Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

EVENT REPORTCLIF BAR 10 PEAKS - THE LAKEShours. A few guys were close on her heels so localknowledge was going to play an important part.There were a collection of runners all passingthrough close to the 9 hour mark, one of which wasYiannis, who whilst in his late 60s was proving thatendurance really does stay with you. After a rockhopping zig zag between a few more peaks, Scafellwould leave them with a long descent into Wasdaleand feed station number 4. A long climb up to RedPike saw Nicky with an hour lead over her nearestrival Paul Nelson. Ben Thompson was 15 minutesbehind Paul trying to hold on to 3rd spot. Pillar andKirk Fell were the next two peaks that needed to beconquered and then on to feed station number 5 atBeck Head. A nice run into Honister followed wherehot food and plenty of supplies were available,should they wish to stop.The leaders did not hang around long, desperate tohold on to their positions, but many of the fieldwould spend half an hour here, rehydrating andtaking on some hot food. A few more would admitdefeat and request the minibus shuttle back toKeswick – not the front runners though, straight upDale Head and off to Maiden Moor. Nicky had nowgained an hour and a half lead on Ben and Paul,who were now running side by side, content withthe company and support of each other. ThroughKeswick and straight up the steep side of Skiddaw –a cruel way to finish but this was never made to beeasy! What should be a pleasant run down theSouth Eastern side and back to Keswick was verypainful for most, with sore toes and quadsscreaming for the finish line. Nicky ran in to thefinish in an amazing time of 18 hours and 26minutes, 1 hour and fifty minutes ahead of Ben andPaul in joint second place. Just less than half of thestarters managed to complete the full course, butevery single competitor had a great experience, inwhat had been ideal conditions. In case you werewondering, Yiannis cruised home in a little over 23and a half hours and in 7th place overall – what alegend!The Long Course runners were bussed to Swirls CarPark and set off for the summit of Helvellyn at 5am.Knowing that they had 27km less to run than theXtreme runners, they could afford a little morespeed early on. A group of 3 front runners soonformed and led the way through the first feedstation and off up to the rocky peaks of Ill Crag andthe like. Last year’s winner, Tom Hollins, was well oncourse to smash his previous PB, yet found himself20 minutes off the lead group ascending Lords Raketo Scafell – the course record was surely going to bedestroyed. Through Wasdale and up Wind Gap toPillar and then off to Beck Head, where some muchneeded water had been hauled up the mountain bythe marshals. The three leaders, Jonathan Albon,Ross Litherland and Erik-Sebastian Krogvig, cameinto Honister together but Jon was keen to crackon. He left the other two stocking up from theirdrop bags that had been forwarded by theorganisers and set off at pace for Nichol End Marine,arriving nearly 15 minutes ahead of the other two.This lead was added to by a further 10 minutes overthe next leg up and down Skiddaw, although Jonwas half expecting to be caught as he said he hadlittle left to give. The course record did getdestroyed, by well over two hours! This new recordof 10 hours and 50 minutes will take some beating.Equally impressive was Catherine Litherland’sperformance finishing in 5th place overall in a timeof 13.20.58 smashing Angela Armstrong’s 2013record which stood at a shade under 15 hours.Second place female on the Long course was SueSavege running in the FV50 category in a time of15:46:25.20 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://