27 hardy souls made the start line for the 2022 instalment of the Club 6; a scenic, undulating road race around Farnley Tyas and Thurstonland.
The race is handicapped, with the first runner setting off at 9:30 from Thurstonland Road. The runners then set off in turn, with the last to start theoretically being the fastest; in an ideal world, all runners should finish at exactly the same time, although in reality that’s obviously a tough ask! On Sunday the runners were greeted by torrential rain and 45mph winds, factors which obviously affected the anticipated times; this showed, as in the end only three runners ran faster than their handicap.
The fastest time on the day was recorded by Phil Hewitt who ran the course in 38:15, whilst the fastest female was Helena Croft in 40:01.
In terms of the handicap results, Debbie Beck placed third, Andrew Kerry came second, whilst Adam Sunderland won overall to claim the Walter Greenwood trophy.
Many thanks to all of the marshals for standing in the pouring rain for over an hour, as well as to Alex for tail-cycling and Roger and John for timekeeping.
The race forms part of the Winter Championship along with the Tinker Cup and the Point to Point; if anybody running today also took part in the Tinker Cup, then if you also complete the Point to Point in April then you may have a chance of winning overall given that it’s calculated on handicap times. Hopefully the weather will be a bit kinder for that one!
