What a weekend of fell racing with bronzed god Mounsey AKA Ben the bullet placing 9th in a stacked British championship race while ultra god Kevin Holt crowned Usain Bolt sharing 1st at Yorkshires Howarth Hobble…….
Kevin Holt AKA Usain Bolt leading out the Howarth Hobble – Credit Dave Woodhead
On the weekend of the 14th March, Calder Valley Fell Runners were out in force racing. There were 2 big races on the Howarth Hobble and Yr Aran. The Howarth Hobble is a very challenging one at that, an ultra race with a distance of 31.7 miles with 4396ft of ascent. It was a close fought race for the first place between Calder Valley’s Kevin Hoult and Ken Sutor of Cheshire Hash House Harriers. They both tied first place with an incredible time of 4 hours 16 minutes. Other sterling efforts were from Jonny Croston in 10th, Dan Marsden in 15th, who were both comfortably under 5 hours. Great performances were also put in by Paul Haigh and Elina Eady. If there had been a team prize the ads would have taken it.
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yr_aran start line up
Meanwhile in Wales Calder Valley were well represented at Yr Aran which was the first of the British Championship race counters. A very challenging race in the Welsh mountains with a distance of 10 miles and 3100ft of ascent. Calder’s very own Ben Mounsey had a blistering performance and finished in 9th place in what were testing conditions. Apart from one of the finest ever fell runners Simon Bailey, Ben is the only other runner to have a top 10 finish 15 years apart. He finished 5th back in 2005. With his return from Spain only during the previous week where he was mainly trail racing Ben found the wet and slippery fell conditions tough but put in an amazing performance.
The legend racing hard with Martin hot on his heels
Also racing Yr Aran were Darren Kay in 25th, Karl Gray in 26th and first Vet 50, Martin Howard 3rd under 23, Stephen Smithies 5th vet 50. Other great performances were put in by Bill Johnson, James Logue, Charlie Ing, Toby Sydes and Carole Fryer. The V50s team looking strong after the first British champs to place first with V40s team taking second the seniors 4th team please.
Golden God Mounsey AKA: The Bullet
– CALDER VALLEY NEWS REPORTER: blair garrett
