A cold, bright day with a strong wind bringing occasional wintery showers. Underfoot was reasonably firm and grippy with little mud. Some sections of the course, in the grounds of the Ultimate big dipper, were a bit knobbly with long grass, but by the time the ladies ran at 1.30 the various junior races had ‘smoothed’ a running path on much route. One short lap and two long laps (6k total) or a short and 4 long laps (10.4k) for the men brought runners past the start / finish area and through the ‘zigzags’ a number of times – so there was plenty of great spectator support, as well as on the switch between the short and long laps. We had 6 ladies out amongst the 165 racing. Jo Buckley had a great run to finish 11th in 25.01 in a race won by Alexandra Bell of Pudsey & Bramley in 23.02. Lesley Watson, Emma Green and Mandy Clarke were closely placed in 65th (28.01), 68th (28.12) and 69th (28.16) giving us the 8th ladies team (4 to count) out of 25 teams. Sarah Dewhirst running in the same race as a Junior U20 was 93rd (30.16) closely followed by Becky Weight in 95th (30.30).
In a field of 230 the Bingley men were lead home by Ian Holmes who had a great run to finish 18th (38.40) against a strong winning run from Jonathon Thewlis of Notts AC in 35.44, clear of second placed Alan Buckley (Leeds AC) in 36.35. Andy Brown was 31st (39.31), Ged Callan 61 (41.39) and Jonathan Willingham 200th (53.24). Bingley Juniors were out too – I am sure a report is on its way.
Lesley Watson, Becky Weight, Sarah Dewhirst and Mandy Clarke at the YorkshireXCs at Lightwater Valley 10 Jan 2014. Jo Buckley disappeared to take over childcare so Alan could run and Emma Green had a ‘wolf’ to tend to.