…

No let up in the winter weather this month with gales, snow, ice and then a proper cold snap heading toward the UK at the end of month. Of course none of that deterred the Clayton runners from hitting muddy fields, wintry fells, snowy mountains and the roads in between.

3 February – Lancashire Schools Cross Country

Helana White waiting for the B of the Bang...

Helana White (609) waiting for the B of the Bang… Photo: Rachael White

Clayton Juniors were to the fore at the recent Lancashire Schools Cross-Country Championships. There were fine age group wins for Helana White and Briony Holt, top 10 places for Harry Cole, Ella Dorrington and Jackson McKay and a host of fine supporting performances as our Juniors ran for their individual District teams.

Year 7 Girls – Helana White 1st, Rachel Stevenson 59th

Year 7 Boys – Harry Cole 8th, Jenson Bentham 24th, Finley Stubbs 31st

Junior Girls (Yr 8 and 9) – Ella Dorrington 10th, Sophie Ashworth 26th, Imogen Ferguson 59th, Keira Stevenson 64th

Junior Boys – Jackson McKay 9th, William Nicholls 20th, Lennon Jackson 39th

Inter Boys – Nick Henessey 20th, Michael Stevens 22nd, Peter Stevens 26th,

Inter Girls – Briony Holt 1st, Millie Stubbs 8th, Caitlin Welsh 31st.

Apologies to anyone I have missed – as our Juniors were running for their District teams it is harder to spot them in the results.

Full Results

4 February – Blackburn Winter Warmer

Jon Cleaver reports from this popular event:

A very strong field lined up for the 2018 Winter Warmer at Witton Park on a chilly Sunday morning with the sun on our backs which made for very good racing. The course itself is a toughie and from past performances one which normally sees you at least 2 minutes short of your PB. It starts with a climb of around 450ft climbing out of the park and then most of the work is out of the way. I managed to hold on to a pack holding the top 5 until the descent which found me lacking a bit for speed to keep with them. There is a little kicker of a hill at mile 4 before you start on your way back through the park which again is flat or descending until you see the track. I’d managed to gain a couple of places back but was starting to get a bit concerned when I looked behind and saw a lad from Salford starting to make some distance on me. Not to be deterred I held on and pushed for the last lap around the track for a top 10 finish.

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Nick Hennessey. Photo: David Belshaw

There were some outstanding runs from the younger Clayton lads picking out a couple of exceptional results from Nick Hennessy 38:11, Ryan Bradshaw 37:22 & Josh Hall 42:30.

Great start to the road championship for 2018 and well done all whom turned out to run and cheer us on.

Editors update: Clayton took the 2nd team prize behind the winners, Blackburn Harriers

Full Results

4 February – Kong Mini Mountain Marathon Series Rd 1

Sparkling condtions over to the Carneddau at the Kong Mini Mtn Marathon. Photo: Alan Dorrington

Alan Dorrington headed over to North Wales for the 1st round of this 4 hr score event series, held out of Bethesda on sunny day with low temperatures and with significant snowfall higher up to spice things up..

“With 4 hours to find as many controls of varying point value and heavy penalties if late back to the finish, this type of event requires a systematic plan that can be varied according to the conditions underfoot, and according to any mistakes that may or may not be made in finding well hidden controls over a wide area. My initial plan to pick off higher scoring controls with some ridge running over Carnedd Gwenllian was abandoned due to tough running in wind-slabbed snow, so I opted to target controls at lower elevations for the next 2 1/2 hours. A bit of a wobble with some poor map interpretation meant a panic to get back over some fairly big climbs and back to the finish in time to avoid penalties, as well as losing out on some controls on the homeward sweep. All in all, the Kong events are a great way to see some areas that you wouldn’t normally visit, as well as sharpen up on navigation for some of the longer, harder fell races.”

10 February – Windy Hill fell race 9 miles and 1280ft

Jon Cleaver enjoying a windy Windy Hill. Photo: Cannonball Events

A new-ish fixture on the fell calendar, this 9 mile B category race visits the hills around Hollingworth Lake. No that the runners would have seen much of the great scenery around there this year…

Report from Jon Cleaver:

Well this race certainly lived up to its name! On a very wet & cold day I layered up well with 2 hats, 2 pairs of gloves and 4 tops to ensure I kept warm and braved the moors around Littleborough & Blackstone Edge.

Starting out at the Rugby Club near Hollingsworth Lake you climb up over the M62 and onto the moors about 3 miles in there is a climb which goes on for a mile and climbs around 900ft. Once you got to the top you got hit with a wall of wind and rain. The path followed the old Roman road for quite a bit which was treacherous due to ice. This lost me a bit of ground on the top 10 due to lack of grip in my mudclaws. On the way in you have about 2 miles of really good trail and finally some good old fashioned 2 foot deep mud making it quite a quick run in!

Even though the elements were against us I really enjoyed it and could have been caught with the occasional smile on my face (hard to believe I know!). Overall I came 11th in 01:08:53 (8.8miles 1565ft).

Full Results

11 February – Barbondale fell race

Briony Holt digs in at Barbondale.

Hail hill and hurt – Andrew Holt reports:

2nd of five races of Kendal Winter League for myself and Briony and one we’ve been wanting to do for a couple of years as it’s well known as the steepest of the series. The location is nestled in the hills behind whernside linking the dales to the howgills, not that we could see much due to the snow and cloud

After a struggle parking we arrived with time to shred our calf’s walking the route – for Briony 300m of ascent then a 200m run to the top and for myself the same 300m ascent in 800m followed another 800m runnable but uphill at the top. Then straight down for the both of us

The ground was slippy, wet, sprinkled with ice at the top but nothing of value on the way up or down. The weather cleared at the top for a while and I decided to wear a top and gloves as it was completely different to the conditions in the valley below. And the views,when the weather cleared were more than worth the effort.

And we’re off – 13 minutes eyeball popping power walking followed by 5 minutes running to the trig. I did my usual grind it out start and pulled myself into 40th or so at the top (it was nice to be on the flat near the top before the front runners passed us on the way down) and gained another 4-5 places overtaking just before the hill steepens and thankfully staying upright into the finish

The awesome Wendy Dodds and Katy Thompson took a 1/2 in their respective categories with Briony a brilliant 2nd overall and I squeezed in a top ten finish for my age. A brilliant series that’s well worth a look

17 February – Mid Lancs XC League Round 5

Team warm up for the U11 Girls. Photo: David Belshaw

Charlie Barnes and Fraser Anforth. Photo: David Belshaw

Helana White giving it 110% for a fine 3rd place. Photo: David Belshaw

Millie Stubbs. Photo: David Belshaw

A new venue up the M6 for the penultimate round of the Mid Lancs XC series saw the Clayton tent pitched in the middle of Ryelands Park, Lancaster.

The U11 Girls team of Amelia Halstead, Ellisia Smedley and Joni Higgins were straight into warm up and off round the grassy course which had a few twists and turns rather than lots of straights. Amelia continued her good form and took 7th, with Ellisia and Joni in 57th and 61st. In the U11 Boys, Charlie Barnes was 45th and Joshua McKay 62nd.

Helana White scored her best performance of the Mid Lancs series so far, with a really gutsy run to 3rd place in the U13 Girls, with Ella Dorrington in 8th and the ever-improving Imogen Ferguson in 40th. The girls also took 3rd in the team competition, setting them up nicely for a possible series team placing.

William Nicholls also had a great run for 16th in the U13 Boys, with Robbie Smedley, Finley Stubbs and Matthew Jackson supporting.

Millie Stubbs was the sole U15 Girl in 12th, whilst Jackson McKay also came in 12th in the Boys race, closely followed by Harrison Codd in 13th and Lennon Jackson in 23rd.

Briony Holt took 3rd in the U17 Girls race, despite suffering the after effects of a tough England Mountain Running Team training camp earlier in the week.

Clayton Ladies looking chirpy before the race. Photo: David Belshaw

Deborah Greenwood looking slightly less chirpy… Photo: David Belshaw

Tom Brewster. Photo: David Belshaw

Donna Airey led the Ladies home in 25th, as well as the Ladies Over 35 team to a fine 2nd place backed up by Michelle Abbott and Cassie Smedley.

Another consistent improver, U20 Calum Holmes was the first Clayton man back to the finish in 18th, leading the Men’s team of Tom Brewster, Thomas Walker, Andrew Holt, Mark Aspinal and Chris Funnel to 2nd in the team competition. With the addition of John Wilcock, the Vet men took 3rd Over 40 and 2nd Over 50 team also.

Full Results

25 February – Hoppits’ Hill fell races

Ella Dorrington descending at Hoppits. Photo: Alan Dorrington

Organised by fell running royalty in the form of Nicky Spinks, this low key local race around the hills near Dewsbury incorporates relaxed Junior races and is a lovely warm up for Juniors looking ahead to the fell season starting in the Spring months. Not that it was that warm with the Best from the East on the way, though the snow was yet to arrive.

Ella Dorrington was the sole Clayton runner there amongst the Juniors but made up for that by coming 2nd overall in the U15 race, as well as 1st girl in the combined U15 and U17 race. Chocolate prizes presented by Nicky capped off a lovely day out.

Category Archive Roundup

Fell Training News – Mark Nutter

Team Managers’ Reports

Road Report – Richard Stevenson

Cross Country Report – Donna Airey

Junior Report – Alan Dorrington

Race Reports

Inter Counties Cross Country

Jason Pier’s March

Results Roundup

2nd March – Cuerden Valley (Mid Lancs Cross Country League) – Results

2nd March – Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round – Results

2nd March – Podium 5k – A Race Results – B Race Results

3rd March – Ron Hill Accrington 10k – Results

10th March – Trafford 10K – Results

10th March – Irwell Valley 20 Miles – Results

10th March – Roddlesworth Roller – Results

17th March – Thirsk 10 Mile Road Race – Results

17th March – Trimpell 20, Lancaster – Results

24th March – Birkenhead (Northern Athletics U15 & U17 5k Road Championships) – Results

24th March – Birkenhead (Northern Athletics Women’s 6 Stage Road Relay Championships) – Results

24th March – Birkenhead (Northern Athletics Men’s 12 Stage Road Relay Championships) – Results

24th March – Garstang Gallop 10k – Results

27th March – Brenda and Colin Robinson’s 5k Cowm Race – Results

Upcoming Races

Parkrun Roundup

Junior Parkrun Roundup

Introducing our New Road/Trail Captain – Richard Stevenson

Ladies’ Cross Country Report

Junior Roundup February 2019

Kong Mountain Marathon – 3 February 2019

Winter Warmer 10K – 3rd February 2019

Mr Sparkle’s Dark Un

Bleasdale Circle Fell Race

Oulton Park 10K

Ilkley Fell Race

David’s words of Wisdom…

Results Roundup

3rd February – Capel Curig (Kong Mini Mountain Marathon Series) – Results

3rd February – Winter Warmer – Results

9th February – Leigh Sports Village (Mid Lancs XC League) – Results

9th February – Windy Hill Fell Race – Results

10th February Barbondale (Kendal Winter League) – Results

10th February – Valentines 10K (Lancaster) – Results

15th February – Mr Sparkle’s Dark Un – Results

16th February – Bleasdale Circle Fell Race – Results

17th February – Great North West Half Marathon (Blackpool) – Results

17th February – Longsleddale (Kendal Winter League) – Results

23rd February – Harewood House (National Cross Country Championships) – Results

24th February – Oulton Park 10K – Results

24th February – Ilkley Moor Fell Race – Results

24th February – Sedbergh School (Kendal Winter League) – Results

Parkrun Roundup

Junior Parkrun Roundup

The Long Road Back: From Injury to an England Vest

Lancashire Cross Country Championship 2019

Ladies’ Cross Country Report

Junior Report

1st January – New Year’s Day Awakener, Whitworth – Results

5th January – Lancashire Cross Country Championship – Results

6th January – Scout Scar Fell Race (Kendal Winter League) – Results

13th January – East Lancs Hospice 10K – Results

12th January – Towneley Park – Mid Lancs Cross Country – Results

13th January – Giggleswick School (Kendal Winter League) – Results

19th January – Inskip Half Marathon – Results

20th January – Whitestone (Kendal Winter League) – Results

26th January – Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships, Pontefract – Results

27th January – Birkrigg Common (Kendal Winter League) – Results

Parkrun Roundup

Junior Parkrun Roundup

Happy New Year Team Clayton!

‘Fields, Frost & Festivities’

And finally we get mud! Both December XC fixtures had lots of it.

Ribble Valley 10K – 30th December 2018

Marion Wilkinson

1st December – Todmorden XC (Red Rose Cross Country League) – Results

1st December – Podium 5K – ‘A’ Race Results – ‘B’ Race Results

2nd December – Myerscough 10 – Results

8th December – Hyndburn (Mid Lancs Cross Country League) – Results

15th December – Hurst Green Turkey Trot – Results

‘A month of fast laps, mixing with the elites and the return of proper mud!’
(Senior Men’s Cross-Country Report)