HOLMFIRTH LADIES VICTORIOUS in Lee Mill Relays – 27th November 2022
3 Holmfirth teams, 12 runners, ventured over the border into deepest Lancashire for the Lee Mills Relay race on Sunday. We had a Men’s, Ladies and a Mixed team.
There are 4 legs, each leg is the same, approximately 6.3 miles and 1200ft climb.
It is a moorland route, so no high mountains to climb, but it still very challenging terrain. After a run up the first hill on a mountain bike track there are plenty of mud and bogs of varying depth, a long boggy drag to the trig, more mud and bog to a short steep descent followed quickly by an even steeper ascent leading to even more mud and bogs before the run back along the tracks into the finish.
The race being run in late November has previously been held in very challenging weather conditions, this we were blessed with a very mild, almost windless, dry day. However, after lots of recent heavy rain, the bogs and mud were in tip top condition J
For leg 1 we had Tim Brook in the men’s team, Katie Walshaw in the ladies team, and Debbie Hall in the mixed. Tim came in first for Holmfirth in 10th position, with what seemed to be the cleanest legs of the day, followed by Katie in 14th giving the ladies team nearly 10 minutes lead and then Debbie in 65th running a PB for the race.
Leg 2 Helena Croft brought the ladies team in front of the men’s due to running a PB for the race and James Washington taking a short detour, he was apparently heard cursing on a near vertical descent to get back on track. Andy Hauser brought home mixed team, the only man in the team.
Leg 3 Adam Sunderland brough the men back in front of the ladies, with no reported mishaps, maybe having some advantage from wearing a race number matching his age. Sophie taking part in this relay for the first time and loving the boggy run, brought the ladies team home still in the lead, the win was looking safe. Di Baldwin had a solid run for the mixed team her first outing in a fell race finish undaunted by the terrain.
Leg 4 Curtis Firth brought the men’s team home in 13th position overall, Fran sealed the win for the Ladies bringing them home in 32nd position I ran for mixed team all I can say is I finish, eventually, very wet and muddy. Luckily, I’d followed my own advice and not worn my best undies, so after a brief knicker deep dip in one of the final bogs no damage was done J we finished in 72nd
Men – 13th Ladies 32nd Mixed 72nd 85 teams finished.
Full results
