Some of our club runners turned out for the Cheshire Over the Hill Billies fell team on Saturday at the British Fell And Hill Relay Championships at Fairholmes in the Peak District National Park.
The team of 6 finished 14th out of 19 teams in the Vet 50 category. In a time of 5:36:32. Jon Bale, Andy Watts and Rob Downs ran legs 4, 5 and 6. Dark Peak Men’s were first in 4:26:47. Dark Peak ladies team were second in the Ladies open category. They were led off by Rob’s daughter Ellen! I wonder if there was home advantage for the Dark Peak’s teams! .
Single runners run Legs 1 and 4, Pairs run legs 2 and 3. For pairs runers must remain in contact (i.e. never more than 20m apart) at all times. They must finish together, and both runners must visit every checkpoint. Not sure if each leg is a different route or whether their legs were tied together!!! But Andy and Jon ran 2:04:27; Rob with 51:28 was the fastest Vet 50 man in leg 4. Conditions were challenging. And there’s more than one way to approach downhills!
