The Saturday of the race was beautiful sunshine and no wind. You wouldn’t have guess it considering the day before many of us were confined to the house due to the extremely poor weather. The storm did mean the conditions underfoot were very tough. It was extremely boggy and muddy especially in the two fields that the race passes through at the beginning of the route.

The race sets off with Nick Colburn leading the way up the hill. He is closely followed by Harry Kneen, Mark Burman, Orran Smith, Harry Weatherill and Sam Jones heading into the fell. There is a lot of route choice as you are cresting the hill and then towards the single track to Colden. Many different paths were taken which always makes for an interesting start!

As the leading group headed out on the single track to Colden (Checkpoint, Cp 1) Harry K and Mark pulled away with Sam, Nick and Orran all chasing as they also headed to the Cp.

At Cp 1 the lead pack had shot off, creating a gap between them and Orran. There was then a gap between Orran and the rest of the runners in the race.

Orran managed to close the gap and at Cp2 the group were closer together again.

They carried on running above the forest and then round to Cronk Brek. The conditions here were very sloppy and positions and the gap remained the same.

As they hit the steam crossing positions and the gap are the still same.

Once Orran got to Greeba mountain Cp the gap had opened up between Orran, Sam and the leading two . By Slieau Roy the leaders had more than a 30 sec gap on Sam and Sam had over a minute on Orran.

Harry K and Mark went really early to cut down to the next cp but it was too early by their own admission post race. Sam and Orran went much later choosing a better line to descend to the Cp. Once Orran descended to the bottom of the forest he could only see the boys in the distance - Sam had overtaken Mark on the climb.

Once Orran got to the top of the hill before the final descent back to the finish the leaders were nowhere to be seen! Orran descended into the finish to find out Harry K won the race with Sam in second and Mark in third. Orran placed 4th with Harry W in 5th and Nick Colburn in 6th. A fantastic return to the fells from Harry after suffering a double leg break in early 2024.

In the Women’s race Alice Foster also made a fantastic return to the fells after 2 years out following a difficult injury. Amber Carridge was the early leader however Alice took it steady from the start and went on to win the race. Both raced well despite the tough conditions underfoot with Amber coming in just over 2 minutes after Alice. Following in third was Rebecca Harding making it Team ESTR 1,2 and 3 for the women's race.

The short course race was won by George Salter with Florence Griffin being the first female to finish!

Excellent racing from all. Well done. Next up in the league is Snaefell and the Tholtans on the 8th of Feb.