Blakey Blitz Team Victory

Esk Valley Winter Fell Series Race 13! – 23.March.14.

Our Fell Running devotees congregated at the Lion Inn  on Blakey Ridge between Hutton le Hole and Castleton for the 10.5  mile Blakey Blitz Race.
A  more dramatic location for a race start in North Yorkshire would be hard to come by. From this remote high point the race  starts with a mad cap dash down into  Rosedale, ascends the other side, crosses Rosedale Moor along the unevenly flagstoned George Gap Causeway, takes in another lunatic descent into  Great Fryup Dale, climbs out alongside the waterfalls at the Dale Head, returns across the Moor, drops back into Rosedale and finishes with a long slog back upto where we started, phew.

Blakey Blitz Map

Chris Roberts was our first Harrier to the finish in 9th place (92.31), but he made the job a lot tougher than it needed to be. Chris had been running well in third place upto the half way point, but on climbing out of Fryup Dale, with the leaders out of sight,  he went in the wrong direction half way up the climb. On regaining the correct route and after running nearly 3/4 of a mile extra,  Chris had lost several places, with his position at the top of the series league table already looking precarious he put in a good effort to make a few places back up.

Following Chris in 10th place we had Simon Collins (92.50), in 11th Giles Hawking (93.24)  and 13th Barry Atkinson (94.52) . These four took the Men’s team prize.

Knavesmire’s Andrew Johnson was 54th (115.39) and Matthew Page 70th (127.30), navigational gremlins got the better of Matthew on the last descent but he did not go too far wrong.

Barry Atkinson has now won the league’s M50 category, Giles is just holding onto his place atop the M40 class, and Chris has slipped from the top of the Male Overall and Open Cat’s but is still in with a chance with two races remaining.