Swaledale Runners

Our annual 'Christmas Bash' is on Friday December 6th at 7pm at Richmond Rugby Club. If you want to go you can sign up on a club night or on the members' Facebook page. If you won any trophies last year, can you please return them to Stuart Clarkosn ASAP.

It's been a busy few weeks for Swaledale Runners with some brilliant results and lots of varied races.

On 13/10 was the clubs annual Richmond Castle 10k race which they organise. Despite the rain the day was great success with a capacity entry of 500 filled and 432 finishers.
We were honoured to have newly crowned women's record holder of the John O' Groats to Lands End challenge - Sharon Gayter starting the race. A massive thank you to all the marshals & volunteers who helped with the race, it couldn't be done with out you. Special mentions to Claire Hewitt, Helen Lucas- Gardner, John Elliot, Geoff Kensett, Simon Hewitt and Robbie Kelly for all their hard work.
The race was won by Andrew Wiles from New Marske Harriers in an impressive time of 33.55. Swaledale Runners were led home by Rebecca Simpson - 8th female, 2nd F40 - 45.16, Jim Coldwell - 51.20, Peter Devlin - 53.24, Helen Nicholson - 56.45, Mel May - 1.00.53, Carrie Morrell - 1.06.33, Catriona Riley - 1.09.08.

13/10 - Kielder Marathon - Martin Randall - 101st - 3.45.14, Lucy Tulloch - 424th - 4.42.33, Grace Gilpin - 530th - 5.04.18, Niall Cheynne - 638th - 5.34.02

12/10 - Ripon 35 Mile Ultra. A fantastic course with perfect weather conditions and lots and lots of mud. A great day was had with Robbie Kelly winning his age group, Simon Hewitt running his first ultra marathon, along with Tony Taylor they did the course in under 7 hours. Stuart Clarkson was happy with 7.23, followed by Vicki Howe.

12/10 - Langdale Horseshoe - Tim Grimwood had a great run to finish in 2.37.20 - 48th out of 377 finishers.

On 6/10 was the Grewelthorpe Trail Race well done to Emily Abbey who was 3rd lady and 29th out of 143, overall in a time of 68.48. Liz Sowter was 91st in 84.58.

Also on 6/10 was the Dave Parry Winter Series - Saltergate Gallows fell race, Tony Taylor was first home for the club 23rd / 81 - 113.55, followed by Mike Keavney - 34th - 123.33, Caroline Graham - 51st - 138.15

On 30/09 - Martha McBarron - competed in the Durham Coast & County Half Marathon - which with a route change ending up being 15 miles but she had a great run in horrible conditions.

Also on 30/09 - Emily was once again 3rd Lady at the Winterhill 10k Mast Blast - 1.07, a very tough, muddy race which she enjoyed.

On 29/09 - Annelie Whitfield ran the Redcar Half Marathon in wet and windy conditions in a great time of 1.50.30 - 3rd in age group.

Well done to Martin Randall who on 15/09 was 12th in a time of 1.41.11 at the Lambton Trial Half Marathon.
Huge congratulations to Tony Taylor and Caroline Graham who completed the Hardmoors 60 in times of 12.59.23 & 15.00.53 respectively.
Three Swaledale ladies were in the The Vale of York half marathon on 15/09, Liz Sowter - 1.56.04, Annelie Whitfield - 1.58.50 & Julia Spittle - 2.05.55 - 2nd in her age group.

24/08 - West Witton Fell Race - Brilliant 2nd place for Tony Taylor 40.09, Martin Randall - 42.28
26/08 - Reeth Show Fell Race - Great result for Tim Grimwood - 4th - 18.20, Tony Taylor - 20th - 21.34, Jim Coldwell - 53rd - 27.04
27/08 - Roseberry Topping Fell Race- Tim & Tony once again. Tim was an impressive 3rd in 13.16 with Tony 27th - 16.14
Ian Oldham completed the UTMB/TDS (Chamoix, France) the tough 146.9km, 9113m of elevation mountain ultra in 37.03.32. Huge congratulations.
01/09 - Tholthorpe 10k - A Fletcher - 43.34 - 69th - 4th MV60
01/09 - Northumberland Half - Martin Randall was an impressive 3rd overall - 1.43.09. In the Full Marathon - Robbie Kelly was 11th in 4.01.58
Great North Run - 08/09 - Well done to Iain Kerr first home for the club in 1.39.52, followed by Simon Hewitt - 10.51.16, Lucy Tulloch - 1.59.14, Sarah Hards - 02.03.15, Jean Bradley - 2.04.05, Roger Brisley - 02.09.39, Peter Parrott - 02.15.07, Stuart Clarkson - 02.20.52, Sheila Cantrell - 02.22.27, Carrie Morrell - 02.27.40, Sharon Knight - 03.01.20

The fell runners keep on going up and down those hill:
14/07 - Viking Chase - Tony Taylor - 79.00 - 25th, Caroline Graham - 89.38 - 1st F40
20/07 - Ingleborough Fell Race - Tony Taylor - 1.08.03 - 81st
24/07 - Inclined to Madness - Tim Grimwood - 53.27 - 11th, Tony Taylor - 61.21 - 47th

Massive well done to Neil Bowmer for completing the Lakeland 100 in horrendous conditions in a time of 37.48.17 - 193rd out of 265

As usual there was a good turnout at the James Herriott Country Trail race on 28/07:
Zoe Mason was first home for the club in 75.02, followed by Daniel Kilvington-Mason - 77.48, Emily Abbey - 81.19, Sarah Hards - 89.07, Roger Brisley - 102.22

Martin Randall continues to have a good year and was 29th at the Southshields 10m on 04/08 in 1.15.41

Another good turnout at the Darlington 10k on 11/08:
First for the club was Andrew Fletcher in a great time of 41.56 - 2nd MV60, Iain Kerr - 42.17, Zoe Mason - 42.52, Niall Cheyne - 49.20, Anneille Whitfield - 51.54, Roger Brisley, Mel May - 58.42 - PB, Carrie Morrell - 1.06.22, Catriona Riley - 1.06.36 - PB

There were a few races on the 18/08:
Marin Randall was 72nd at the Tyneside Jelly 10m race - 1.10.45
Julia Spittle ran the Escrick 10k in a time of 57.01
There was a really great turnout at the local Scorton 10k with the first 5 Swaledalers very close to each other and some good battles behind them:
Neil Bowmer - 42.40 - 10th, Mark Sowerby - 43.23 - 13th, Iain Kerr - 43.32 - 15th, Andrew Fletcher - 43.58 - 16th, Zoe Mason - 44.07 - 18th 2nd Lady, Daniel Kilvington - Mason - 48.33, Annielle Whitfield- 50.44, Helen Nicholson - 52.14, Amy Kerr - 54.55, Liz Sowter - 55.12, Lucy Tulloch - 55.29, Grace Gilpin - 56.11, Helen Lucas Gardner - 62.45

On 30th June was the Cross Fell fell race. Tim Grimwood was first for the club in a great 5th place - 1.52.17, followed by Ian Oldham - 2.19.09, Neil Bowmer - 2.24.29, Tracy Hunter - 2.29.41 - 3rd in her age catergary, Simon Hewitt - 2.37.21, Caroline Graham - 2.48.57
7th July - Scarfell Pike Marathon - A brilliant run from Sarah Hackett - 5.13 - 2nd Female- 1st FV40- 1st female to the top. Tony Taylor also had a great run - 5.57 - 52nd.

Also on 7th July was the tough Burn Valley Half Marathon. Hot conditions, first time half marathon runners, lots of hills. First home for the club was Martin Mcardle - 1.45.24, Julia Spittle - 2.14.57 - 3rd FV60, Grace Gilpin - 2.15.01, Liz Sowter - 2.23.00, Mel May - 2.24.14 (First Half Marathon), Catrina Riley - 2.51.47 (First Half Marathon).

It has taken me a long time to write this account because I just had too much to say! This is a very annotated version of my Hadrian Hvndred. (not a spelling mistake!)

Saturday 26^th May St. Elizabeth’s School, Hexham, registration of the long distance walkers association flagship event. 478 people started. 293 people finished with 185 people (38%) retiring at some point on the course. The first person finished in 29 hours and 9 minutes. The last in 46 hours and 35 minutes. Walkers start at 10 am, but runners can choose to start at various later times, up to 2pm. This allows for less congestion at the early checkpoints. There are 13 checkpoints in the 100 miles. Some provide fully cooked meals, some snacks and drinks and some just shelter. All have kind welcoming marshals. Self navigation is essential. Everyone must carry a very detailed route description and a map of the area, either paper or electronically. There is a mandatory kit list and kit checks at various points on the route. If you don’t have the required kit you are disqualified. No support is allowed from anyone other than the marshals at the checkpoints. A drop bag is taken to the "breakfast" stop, roughly halfway, but other than that you must carry what you need.

Shortly after the leaving the first checkpoint it started to spit with rain. By the time I had climbed up onto Hadrians Wall it was raining and a very strong westerly wind was blowing straight into my face. The cagoule came out and didn’t come off until 29 hours later! After a battering along Hadrians wall the route turned south to Haltwhistle and checkpoint 3. This was really busy, a lot of the walkers having already made it to this point, but due to a big hall and brilliant organization you could get food and drink without queuing and get going quickly. The next section was the flattest part of the route as we followed the South Tynedale Railway – a disused one – all the way to Alston. However, it was mentally quite hard as it had a gentle incline all the way and it just seemed to go on forever. I passed a lot of very miserable people along here, only getting grunts to my cheerful “Hi!" as I went past. It’s only a bit of rain, I thought, but they obviously had crystal balls! I ran into Garrigill as it was getting dusk and for the last few minutes it had actually stopped raining. A dry night, I thought! After all, I had seen the forecast and that is always right!!

This section had always been highlighted as a tough one as the next checkpoint (Greg's Hut) had no food or drink facilities, so they gave us snack packs to take with us. From what I could see not much was actually being taken from these but the contents were not what I would have taken to sustain me! It didn’t matter, I had my own. Prior to the event I thought there was an awful lot of scare mongering going on about this section. It was only 13 miles from here to Dufton, but reading some of the comments on Facebook you would have thought we were climbing Everest with no oxygen in winter! I did stop reading them in the end! I changed to dry, thicker gloves, put on my headtorch, but didn’t put my waterproof trousers on as it had stopped raining and I was still quite hot!

I left the checkpoint to find it was raining again. I should have gone back in to put my trousers on but it was quite busy inside and I didn’t want to waste time. I’d put them on at Greg’s hut!!! It was now a long climb all the way. It was raining hard and as I climbed the cloud came down and the wind increased. My torch lit the way well but at one point I looked to my right to find a steep drop! Greg’s hut was lit by blue lights on the mountain rescue Land-Rover, which had 2 call outs that night! I was now cold. My gloves had made my hands colder than when I was wearing my thinner ones. The shelter was full and the marshal was shouting that no one was going on unless they went in a group. I finally put my waterproof trousers and my thicker waterproof gloves. However, by now my hands were numb and I couldn’t get anything out of my pockets to eat. I left with a group of eight people. I haven’t been up Cross Fell or High Dunn Fell before and when I saw pictures of them in the daylight  I couldn’t believe how they appeared. That night in now thick fog, a wind that kept blowing us off our feet and driving rain it was impossible to find the path (if there was one) and we spent most of the time either clambering over rocks or knee deep in bogs. The self-clip at the top was well lit and then it was downhill through more bogs until we found a stone pavement, which led us towards Great Dunn Fell. And it was at this point, at about 2am, when I needed to really concentrate to keep my footing, that my body decided it was time to sleep. It was probably a combination of cold, lack of sugar and tiredness but it did make it very hard. I hallucinated about tall grasses enveloping me all the way down to the safety check where I grabbed a handful of sweets and I seemed to bring me round.

It's been a busy few weeks for the Swaledale Runnners. There has been some astonishing achievements, PB's, first time fell runners, a massive variety of races/ events.
On 18th May Liz Sowter went back to road marathon running and competed in the Bentham Marathon and was extremely pleased with 4.54.06, 39th overall and first FV55.
Ros Blackmore had a great Ingleborough Marathon 11th out of 39 in 5.48.35.
Also on 18th, Tim Grimwwod competed in The Old County Tops Fell Race in the Lakes - 37 miles, team event. He ran with Tom Radcliffe. They completed the event in just over 11 hours and were 104th team.
On 19th May Jean Bradley and Sheila Cantrell both achieved PB's at the Manchester 10k with 54.25 & 59.20 respectively.
Also on 19th was the Keswick 10k. Sam Metcalfe & Catriona Riley went along for their first of two races in three days and ran the race in 1.19.21 & 1.19.37 respectively.
They then competed in their first fell race on 21st, the Roseberry Romp. Mel Scott was there in her first fell race. Tim Grimwood continued his brilliant form by winning the race. Fell running regulars Mike Keavney & Jim Coldwell also ran. Jim coming back from injury.
The ultra running giant that is Ian Oldham competed and finished the famous (infamous!!) Dragons Back Race, five days, 200 miles, 8 1/2 miles of ascent. An amazing achievement.
On 25th, Neil Bowmer & Ros Blackmore competed in the Isle of Jura Fell Race in very wild conditions. Their times were 6.18.18, 199th & 7.06.59, 237th respectively.