Round Rotherham 50 2019 – updated 24 Oct with blog links

The race

And so we come to looking at the final Runfurther 2019 event – the Round Rotherham 50.  A gruelling 50 miles round Rotherham in South Yorkshire, with complex routefinding, plenty of mud this year, and not many hills.  Yet again it made for a brilliant climax to the Runfurther championship.  Only Rory Harris could afford to take it easy, and needless to say he didn’t.

So, to the race results.  The outstanding performance of the day was Ben Hague’s winning time of 5:57:18.  This is the first time anyone’s ever run the race in under 6 hours, and Ben broke his own record time from last year.  Rory finished second, but was half an hour behind Ben, in a time of 6:28:05.  Third was Scott Williams in 6:57:32 – both Ben and Scott are local runners, members of Rotherham Harriers.  Fourth and fifth were Ken Sutor and Kevin Hoult, both previous men’s winners of the race.  And sixth was Sabrina Verjee in 7:47:41.  This has to be the second most impressive run of the day, as it was her first time running in the event, and this really wasn’t her usual running territory – she’s a brilliant mountain runner but not really known for navigating round industrial estates.  Clearly she can do that too, although she did set off with Kevin Hoult, so she may have had some assistance with the navigation for some of the way.  Anyway, she was less than 10 minutes outside the women’s record for the event (Kate Bailey, 7:38:02 in 2010).  Second woman was Elly Woodhead (9:00:03) and third Karen Nash (9:04:05), both well over an hour behind Sabrina.  Full results are up on the Sportident results site.

Karen has written up her blog, and you can find that on her site here, or read it below.  Nick Ham finished in a respectable time, which was good to see after his recent health problems.  As usual he took photos along the way, and I’ve used some here, although not any of his flytipping ones.  You can find the rest of them on Nick’s Flickr site.  There is another blog write-up here, and from comparing his finishing time with the results, I think it’s probably by Charles Colbourn, although it could be Colin Jordan or Richard Gordon.  I’ve no idea how he got a photo of David Byrne while racing though.

Runfurther Championship results

And so I can now reveal the winners of the Runfurther 2019 competition.  Subject to appeal over the Rotherham results of course.  This year I’m going to start with the women.

Women’s winners

1st:  Sabrina Verjee, 3948 points

2nd:  Hayley Evans (Buckley Runners), 3857 points

3rd:  Karen Nash (Team Krypton), 3853 points

I don’t think there’ll be much arguing that the best runner won this year.  Sabrina was actually first woman in four Runfurther races this year, although only three of these were counters, as none of them was a Short race.  Hayley beat her in the Lakeland Five Passes race, but this was just after Sabrina’s Ramsay Round and Dragon’s Back runs, which must have taken a lot out of her.  Sabrina beat Hayley in the Lakes 42, and has beaten Karen in all five of the Runfurther races they both finished.  Hayley beat Karen in both Lakes races, the only two events they both ran.

FV50

1st:  Karen Nash (Team Krypton), 3853 points

2nd:  Jenny Wyles (Chorley Athletic and Tri), 3148 points

As usual, Karen’s first FV50 by a country mile.  Well done to Jenny though, as that’s a very good points score.  She got almost as many points as Martin Terry, the MV50 winner.

FV60

1st:  Janet Hill (Springfield Striders), 2988 points

Well done Janet!  Again, that’s an impressive points score.  I suspect Janet won’t have any real competition until Karen turns 60, but who knows who will run next year?

Men’s winners

1st:  Rory Harris, 3987 points

2nd:  David Chetta (Mercia Fell Runners), 3835 points

3rd:  Kevin Hoult (Calder Valley Fell Runners), 3829 points

Rory was 3rd in 2017 and 2nd last year.  He’s been running better and better, and this year he’s won the title with room to spare.  Congratulations to Rory.  David was 4th in 2017, and 3rd last year, so presumably he’s aiming to win in 2020!  Again he’s been improving year by year.  Kevin was close behind him, but would have needed a much faster run at Rotherham to overtake him.

MV50

1st:  Martin Terry (Clayton-le-Moors Harriers), 3169 points

2nd:  Kevin Smith, 2888 points

3rd:  Steve Jones (Dark Peak Fell Runners), 2700 points

Well Martin always wins this category.  Kevin comes 2nd again, as he did last year.

MV60

1st: Alwyn Nixon, 2770 points

2nd:  Stephen Hall (Skipton AC), 2249 points

For the second year running, Alwyn wins, and Stephen is second.

MV70

Dick Scroop (Mercia Fell Runners), 1762 points

After two years as runner up to Bob Nash, Dick wins this year, as Bob hasn’t run a Long race this year.

Grand Slams

Nobody managed a Grand Slam of all 12 races this year.  Let’s hope that changes for 2020!

Most points

Women:  Karen Nash (Team Krypton), 7353 points

Men:  David Chetta (Mercia Fell Runners), 6463 points

Team Championship

1st:  Team Krypton (Karen Nash, Nick Ham and Elise Milnes), 7952 points

2nd:  Astley & Tyldesley Road Runners (Tim Campbell, Simon Ford and David Sloan), 7861 points

3rd:  Valley Striders AC (Anthony Fryer, Sarah Smith and Tim Straughan), 7421 points

Many congratulations to all this year’s winners!  And to the rest of you: keep training and beat them next year!  The full completed 2019 leaderboard has been finalised, and you can find that here.

The 2019 AGM and prizegiving location, date and time will be announced shortly, so keep checking this website.  The same goes for the 2020 races.

Karen’s race report

Round Rotherham- the last race of the series

It’s a funny race. I both love and hate it. Yet this was to be my 9th outing.
Hate it? Well yes. It is my annual punishment sufferfest as the course is flat and fast making it totally unsuitable for an ageing plodder who has rarely done sufficient training. It always hurts. My foot also hates the hard surfaces of many of the tracks and especially the efforts made by some fool who tipped aggregate along a nice muddy path.

Have never seen this in Wentworth before

I also hate the fly tipping and the lack of pride in community that this shows is depressing.

Despite the notice this seems the usual sight here

I do though love the people, quite like pitching myself against my previous times and the unpredictable October weather (although usually it is fine) and I love meeting up with old friends.

Briefing before 7am start

I don’t even mind the agricultural fields and the industrial scenery- I just let my mind wander on the history and feel sorry for the communities like Orgreave for what they suffered in the miners strikes. It’s not all horrid fly tipping some of the villages are pretty and the Roche Abbey area is lovely.

Roche Abbey

I completed number 9 and so now I guess I will return next year to get my special award for 10. Not that this is very impressive as Henry Morris has just achieved 30 and on one year did it twice with back to back runs.

Sharon the RO supervising Steve handing out dibbers

The race usually heralds the end of the Runfurther season and our last committee meeting before the AGM and Prize-giving. That’s my excuse for my head not always being in the right place! This year I had more excuses… my summer of six weeks rock climbing and one big event which involved lots of power walking up mountains and careful running down the other side is not ideal preparation for 50 flat miles.

No 243- she made it just

On top of this I had successfully arranged for Sabrina to target winning the Runfurther Women’s champs. Fearing I might do RR without her and so take important points she had entered too, even though it was not the sort of race she would enjoy. Then I worried about her getting lost and so arranged for Kevin to ‘escort’ her the best he could.  I really didn’t want to win by default but this also meant that now I had no reason to run hard. We started together but even before Elsecar I knew I couldn’t maintain that pace. Elly, a very young local girl, also shot off. Ah well, I would concentrate on being third.

At the start- I was soon feeling over dressed

The weather was superb. Dry, mild and even sunny later. The fields were nothing like as wet or muddy as I had feared. One local guy at Woodsetts was convinced I was taking the P*** when I said I thought it wasn’t muddy. I had to explain that if you run on the West Pennine Moors mud means people swallowing bogs not a bit of mud on your shoes and some splashes on your legs. Don’t think he will be visiting us soon!

Ken smiling and flying

Despite the hard (for me) pace I was enjoying myself. I had a chat with David B who I do not see often. I ran with Martin from NY Moors until I couldn’t keep up but then overtook him in the latter stages.

V50 Martin

I only saw Chris briefly as he stopped for a toilet break and then got lost- not often I beat him. It was good to see Nigel who I rarely see at races now. Then there were others lurking not far behind but getting closer over the past year- Kevin S and Sarah C.

Rory and Ken- two lovely super fast men

I was ‘around’ the same three men for much of the race with each of us proving stronger at different points and each of us stopping for different spells at CPs. I think I stopped longest but I was struggling to eat on the move and was trying hard to make sure I got some calories in without only relying on Mountain Fuel jellies and Raw Energy powder.

Langfold lake and smiling

Being with then certainly stopped my time from drifting even more badly and I am very grateful for Kevin B who had started at 6am but ran the last miles for me. As he kept trying to run it shamed me into joining in.  It was a happy partnership with me knowing the way, the odd chat and a bit of mutual motivation. The one place I didn’t stop was the new CP which had moved from Old Denaby to Hooton Roberts. It was very slightly off the path and at that stage I still had hopes of scraping in under 9 hours.

With Elly

I am very very glad I didn’t know that Elly was in fact only 30 seconds ahead here. Her mum texted her that message and she wished she hadn’t. She too was dog tired and now knew she had to keep running. I don’t think I could have done much about if even if I had known but it would have been interesting to see I suppose. We made good time along the riverside and canal but I did walk up through the slow climb in Swinton (well it’s flat almost if you haven’t run 50 miles) and then after Dearne College I had a couple of moments when I realised that the race was more than 50 miles, more than 81km and I would not be under 9 hours.
So Thanks to Kevin for his company, to Sharon and all the organisers etc as usual, to Kevin H for helping Sabrina,

Kevin
and Sabrina

to the farmer who had not ploughed the whole field but had left a strip of grass to run on and to the farmers who had crops in the fields rather than a ploughed mess.

Biggest thanks go to Bob who injured had gone for a bike ride instead of running but then made sure he was back to try to get runners to take spot prizes, to get my shower stuff from the van which was down on the beach and to help with all the flags and banners.

The ‘new’ venue for the race is great in many ways BUT… instead of doing the nasty road and cycle path in the dark when you are full of adrenaline it instead comes at the end in the heat of the late afternoon when each roundabout seems like just one too far and too many.

So 3rd woman in 9hrs 04 just 4 minutes behind Elly but a whole hour plus behind Sabrina. Hindsight is an amazing thing… If I had managed to persuade my body to try and got the 9 hours I wouldn’t have made any impact on Sabrina who was within 10 mins of the women’s record but I would have overtaken Hayley to be 2nd in the RF series. The men’s points were also dented when the local runner Ben lowered his own record to 5 hrs 57 – yes for 50 miles with some mud.

Dick was happy to get his 4th race and to take the lead in the Runfurther V70 stakes.

Round Rotherham 2018, & who are the Runfurther 2018 champions. Updated 31 Oct.

The race

155 runners and walkers completed the 50 miles round Rotherham on Saturday, in what was the last of the Runfurther 2018 races.  Congratulations to everyone who took part, and to all the Runfurther 2018 runners.

First home was local runner Ben Hague in the astonishing time of 6:00:52, taking nearly 17 minutes off the race record.  This made Runfurther points hard to come by for the rest of the male runners!  Second was Kevin Hoult in 6:33:08, and third was this year’s Runfurther champion Ken Sutor in 6:44:04.  First woman was our own Karen Nash, clearly back on form, in 8:41:15.  Second woman was Elly Woodhead in 8:52:11, and third was Sarah Milns in 9:05:01.  The full race results are up on the Sportident website.

Karen’s written a race report for her blog, and I’ve also posted it on here (just scroll down).  Nick Ham’s photos are up on Flickr here.  Henry Morris has written up his race in entertaining style, and you can find that here.

The Runfurther 2018 champions

You can find the final 2018 leaderboard here.  Subject to any changes to the RR results, and subject to anyone pointing out where I’ve made mistakes myself, I think the Runfurther 2018 winners are listed below.  Congratulations to all of them!

Men

  1. Ken Sutor, Cheshire Hash House Harriers, 3997 points.  Winner for the second time in a row, with some great results.  Ken won 3 races, and was just pipped to the line at Calderdale by Rory Harris.
  2. Rory Harris, 3930 points.  Some great running from Rory.  He just beat Ken once, and was just beaten by him twice.
  3. David Chetta, Mercia Fell Runners, 3624 points.

MV50

  1. Martin Terry, Clayton-le-Moors Harriers, 3259 points.  Yet again, Martin is first MV50.
  2. Kevin Smith, 2686 points.
  3. Nick Ham, Team Krypton, 2544 points.

MV60

  1. Alwyn Nixon, 2970 points.  Another great year for Alwyn, who would have been 2nd MV50 had he lied about his age.
  2. Stephen Hall, Skipton AC, 2562 points.
  3. John Vernon, Dark Peak FR, 1792 points.

MV70

  1. Robert Nash, Team Krypton, 1988 points.
  2. Dick Scroop, Mercia Fell Runners, 1909 points.

Women

  1. Karen Nash, Team Krypton, 3851 points.  Karen does it again.  She actually finished first woman in four of the 2018 races, but only three count towards her points total.
  2. Sarah Challans, Lincoln & District Runners, 3507 points.
  3. Jenny Wyles, Chorley Athletic & Tri, 3035 points.  A good run at Rotherham meant Jenny just pipped Debbie Cooper to 3rd place.

FV50

  1. Karen Nash, Team Krypton, 3851 points.
  2. Jenny Wyles, Chorley Athletic & Tri, 3035 points.

FV60

  1. Janet Hill, Springfield Striders, 2603 points.

Most points overall

Men:  David Chetta, Mercia Fell Runners, 6023 points.

Women:  Karen Nash, Team Krypton, 5694 points.

Teams

  1. Team Krypton, 8383 points.  Karen Nash, Nick Ham and Robert Nash.
  2. Mercia Fell Runners, 6444 points.  David Chetta, Dick Scroop and Stewart Bellamy.
  3. Horwich RMI Harriers, 6290 points.  Andy Ford, Albert Sunter and Josie Greenhalgh.

Karen Nash’s Round Rotherham race report

This would be my 8th running of this event and my 6th in the Runfurther Champs (which is pretty good considering how much time I have been out of the country). I knew It would not change my score in the Championship and as a consequence was struggling for motivation as we stood on the start line. The whole RRR organisation is superb and the race is really good value. It is also fairly flat and fast which does not exactly play to my strengths.

We started from a new venue this year, Mavers Boatclub and it was a pretty setting on the lakeside. It also meant we were straight onto trails rather than the road and tarmac cycle was from the Sports Centre, those would be at the end this year. The forecast was good but not too sunny and I was assured there would be very little mud even on the ploughed fields.

 The new venue

The lead men soon disappeared into the distance and the rest of us settled into our natural pace and positions. By Elsecar it was warm and I had to take a layer off. Heading up into the woods I chatted to Ellie, the local girl who had beaten me by a couple of minutes last year. She was running with two guys but was carrying absolutely nothing. I ran a fair way with Les Hill. He raced ahead on the flats and I caught him on the hilly ups and downs or any rough bits, until his legs objected and reminded him of his recent 6 hour race. Having the slower runners and walkers go off an hour earlier is quite nice as you can slowly pick them off. I passed John Vernon at Keppel’s Column and then Bob and Dick as we joined the canal and the delights of Tinsley. I was pleased with my progress and now had my race head on as I ran past Orgreave and noted all the new houses in the distance. CP2 was welcome as I was low on water so I also grabbed some food to keep me going. I like the next section past Treeton Lake and towards the railway viaduct and Rother Valley Park. My foot was now causing me some issues after all the firm surfaces and I did have to walk some short sections here which was frustrating as my legs felt fine. I knew from experience that some walking would help and then we would be on the field paths again through Woodall and into Harthill. This CP is almost half way and I have wasted time here before. Not today though. A quick refill of water and two jaffa cakes and I was on my way. Sadly I found the film tub of mountain fuel had lost it’s cap. Sad because I wanted the energy and worse because it left a sticky mess where the powder had spilt and got damp. I managed two of my marmite sandwiches instead. Less than 10km would see us Woodsetts which I think of as half way even though it is 47/80km. The fields in the next section were beautifully dry and compacted and still had more crops rather than the ploughed mess of some years. The turbines came and went, the light aircraft buzzed us and suddenly I seemed to be almost on my own. It was warm and I had hoped to refill my bottle at the unofficial drink station by the canal but for the first time I can remember they were not there. The relay runners were now coming past at a steady pace and mutual congratulations also help lift my pace plus the golf course section has some softer ground for my poor foot. A short steep uphill and we were racing down to the Butcher’s Arms and the CP at Woodsetts. I had decided to stick some food in a drop bag this year but no change of socks or shoes. Last year I wasted almost 15 mins faffing. Today it was a cup of tea, more marmite sandwiches, two baby bel and a restock of Mountain Fuel Sport Jelly. I was first lady but had no idea how close Ellie was or if she was gaining time on me. There was nothing for it but to keep going as hard as I could. Les set a good pace around the fields at into Langold lake park. The following woods used to be great but the path now has an uncomfortable covering of gravel chippings. I concentrated on not letting him get too far ahead and we arrived at Firbeck together. I over heard a rumour that Ellie was two minutes behind me so after a refill of water and Mountain Fuel I was off and heading for Roche Valley and the abbey ruins. Surely after 35 miles she wouldn’t catch me now. Red vest man aka fastest fat boy was running with me now and we made very good time to Maltby. He seemed keen that I should not be caught. The roads through Maltby were hard work as usual but the track past the odd little trig point and Micklebring came faster than expected. More relay runners dragged me under the M18, across fields and down to Hooton Roberts. I was now checking Henry’s strip maps frequently to check on the passing and remaining kilometres. The 2km to Old Denaby flew by as I tried hard to reel in red vest man again. From the last CP I knew it was less than 5 miles even with the new venue. I met relay folk running back to cars and others out supporting. Several were Kimberworth Stridders and I hoped Ellie was not getting too many updates on how far ahead I was. In my memory the canal and paths to Swinton and then the Sports Centre go on a bit but today they flew by. I was desperate not to lose my position after all these miles. From here it was all tarmac for about a mile. I focused on counting roundabouts to take my mind off my foot until I could see the Fire HQ and knew I was safe. I did slow to walk at that corner but managed to run into the finish. 8hrs 41.

 Feeling better after food and a hot shower

Not a PB as I have run faster in 3/8 years but a whole 45 minutes faster than last year. Ellie appeared about 15 minutes later chuffed to have beaten her last years time by about 30 minutes.

The real glory goes to the local man who set a new course record of 6hrs 52 seconds! And Ken, Kevin, David and the others who were way ahead of me as usual.

Nick finishing

Food and a hot shower soon refreshed me and several walks back to the van down on the lakeside loosened my legs. A seat in the sun watching the light slowly dip over the lake was a beautiful end to the day.

 Catching the last rays

All the flags and banners were down and safely stowed soon after dark and I settled down to wait for Bob and Dick. The race was important for them and would decide who will be V70 champion.

 Bob and Ian

The new venue worked well. RR is much more scenic than it sounds and a great place to get a 50 mile PB. (I was almost 2 hours faster than at Red Rose 50)

Round Rotherham 50 2017 – updated 23 Oct (Nick’s photos)

The Race

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Saturday saw the last of the Long Runfurther races for 2017, and the 10th race of the year.  Round Rotherham is loved by many, and dreaded by some.  At least there was warm weather this time.  Karen’s race report is on her blog here, and the results are up on SportIdent here.  Nick’s photos are here. First home was our own Ken Sutor (Cheshire Hash House Harriers) in 7:01:13, with last year’s winner Kevin Hoult (Calder Valley FR) unable to keep up: he finished 2nd in 7:20:35, 50 minutes slower than last year.  3rd was Kevin Doyle (Kimberworth Striders) in 7:32:22 – he was 2nd last year.  First woman home was Elly Woodhead (also Kimberworth Striders), 17th overall in 9:18:38.  2nd woman was Karen Nash in 9:21:00, and 3rd was Sharon Gayter (N York Moors AC) in 9:25:02.  169 finished, which I think was slightly down on last year.

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Runfurther Standings

There are 2 races to go now:  the Jedburgh Ultra and the White Rose Ultra.  Jedburgh has been full for a while, and the entry list is available online.  The White Rose Ultra is still open for entries.  So, assuming that nobody else can get themselves on the Jedburgh entry list, I’ve done a bit of analysis trying to predict who’s going to win what…

The women

I’ve started with the women’s competition because it’s a bit simpler than the men’s.  Nobody can catch Karen Nash now, and of course she’s top FV50 as well at first overall.  Sarah Smith is currently second, and the only runners who can catch her are Charlotte Smith and Debbie Cooper.  Charlotte’s chance is a theoretical one only: she would need an unbelievable result at the White Rose Ultra to catch Sarah.  Debbie on the other hand only needs to run her usual race at Jedburgh and she’ll have that 2nd place in the bag.  Nobody else can catch Sarah for 3rd place though, and she’ll be 2nd FV50 whatever happens.  4th and 5th places overall depend on who runs the White Rose Ultra.  Katherine Rogers is currently 4th, but there are a few runners who could bump her out of the top 5 (or Debbie if she doesn’t finish at Jedburgh).

The men

The first two places in the men’s competition will go to Kevin Hoult and Ken Sutor.  The only question is which of them will win: Kevin is currently 5 points ahead of Ken.  Neither of them has entered Jedburgh, but of course either or both could run the White Rose Ultra.  In practice if either runs they just need to make sure the other doesn’t finish ahead of them.  Unfortunately all this is a bit clouded by events at the Long Tour of Bradwell.  The Runfurther points are based on the official results of the races, and Ken finished 3rd in that race, giving him 928 Runfurther points.  It has recently emerged that the two runners who finished ahead of Ken failed to record a time at CP14 in that race – a control that is difficult to locate.  If they didn’t visit that control, then the race rules state they should be disqualified.  On the other hand the race rules don’t state they must record a time successfully at each control.  All this is very unfortunate for Ken, but we can’t override the results of the race.  We can’t contact the two runners concerned, as they aren’t Runfurther members.  And of course we have no idea whether they visited the control or not.

Third place may well go to David Chetta, who is currently 3rd.  Stewart Bellamy or Daniel Page could catch him though, if they run well at the White Rose Ultra.  Other runners could theoretically come 3rd, but only if they ran much faster than they usually do.  The other main contender for a top 5 places is Adam Worrallo: Chris Davies could get there though, if he ran well at the White Rose 30.  Martin Terry is probably going to be 1st MV50, although Chris Davies could catch him with a very fast White Rose run.  If Peter Agnew runs the White Rose 30 he’ll probably be the 3rd  MV50.  If not, Kevin Smith will take the 3rd place, unless Alwyn Nixon runs the WR30 fast.  Chris Davies is confirmed as first MV60, Alwyn Nixon is 2nd, and Bob Nash 3rd.  Bob’s also first MV70, with Dick Scroop 2nd.  Barney Nikolich will be first under 25, provided he finishes at Jedburgh to get his 4th counter.

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Teams

Currently, Team Krypton is leading the team competition with 8201 points from 10 results, Calder Valley FR are 2nd with 7846 points from 9 results, and Mercia FR 3rd with 7678 from 9 results.  These are almost certainly going to be the top 3 teams.  My expectation is that CVFR will win, as Ian Symington has entered Jedburgh, and if he runs a decent race then that will bump Krypton down into 2nd place.

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Round Rotherham 2016

The Race

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Well, I wasn’t there.  I’m down with a cold & decided I’d better not run.  I went over to Rotherham for a Runfurther committee meeting on Friday evening at the Staithes, but then I came home again – I’ve been in no state to run 50 miles.  Plenty of others were though, although not everyone will have been happy with their performances I’d guess.  Andy Davies, who was challenging for top Runfurther place on the men’s side, failed to finish (I don’t know why), and Ken Sutor, the other potential challenger finished well off the pace.  Kevin Hoult, on the other hand ran a blinder, finished first by almost an hour in a 6:29:50 personal best, and also ran himself into an unbeatable lead in the Runfurther Championship.

1st:  Kevin Hoult (Stadium Runners), 6:29:50

2nd:  Kevin Doyle (Kimberworth Striders), 7:27:39

3rd:  Martin Terry (Clayton-le-Moors), 7:43:56, 1st MV50

21st:  Karen Nash, 8:35:54, 1st woman, 1st FV50

26th:  Tara Spillings, 8:51:12, 2nd woman

28th:  Lisa Walbridge (100 Marathon Club), 8:51:44

45th:  Alwyn Nixon, 9:43:15, 1st MV60

97th:  Bob Nash, 11:47:24, 1st MV70

98th:  Janet Hill (Springfield Striders), 11:48:14, 1st FV60

The full results are available on the SI website.

Karen Nash has written up her race and you can find that on her blog here.  I’ve pinched the photos on this page from her too.  Nick Ham was taking photos as well as running: you can find his photos here.  He seems to have run a lot better than he was expecting to!

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The top women: Lisa Walbridge (3rd), Karen Nash (1st), Tara Spillings (2nd)

Runfurther Championship results

With only the Warrington Way race to go, it’s becoming a bit clearer who’s likely to be winning what, although there’s still more hanging on the last race than I was expecting there to be.  Warrington has been full for ages, but it looks like the waiting list has gone now, so last-minute entries may be a possibility.

Don’t forget the AGM and Prizegiving are on Sunday 13 November, at 2:30 at the George Hotel, Youlgreave, in the Peak District.  This is timed to be after the nearby Leg It Round Lathkil fell race, and is the day after the Warrington Way race.  Please be there – we need a quorum for the AGM, and we need people to give the prizes to.  And we’ve ordered chips.  And there’ll be cake…  And spot prizes (thanks Si!)…

1st man:  Kevin Hoult.  Kevin’s run at Rotherham means he can’t be caught now.

2nd man:  Andy Davies.  Andy failed to finish at Rotherham, but he’s now guaranteed 2nd place.  Ken Sutor can’t catch him.

3rd man:  Still up in the air.  Ken Sutor if he runs well at Warrington, but David Greenwood, Adam Worrallo or Martin Terry could end up 3rd quite easily, and there are others who could get in there if the circumstances were favourable to them.

1st woman:  Karen Nash has been guaranteed this for a while already.

2nd woman:  Debbie Cooper’s likely to be 2nd, but she needs to maintain her form at Warrington to do it.  Otherwise it’ll probably be Michelle Brooks.

3rd woman:  Will probably be Michelle or Debbie, although Alison Brind would take it if Debbie doesn’t finish at Warrington.

MV50:  The first 3 places will probably be between Chris Davies, Martin Terry and Ned Lammas, although if Ned doesn’t finish at Warrington, someone else will be 3rd, probably Glen Davies.

FV50:  Karen Nash is 1st, Alison Brind 2nd, Janet Hill 3rd.  That is, unless Janet gets a last-minute entry for Warrington and runs the race of her life, in which case she could overhaul Alison.

MV60:  Chris Davies can’t be caught, with Glen Davies 2nd and me 3rd.  Unless I run a blinder at Warrington – in theory I could still beat Glen.  And if Alwyn Nixon enters Warrington late, he’s theoretically in that mix too.

FV60:  Janet Hill, and MV70: Bob Nash.  Bob may not have it all his own way in 2017 though, as Dick Scroop turns 70 in February!

Max points:  Karen Nash (women), me or Chris Davies or Dick Scroop (men).  It’s mine if I finish at Warrington, probably Chris’s if I don’t and he does.  If we both fail, Dick would still have to run the race of his life to take it.

Grand Slams:  Nobody.  Dick & I both tried, but for different reasons couldn’t finish them all.

Team prizes:  I’m sticking my neck out a bit here, but I think Mercia Fell Runners are going to be both first and second, with either Trawden or Clayton-le-Moors third.  I haven’t gone through all the possible outcomes though.

See you in Lymm, or at the Prizegiving!

Round Rotherham 2014

Saturday saw the last race of the Runfurther 2014 year, the Round Rotherham 50.  I think we were just about all surprised at the weather, as we couldn’t believe it would still be warm and dry, but yet again we got really good running weather.  It was only wet from the knees down.  A bit of a mud-fest then, but even the mud could have been worse.  The main thing that spoiled it for me, apart from my bad running form, was the amount of rubbish over so much of the course.  Flytipping all over the place, and so much of the course strewn with windblown junk.

Anyway, there were some excellent performances.  Kevin Doyle (Kimberworth) was first in 6:52:42, ahead of Ian Symington (Calder Valley) in 7:11:28.  Kevin was 2nd last year, but was 10 minutes faster this time.  Last year’s winner Kevin Hoult came in joint 3rd with Michael Hyde.  It was good to see Fraser Hirst back running again: he’s been off the running scene due to working in Warsaw.  First woman was Helen Pickford (Sheffield RC) in a great time of 8:02:55, 9th overall.  Joint second were Elizabeth Hutson and Susan Keens in 8:56:36, which was particularly impressive as their previous ultra running experience had been just one 30-mile run each.

No time for more of a race report from me as I need to get the final Runfurther standings up as well before I leave for the OMM tomorrow.  Just time to say that Emma David and Nigel Aston both ran Rotherham, so they each achieved their Runfurther Grand Slam – congratulations to both of them.

Nick’s photos of the day are here. Nigel’s written a race report and that’s here.  Karen’s written a race report, and it’s on her blog here.  And here’s a photo I pinched from it:

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