British Fell relays 2011 in Kettlewell
Results are now up
http://www.sportident.co.uk/results/2011/BritishFellRelays/
Many thanks to Phil Gillard for his great organisation for this event which ran smoothly from registration to team choice all the way to logistics on the day. Thanks also have to go to Rachel for driving, for Steve Riley for driving and for the ever present support from Joe Beswick as well as Helen and Bill.
The weather could not have been any better for any time of year. A cold and misty morning welcomed the bright eyed runners embarking to the Olympic village at Kettlewell for what is surely the principal event in the fell running calendar, the British fell relays.
Kettlwell is located in the Yorkshire Dales and to quote Professor Moorman “the charm of Kettlewell is an abiding charm, and to those of us whose life is spent amid the hurley-burley of city life, the village seems the peculiar abode of peace and quiet beauty; its limestone terraces, with their fringes of hazel and rowan coppices give to the district a characteristic beauty. But the special glory of Kettlewell is not that of colour, but of line. Situated at the junction of the main valley of the Wharfe valley, which descend from the Coverhead Pass, Kettlewell is the converging point of many contour lines, and to the eye which delights in the flow and ripple of sky line there is a beauty in Kettlewell which is all its own.”
Unfortunately the peace and quiet was to be broken for one day as converging from all parts of the UK, were pairs of fell running shoes and some very athletic looking people who wanted to run as fast as possible to as high as possible and back again, all for some tea, cake and respect.
Once parked up the sun decided to be quite friendly for autumn and offer its warmth and a blue sky free of cloud with surprisingly little wind made running conditions perfect. However, you could still lose a leg or two in the higher ground as happened quite frequently to all runners in the boggier sections of the run.
Helsby had two teams from the 182 finishing on the day and great performances were had by both. Both teams managed to have their 4th leg runners head off before the ‘mass start’. This meant we had been running well.
The teams were as follows
Leg1 – Paul
Leg 2 – Chris, Adair
Leg 3 – Phil, Steve
Leg 4 – Jim
Leg 1 – Janet
Leg 2 – Jane, Vanessa
Leg 3 – Jackie, Rachel
Leg 4 – Jayne
Information on individual legs can be found on the results but in summary:
Helsby men’s team finished 85th and the ladies 167th which is an excellent effort all round, especially considering the fantastic standard of clubs that enter this event. Our best Helsby results for a number of years.
Plenty of photos to follow from a number of websites and photos Helsby runners took themselves on the day. Hopefully they will be sorted later this week and updated on the Blog, so keep heading back!
Some photos to peruse in the short term
and photos from Adair, Jayne and Bill here
Regards
Adair
Helsby running club 