Pendle, Peaks and more

The first weekend in March was another busy one for Calder Valley Fell Runners, with racing dominated by several big events.

Saturday, 7th March marked the inaugural year for the Saddleworth Ten Res’s – billed as 24-mile course with 4000ft of climb, this was actually a tough 25+-mile high-moor route around Saddleworth Moor, complete with 4500ft of ascent & descent, as racers navigated around a mixed-terrain route taking in a staggering ten local reservoirs, visiting each checkpoint in a specific order – with whisky a beer available for all competitors at least one of the later checkpoints.

Amazing atmospheric skies and big smiles from Bill. Photo courtesy of Jim Harrison

Half a dozen red & white hoops entered this race & grouped fairly well from the start. Jonathan Moon led the way for CVFR, keeping a steady pace throughout as he battled for a top three place, but eventually finished a very respectable 6th overall in 4hr 50 minutes (& third in open age category). Despite trailing early on, Bill Johnson’s racing experience showed, as he took a pre-planned alternate route bringing him out ahead of many of the other runners, to finish only three minutes behind Moon, in 8th place overall, & first in the MV50 age category. Phil Wells, in his first event at this distance, also ran a savvy race to finish 9th overall (& 3rd MV45) in in 5h12 – seeing the Calder Valley men take the team prize. Andy Wright raced well to finish in 13th place overall in 5h23, with James Cooke in 28th place, closely followed by Toby Sydes in 29th.

Moon described this race, as a ‘a future local classic in the making’ – ‘very enjoyable up to Wessenden Head’ before the snow & ice covered. climb to Black Hill, followed by ‘knee-deep bogs’ on the way down to Crowden.

Also. On Saturday, 7th March, over 230 runners competed in the Moorhouse’s Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round fell race – a 10.4 mile fell race on and around Pendle Hill, complete with nearly 2000ft of climb. CVFR’ss Darren Kay ran an outstanding race to take 4th place overall (& second MV40), crossing the line in just 1h 7 minutes & 30 seconds. Teammate Mark Wharton came in 58th overall (& in the top 15 in the MV50 category) in 1h 22 minutes & 59 seconds.

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