The “slap-bang in the middle of September” report

There was a stonking turnout for the Lantern Pike race over at Hayfield Sheepdog Trials. Perhaps the lovely weather was a draw, or perhaps the promise of a decent day out, celebrating Zoe’s birthday lured others. Lizzie Leason showed her excellent form, honed with some continental racing by beating off stiff competition to come in First Lady in 41:37. First Glossopdale home was Jamie Helmer in 11th, with Matt Huxford close behind in 16th, and John Hewitt in 19th. Just behind Lizzie a Battle Royale was played out with Neil McGraw just pipping Rich White by a second in 24/25th, Tim Culshaw cruised in not long after in 28th.

Another bevy of Glossopdalers were led home by John Stephenson in 94th, Cheryl Stitt 95th and Clive Smith chasing hard in 97th. Lins Palmer held out to the line in 101st, denying Dez Mitchell the palindromic number.

Andy Wilkins came in 110th, Becky Smith, fresh from her age cat. triumph in Padfield last week was 116th, and Heather Jansevska chased Becky to the end coming in 117th. Superb effort by all!

Phil, Els, Caitlin and Josie Swan travelled down south with the Marple Runners this weekend for the Equinox 24hour race. The basic premise is a team of runners send a person out at a time to run a 10k loop- and each team tries to get as many loops done in 24hours as possible. From the looks of things, the team did fantastically, getting 26 laps in 24:08, with Phil and Els pulling 4 10k laps each. Good work!

Once again, the Hunks in Trunks made a foray into Deepest Uppermill  for the Cross Keys Relay. Unfortunately the team were down a Hunk as Phil Swan was off swanning around at the Equinox, so Tim was drafted in to join the boyband good looks of Ian Oates, Andy Burnett and Steve Crossman. Phil was there in Spirit as he donated a pair of his most hideous shorts to be worn by Tim on the final fell leg. Oatesy ran the first road leg, showing good form on the hills, Burnett excelled in the bog across the tops on the second leg, The Angryman – a local of the Uppermill Parish used his local knowledge to good effect on the road leg, and Buddmeister brought it home on the final fell leg, before recovery Ale was partaken of, celebrating a modest 11th place.

The Stockport 10k was run this weekend, and Kirsty Johnson continued to stamp her authority on all things road in this neck of the woods with a convincing 1st Lady placing, Liz Dowd was also out and about, but I don’t have a placing for her as yet.

Guy Riddell blasted through the Dambuster 50miler, 30 mins or so faster than he did last year, despite the heat. All that training is paying off, it has to be said!

Andy Fox – that sly Fox, took part in Stanage Struggle alongside Jude Stansfield – Jude was 196th, and Andy came in 70th – potentially first MV60, (or at least that’s what I can tell from the results page. Excellent Struggling you two!

Caity Rice and Neil McGraw were off running up a hill over in Penistone – yes, it was the Penistone Hill Race. I have no idea how they did, but there are a couple of Course Records on Caity’s Strava track, so I’m guessing she nailed it, and was probably given a good run for her money by Quickdraw. Yup – she was first Lady as confirmed by my able assistant with a phone…

Utterly Butterly Fell Race was graced with a visit by Mary Jeal, who it seems, had a great run, coming in 58th, and 2nd FV50.

Chris Jackson was off racing in the Lakes for the weekend- hitting up Scafell Pike in delightful weather. Despite not getting the best start and having to queue for gates and stiles, he smashed the climb, ending up in 9th overall, and 3rd in King of the Mountains. Not content with this, he then ran Dale Head the next day, though results for this aren’t out yet. (As far as I know).

Park Run Corner (which seems to be becoming more of a Piazza than a corner….). In Glossop, Charlie ran a stormer with a new PB, coming in 3rd. Young Amy Riddell was running her first ever Park Run and despite thinking she was only going to do 1 lap, ended up getting caught up in the occasion and made her way around the whole lot.
Lizzie Leason was evidently warming up for the Lantern Pike by coming in First Lady with a new PB, and as forecast last week, Jamie Prophet came in with a PB this week. Must be the new shoes…

Matt Crompton, the tourist as ever, was over in York, Lawrence Fennelly was at Brighouse, Marie Williamson hit up Marple, Paul Drury was in training at Wilmslow, Ben Tetler had a great run, blasting into 1st place in Stamford – getting his quick legs back on form.