A few of our juniors are taking part in this competition.  The qualifying was a couple of weeks ago and those who did qualify went forward to the semis today at Giggleswick. Jacob Reeday representing Cracoe school won the year 5 boys race.   Lucille Pickles finished 3rd and Chloe Boothman 6th in the year 4 girls.(Thornton in Craven).   All three now go forward to the whole of Yorkshire finals at Whitby in March. Jayden Whitelock finished 12th in the year 6 boy's race, a good run in a hard fought race.

32 Paul Elcock 20:57

This race was part of the Great Run series in Glasgow with Scotland's premier mass run. Conditions at the start were cold ( 6 deg C) and foggy.  The fog lifted for the start at 11.35 and with the sun shining, conditions were perfect, reaching 14 deg. The special Scottish atmosphere can not be mirrored anywhere else, with Pipers at every mile marker.   It was televised on BBC 2.  Paul Elcock was there soaking up the unique atmosphere and he came home in 949th position.

949 Paul Elcock 1:34:39

Sometimes in relays  you have to say that it was just not our year and that applied to this race.  Nick Treitl & Ian Beresford ran the first leg and were up in contention behind the leading teams and on the ascent, Ian was leading. As the terrain levelled out, Nick took up the running.  It was a bright sunny day and the sun was getting in your eyes and there was a tendency therefore to put your head down and press on.  Nick was doing this and was following the team in front.  Sadly, that team took a wrong turning and Nick followed them.  Ian was a little way back and could see what was happening and he shouted out to Nick to turn back.  Unfortunately, Nick could not hear him. By the time this first pair sorted themselves out, they were down to 27th position at the handover, whereas Wharfedale, who they had been chasing, handed over in 5th.  

From that point, we knew that we had a battle on our hands, but our second pair of Luke Maude and Julian Hood did a sterling job and pulled back 14 places and handed over in 13th position at the Kirkstone Inn.  Andy Berry and Chris Smale were the next leg runners and ascending Red Screes, they were gaining on the Dark Peak Vets.  However, they could not keep that pace up and over the leg, they slipped back and lost 6 of those hard won places gained by Luke and Julian.

The last leg runners were Tom Corrigan and Jimmy Craig.  Both had been suffering from stomach upsets and could easily have pulled out, but to their credit, they turned out on the day, so as not to let the side down.  They would have normally been expected  to pull back a few places, but they were too drained to do that, although they did keep hold of their hand over position and the team finished in 20th place, which is our worse performance in this race since the club was founded.  As we said, it was just not our year.

At the front of the field, a great battle took place between Dark Peak Borrowdale, Keswick and Calder Valley.  Borrowdale have won this race for the past nineteen years, but this year, they were knocked off their perch by Dark Peak who came home a comfortable five minutes in front of them and may have set a new course record in the process.  The Dark Peak vets came home in 10th place overall, but were first vets team and the Dark Peak ladies finished in 32nd place and were the first ladies team.  Quite a performance on the day from that formidable club.

Full leg times and splits are in the results section.