First news of this event. The word is that the leading teams were as follows:

• 1 Borrowdale
• 2 Pudsey & Bramley
• 3 Dark Peak
• 4 Bingley
• 5 Calder Valley

The Wharfedale men's team finished in 11th place. The details are:

• Leg 1. Bruce Elsworth & Kirt Livesey 10th
• Leg 2. Sam Watson & Colin Moses 10th
• Leg 3. Jason Hemsley & Iain Gibbons 11th
• Leg 4. Rob Shaw & Pete Keron 11th

This was the first time we have entered a ladies team in this competition and they finished in 6th place. The details are:

• 1 Kirsty Hall & Kate Rogan 5th
• 2 Joanne Middleton & Louisa Pickles 8th
• 3 Joanna Pickles & Cath Wolfenden 7th
• 4 Tamara Hird & Cathy Bradley 6th

The full results and times are in the results section.

England Junior Team
Jonathan Bradshaw was back on International duty again this weekend and he came home as the second English counter, helping the team to secure a bronze medal.

The Winning Team
This event took place at the weekend and the winning team, pictured above, was Nicole Narey, Logan Hargreaves-Madhas, Kevin Rogan (all of Wharfedale) and Thomas Nelson of Calder Valley. As usual, it was a brilliant event and very well organised.

This year was the first time that Wharfedale have ever fielded a ladies team and Tamara Hird has written a report of their experience of the day.

Tamara's Report

Ben Johnstone
A few more pictures of the day have now been added to the gallery

King Bruce & His Princess
Just a bit of catching up from the previous week. The above picture plus a few more from this race were submitted by Andy Holden. They are now available for viewing in the gallery.

The Beachy Head Marathon is one the biggest off-road marathons in the UK. Formerly known as the Seven Sisters Marathon, it is popular for its scenic and challenging route through the South Downs countryside. Raj Madhas has entered this year. Logan is also doing the 2k children's challege. Raj chose this marathon as it starts from outside his son Odin's School.

Nicole Narey	Oliver Whyte

Again a bit more catching up from last week. A few of our youngsters ran for their schools in these races and they came home as follows:

Year 12/13 Will Marshall 10th
Year 10 Nicole Narey 9th
Year 8/9 Will Smith 3rd, James Hall 5th and Ben Johnstone 30th
Year 7 Oliver Whyte 1st

A few more pictures are in the gallery.

Colin Moses & Sam Watson
Tamara Hird has sent through a few pictures of the day, of which the above is one. You can view the others in the gallery.

Also, Judy Howells has been back in the film studio and come up with a quite imaginative video of the day. This can be viewed at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mnnqhf8NlV8

This race brings the Bofra season to a close and there were good results for the many Wharfedalers who made the long trip to Wasdale. In the senior race, we had five finishers in the top ten, with Ted Mason winning the race outright, closely followed by Sam Watson in second place. Kate Rogan was second lady.

Jonathan Bradshaw finished the season in style by winning the U17s race, with Jack Smith in third place.

The U14s saw the awesome group of Wharfedale juniors battling it out as to who would finish where in the top three. This week, it was 1st Ben Johnstone, 2nd Will Smith and 3rd James Hall. What a trio.

Full results are in the results section.

We only had three Wharfedalers in this championship race. You could take it for granted that Ironman Andy Hirst would be there. He was joined, not by any of the other Wharfedale men, but by two Wharfedale ladies, Cathy Bradley & Kirsty Hall. Kirsty was suffering from flu symptoms, but still turned up and Cathy had a suspected broken toe. It says a great deal about these two girls that they undertook this challenging race with such handicaps.

The race winner was Simon Booth in 2hrs 5mins 2secs. Andy Hirst was 142nd in under 3 hours and Cathy Bradley was 217th and Kirsty Hall, 219th.

Andy Hirst has written a full report of the race, available from the link below.

Read Andy's Report

Andy Holden has made a video of the day and is available for viewing at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd1IsuPCEUU

Andy Hirst	Cathy Bradley	Kirsty Hall

The above pictures show the Wharfedalers in this race after the initial ascent and as they approached the finish. The full results are now in the results section.

The first races in this season's league has really highlighted the strength in depth of our younger members. The main points from the day were as follows:

In the U11 boys race, Charlie Lowrie won the race outright. This, along with three other team mates, Callum Elson, Josh Newbold and Robbie Johnstone, who all finished in the top seven, was enough to give these youngsters the first team prize. If the organisers had classified our remaining youngsters in this race as the Wharfedale 'B' Team, as some race organisers do, they would have been the third team.

John Lockwood had a good performance in the U13s to take third place.

In the U15s, James Hall was the first Wharfedaler in 6th place. This is a strong age group and along with team mates Will Smith, Ben Johnstone and Alex Speight, they also took the first team prize.

So all in all, a good day for our youngsters. Tamara Hird was at these races and her account of the day is available from the link below.

Read Tamara's Report

Only three senior Wharfedalers and one junior turned up to this local race. However, of these, Bruce Elsworth won the race outright and Logan Hargreaves-Madhas won the U8 race. The finishing positions and times of the seniors were as follows:

•    1 Bruce Elsworth 23:51
• 40 Raj Madhas 33:52
• 67 Lynda Hargreaves 41:30

Not heard anything official, but the word is that the Wharfedale team for this event is as follows:

Leg 1. Jason Hemsley
Leg 2. Pairs. 6.7 miles/ 2500 ft. Paul Carman & Iain Gibbons
Leg 3. Orienteering Pairs. 5.6 miles (hopefully) / 1410 ft. Neil Taylor & Andy Holden.
Leg 4. Glory Leg Solo. 5.1 miles / 1600 ft. Owen Beilby.

First preliminary report of this race. Jason Hemsley finished in 35th place and handed over to Paul Carman and Iain Gibbons, who managed to pull back a few places to hand over to Neil Taylor and Andy Holden in 26th place. The clag was down and they struggled with this leg. However, they did manage to visit all of the check points and finished in 79th place. This was good as some big names were disqualified for not visiting all check points. Owen thinks that he passed about ten teams, but he thinks that he made two mistakes and he is not sure how much time these cost him.

Tamara Hird ran the first leg for the ladies team to hand over to Cathy Bradley & Louisa Pickles in 16th place. They picked up three places, despite Cathy suffering with her broken toe. Kirsty Hall & Kate Rogan ran the navigation leg and handed over to Judy Howells in 15th place. Judy picked up a place to bring the team home in 14th place.

The first three ladies teams were Dark Peak, Calder Valley and Keswick.

Borrowdale were the first men's team, after Mercia, Bingley and Pudsey & Bramley were disqualified for missing CP1 on leg 4.

Full results follow shortly.

Kirt Livesey	Lucas Payne

Lucas Payne and Kirt Livesey were the only Wharfedalers to take part in this race. Lucas has sent in a report of the day as follows:

Kirt and I had a natter at the start; I think we were the only Wharfedalers attending. I said to Kirt, "A steady start old lad". He laughed and said, "I will start fast and die for the rest of the race". So we set off, Kirt dashed away and I stayed with him, but it was awfully difficult, as he was moving away slightly all the time. I therefore decided to run my own race. The weather was good and this was the first time I have run this race and I have to say it was a fantastic undulating course with an odd sting in the tail. Anyway, Kirt got lost somehow, because I lost sight of him ahead. I came home in fourth and Kirt 7th (I think), in fact he had third place well and truly in the bag. He was a wee bit cheesed off but as I pointed out to him, he ran very strongly and should be chuffed. We all had a free bread roll and a cup of soup plus a bottle of beer, all for £7, great value and a big thanks to Keighley AC.

Full results are in the results section.

The results are now in for this event and a total of 130 teams finished the course without being disqualified. Of these 130 teams, 25 were ladies teams. The men therefore finished 65th team out of 105 finishers and the ladies finished 13th out of 25 finishers. The results show 24 teams as not finishing or being disqualified.

These results are in the results section.

The full split times can be viewed at SPORTident

Anyone looking for a different challenge might like to look at this one. It visits three countries, France, Switzerland and Italy and on the face of it, sounds quite hard, in fact, it has been described as the most difficult foot race in Europe. The length of the race varies slightly each each year, but it is around 150/160 km with 8,500 m of ascent. Converted to English money, this equates to around 90 miles with 28,000 ft of ascent. This compares to the Bob Graham Round which is 28,500 ft of ascent and 74 miles. So, a bit harder than the Bob Graham perhaps? The times suggest not. The leading runners usually finish in around 21 hours and have the luxury of the organisers providing them with a food and drink station every 10 to 15k and four "life bases" where they will supply a hot meal, a bed and a massage. The next race will take place in August 2010, so you have plenty of time to prepare. If 21 hours seems a bit tight, the organisers will allow you up to 46 hours to complete the course.

Further details can be found at http://www.ultramarathonrunning.com/races/ultratraildumontblanc.html

Mike Fanning, Paul Crossan & Judy Howells
Judy Howells and Mike Fanning, pictured above with their friend Paul Crossan, (winner of the Chapel Allerton 'Margaret's Run' last month), went over to take part in this race. Judy has sent in a brief report of the day as follows:

I went to do Allan Greenwood's 'Race you to the Summit' on Saturday - a really fun race (like all Allan's races with a lovely friendly atmosphere) where the winners go home with a new pair of fell shoes. Not me unfortunately - nowhere near fast enough!! I came 5th lady which did earn me a fabulous box of chocs. All runners however got to meet President Obama and many other world leaders at the Summit!

The positions of the leading men and ladies were:

1 CHRIS SMALE UNATTACHED 29-14 V 40
2 SEAN WILLIS SADDLEWORTH 29-18 V 40
3 SEAN CAREY TODMORDEN HARR 29-24 U-16
4 MIKE FANNING BORROWDALE FR 29-58 V 40

23 LAUREN JESKA TODMORDEN HARR 35-17 F
32 ROS DUNNINGTON EAST CHESHIRE 36-55 F 50
37 CLAIRE HANSON CALDER VALLEY 37-28 F
40 SARAH SHERRATT WESHAM RR 37-58 F
48 JUDY HOWELLS WHARFEDALE 39-26 F

Full results are in the results section.

Will Marshall
The results are now out for this event. There were 11 Wharfedalers in the seniors (12 if you include Ian Taylor, who ran as a member of Craven Tri), but it really was a day for the young members of Wharfedale. Will Marshall, who thought that the race was awesome, was first Wharfedaler home, followed by Jack Smith, who also likes running on these moors. First lady home for Wharfedale was Tamara Hird, followed by Lousa Pickles.

In the U14s, we had three runners in the top four. James Hall won the race outright, with Ben Johnstone in 3rd place and John Lockwood in 4th.

Charlie Lowrie won the U10 race outright and Logan Hargreaves-Madhas, with his second run in two days, was 2nd in the U8s

Full results are in the results section.

As you are aware, Raj Madhas decided to take on this challenge and seeing that he was down there with his dad, young Logan decided to take on the junior 2K. Punching against his weight, Logan came 19th overall in this race and was the first U8.

As for dad, well his target was to finish in under 5 hours. He did not quite manage this, but he enjoyed the day and has written a report of how his day unfolded and this is available from the link below.

Read Raj's Report

The clocks going back last weekend meant the start of a new series of owl events, which allows runners to enjoy a bit of mid week off road running during the winter months. The concept is certainly proving popular and this year saw a record number turn up on the night, including quite a number of new faces. There is no pressure to compete in these events and each person runs at their own pace and how comfortable they feel with the conditions. Because of this, there is a friendly atmosphere to these events, which makes for a pleasant evening. It is perhaps a reflection of this atmosphere that led Ian Roberts of Bowland, more comfortable running at his own pace, to set off before the mass start and lend a hand marshaling at the summit, before returning to Ingleton. Caren Crabtree also set off ahead of the pack with her dog so that she could run the course without holding up the time keepers at the end. She was one of six ladies who took part.

The course is a simple straight up Ingleborough and back from Ingleton. There was little breeze until the summit was reached, with most runners working up a sweat on the ascent. Last year, it was snowing on Ingleborough summit. This year, there was a gentle covering of cloud on this grim, featureless landscape and after visiting the check point shelter, several runners were scratching their heads trying to find the path back down.

First back was Chris Newman who finished ahead of Steve Brock of Keighley & Craven and newcomer to this event, Mike Robinson of Dark Peak. Young Jack Smith was next back, showing how he has taken to this night time off road running. There was only one biker this year as Pete Keron was away on holiday. However, Ian Taylor managed a 5th place despite having to carry his bike over much of the course and having little advantage on the return, because of the rough terrain.

The first lady back was Hazel Robinson of Ambleside, who demonstrated that her prowess on the fells is just as good in the dark as in daylight conditions. She was followed home by new Wharfedaler, Gill Myers and Kate Rogan.

As usual, there was the fun "guess your time" competition. This was suspiciously won again by Kevin Rogan, but he magnanimously handed over the bottle of wine to Mark Horrocks, who was second closest with his guess.

A good start to the new winter season.

Results

For this event, Dave Woodhead got a real professional to make a video of the day. It is viewable from the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPrGo3-6ix0

Tamara Hird	Cathy Bradley	Kirsty Hall

The Wharfedale ladies team (pictured above) put on a great performance to take two prizes - first overall ladies team and first Yorkshire ladies team.

Jack Smith
In the men's race, Ted Mason had to pull out with an injury, but Jack Smith had a brilliant run, against some class opposition, to finish in 8th place and secure a silver as 2nd Yorkshire U18.

There was a good turnout of Wharfedalers who finished as follows:

•     8 Jack Smith 34:17
•   24 Paul Carman 37:12
•   29 Jason Hemsley 37:26
•   34 Mark McGoldrick 38:05
•   35 Rob Shaw 38:08
•   44 Rowan Akers 39:11
•   76 Jonathan Gibson 42:17
•   84 Simon Franklin 42:556
•   90 Tamara Hird 43:39 (8th lady)
•   99 Barry Scholes 44:55
• 110 Cathy Bradley 45:54 (10th lady)
• 112 Kirsty Hall 48:09 (11th lady)
• 138 Raj Madhas 50:11
• 139 Pete Metcalfe 50:14
• 143 Lynn Whittaker 50:44
• 147 Sue Narey 51:07
• 158 Sally Bisset 55:40
• 167 Linda Hargreaves 1:08:11

Full results are in the results section.