Bingley ladies hadn’t fielded a full ladies team at the Ian Hodgson Mountain Relay (IHMR) for a couple of years and with the some of our regular fell relay ladies out of action (Aly Raw – long term injury – enjoy your other activities Aly, Ruth Whitehead – new baby – congratulations to Ruth & Richard, and Mary Wilkinson – knee repair surgery – hope it improves soon Mary) it felt like time to make sure we could still get a team together. Held in Patterdale in the Lake District the IHMR covers 24miles with over 8000’ ascent split into 4 legs. The team runs in pairs with the legs looping up out of valley bottom like a long 4 leaf clover over high rugged terrain visiting Angle Tarn, High Street, Red Screes, Dove Crag, Fairfield and St Sunday Crag. Each leg is a serious technical fell challenge in its own right requiring navigation skills and confidence on high rugged Lakeland terrain and a step up from our local Pennine moorland fell runs. Bingley Ladies have a good history in the relay appearing most years in a ladies and /or a mixed team and Bingley have held the mixed team record for the event since 2007.
Our focus for 2015 was to :
- get a ladies team out
- maintain and build experience of Lakeland mountain running including some new to IHMR
- provide an opportunity for our junior fell ladies to join a senior team
- ensure we have enough depth & experience to get teams out in the future
- have a great (and safe) day out
With a provisional team issued I made it clear that I expected recces to be done, especially those with less Lakeland experience. I wanted everyone to know what they were letting themselves in for and me to know they could (and would) handle it on the day. Everyone including some of the reserves had great days out on recces doing one or two legs in the day in mostly good weather except for Denise & Eleanor and Mandy & Vicky who had to use their higher navigation skills in low cloud and poor visibility. Lesley spent lots of time with the map, and Abigail (our junior fell runner ) discovered that walking on some of the Lakeland climbs is quite acceptable. Lana and myself did a L4 & L1 double on a lovely sunny day – leaving us both with ‘down hill thighs’ for some days after!
On race day the settled weather of the previous week held, cool with no wind and high hazy cloud just shrouding the tops as we gathered in Patterdale for the start. Abigail White, our junior fell runner, was paired up with Mary Green for L1 (4.5m, 1000’) from Patterdale to Hartsop via Angle Tarn. Mary was stronger on the climbs while Abi’s young knees, good balance, and long legs saw her take the lead on the steep grassy descent and good running track back to Hartsop. Ellie Kitchen and Lesley Watson took over on L2 (7.5m, 2600’). Lesley was just returning to fell running after a break to allow some foot trouble to settle and Ellie’s time teaching in Scunthorpe had limited her fell recent fell experience so the rough technical descents were a challenge for both. Kate Farley and Denise Wright our ultra-distance fell runners had the short but tough L3 (4.5m, 2000’) starting with the scramble up Red Screes from Kirkstone Pass. Denise and Kate were pretty closely matched with Denise leading out on the open running and Kate more sure footed on the descents.
Mandy Clarke and Vicky Omelianowicz took on Leg 4- the sting in the tail with both distance and the most ascent (7.5m, 2800’). Vicky, having done some Pennine fell races, was new to Lakeland running. Vicky enjoyed her recce and the race – although half way up the interminable steps climbing out of Dovedale, hanging onto Mandy’s heels, she wasn’t so sure, but being naturally sure footed she was able to lead Mandy on the long descent back to Patterdale. Mandy, having done a number of fell and offroad relays was happy to be doing the IHMR one of her favourite events.
The event was full with 70 teams running and Bingley were one of only 10 ladies teams. Everyone finished, their legs shattered but smiling as the pictures tell :
Many thanks to everyone for making the day a great success. The whole of Patterdale was ‘abuzz’ all day with excitement and new experience and achievement and it was great to be part of it. Thanks also to Simon Wright (& Izzy) and Barbara Carney for help with logistics, photos & support on the day and to our reserves Sue Fulton, Lana Gill, Becky Holmes (and myself) who kept themselves available – having reliable reserves is critical to getting a team out. It is too risky to enter teams without reserves. Results are at http://ihmr.org.uk/results.html
Everything I wanted out of the day was achieved – getting a ladies team out, new ladies involved, our up & coming junior ladies involved, building great experience of tough Lakeland racing, and having a brilliant day out. We achieved all that and have plenty to build on. To have a ladies team in such a serious mountain race is a fantastic achievement. Becky Weight
And some Facebook snippets on the Open team from Andy Jebb :
4 October at 18:46 A big thank you to our fell runners today competing in the Ian Hodgson fell relays in Patterdale, this relay is renowned by many as the main relay of the year and it never fails to produce good competition. Conditions on the day were clear and warm. We had a open team and a ladies team competing. A warm welcome to Matt Merrick in his first senior relay for the club and both himself and Ged Callan ran a excellent opening leg finishing in 5th. Andy Brown and Andy Peace ran strongly on leg 2 finishing in 7th , then myself and Vic Wilkinson held 7th place on leg 3 before Rob Jebb and Ian Holmes completed the relay and gained 1 place bringing us home in 6th place.
7 October at 22:17 Bingley Harriers take sixth place in Mountain Relay
www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk
Bingley Harriers finished sixth in Sunday’s HODGSON BROTHERS MOUNTAIN RELAY.