Fell Running
Please note that City of York AC does NOT affiliate for fell or trail running. Members take part in fell and trail races as members of our partner club
York Acorn Running Club. If you need an Acorn vest
contact John Tattersall or Paul Richardson. So don't forget to wear the
read Acorn vest in fell and trail races. Note that the same applies to road races.
The club competes in the Cleveland Summer and Winter fell series.
The races in the Winter series are on Sunday mornings while the Summer series races are usually on Tuesday evenings.
The Calderdale Way Relay in December is a high priority while during the Summer there is a less formal relay of the Cleveland Way, 16 legs over a distance of 108 miles.
Club members take part in a number of other races including Championships.
Cleveland Winter Fell Series 2008/9
| 28th September |
Cock Howe and Beyond | 7m | BM |
| 19th October | Saltersgate Gallows | 8m | BM |
| 23rd November | Clay Bank West | 5.5m | BS |
| 27th December | Guisborough Woods | 6m | BM |
Fell Race classifications: C steepish, B steep, A steeper, S short, M medium, L long.
Championship Races 2008
| 8th March | Black Combe | 8m | AM | English |
| 26th April | Three Peaks | 24m | AL | English and World |
| 10th May | Belmont Winter Hill | 4.5m | BS | Inter Counties |
| 7th June | Pen-Y-Ghent | 5.9m | AS | Yorkshire |
| 28th June | Blackstone Edge | 3.5m | AS | English&British |
| 20th July | Kentmere | 11.9m | AM | English |
| 2nd August | Borrowdale | 17m | AL | English&British |
| 30th August | Dufton | 5m | AS | Engish&British |
| 19th October | Clwydian Hills | British Relays |
Notes: I have not included the British Championship races except where they are also English races. Neither have I included the junior championships, but if anyone wants details of these please email me. The Three Peaks race incorporates the World Long Distance Mountain Championships, so should be a good event. However entries are already full, though I have heard a rumour that another 100 places will be available in January. The Championship races tend to fill up quickly, so enter early to avoid disappointment.
Race Reports
Cock Howe and Beyond
The Clevelend winter fell series got under way on Sunday 28th September and it was a good start for York Acorn, with victories for Martin Nice and Mike Hetherton in the over 50's and over 60's respectively and the mens team taking 3rd place. It was particularly good to see Mike Hetherton in action as earlier in the year it seemed he would have to retire due to problems with his knee. Martin Nice was 17th overall with Mike just a few seconds behind in 18th. Jerry Barnes came 23rd and the team was completed by Pete Murray in 45th place.
World Masters Mountain Running Championship, Czech Republic, 6th September
Andy Normandale and Jim Shemilt narrowly failed to win medals in the World Master Mountain Running Championships in the Czech Republic last weekend, though Ben Grant from Harrogate AC returned with 2.
The championship was held in the village of Dolni Morava in the shadow of Kralicky Sneznick, the highest mountain in the region at over 1400 metres. The course rose gently through fields and forests in the first half before a more severe climb to the top of one of the lesser peaks in the range at about 1200m. The older runner (55 and over) had a 9.9k route with 646m of climb, while the younger age groups ran slightly further and had more climbing, 11.3k and 800m. The course was made even more gruelling by the warm weather, the temperature rising to about 30C. Over 600 runners took part in the championships.
Grant, world champion in the over 55's when the race was held in Italy in 2004 but a recent arrival in the over 60's age group was 3rd in the race, but led the English team to gold medals. However with the first 3 runners to count, Shemilt missed out as he was 9th overall, but 4th English counter, just one place and 11 seconds away from a gold medal. Indeed, had Shemilt got the 3rd team place, it would have been a Yorkshire gold medal, as the 2nd team counter was Geoff Howard of Ilkley.
Normandale in the over 50's age group ran the longer race and was in good form having won the English and British Championship race at Dufton Pike the previous weekend. He set off pretty fast and stayed with the leading group of 6 until approaching half way. At this point 3 runners started to break away, including Colin Earwaker of New Zealand, the eventual winner. Normandale hung on well for 5th place, an excellent result, his previous best placing in this event being 14th.
North Yorkshire clubs were well represented in the championship, with Thirsk & Sowerby Harriers also having several runners competing. Their top placed runner was Rob Burn, 18th in the over 55's while in the over 60's race Alan Wikeley was 39th and in the over 50's race David Read was 72nd.
Fell season to date as at 6/7/08
Sorry I haven't had time to update this more frequently !Working backwards in time, our last race, the Danefied Relay was probably the highlight of the season thus far. It is a fairly low key relay over 3 legs of 3 miles each on Otley Chevin. We has did it 2 years ago when we finished 2nd, narrowly beaten by Pudsey and Bramley, despite Andy Hilton setting a course record. This year we had 2 teams, with Graham Birch leading the A team and Phil Paxman the veterans team. Graham came back in 6th place, with Phil not too far behind in 9th. Andy Normandale ran a good leg pulling the A team up to 2nd, though Pudsey&Bramley had built up a significant lead. Andy Hilton running the 3rd leg set off fast and soon ate into the lead, passing the P&B runner in the 2nd half of the race and winning by about 30 seconds. Thanks to the wet and muddy conditions, times were slow, so Andy didn't challenge his course record.Meanwhile the B team was completed by Steve Mummery and Jim Shemilt, coming in 12th out of 30 teams and beating all the other veterans teams. The was great achievement particularly since all the team members are over 50.
Cleveland Way Relay 29th June
For those that don't know, having only seen the provisional results, we finished in 2nd place behind Loftus (I reckon about 25 mins down) but 4mins in front of NYMAC. A really good effort from everybody, especially given that both of the other teams (I think) only had one female runner and they did between 20 & 40 mins from Gribdale to (roughly) Battersby Moor. By way of contrast, our ladies contributed nearing 3 and 1/2 hours to the cause, although given the strength of the individuals these were amongst our best legs.
It was noted that NYMAC "went astray from the Way" on the Runswick - Skinningrove leg, doubtful this was intentional, but adds further credos to our result. For the first time in living memory there were no major errors/events for the Acorn team during the day. Becky gets the award for the most-bloodied runner after the heavy midday rain made the Wainstones leg super-treacherous, hope you're okay.
Also, thanks to Steve Mummery for turning out on the final leg just in case we were short.
So from Piran at 5am via Jerry, Martin, Paul, Helen & Bertie, Steve, Mark, Andy N, Andy H, Mike, Tom, Becky, Martin K, Vicky, Dawn to Martin L at (about) 6:04pm (plus a bit for the mass start) it turned out to be a truly ace Cleveland Way 2008.
Nice one.
Andy H
Blackstone Edge, 28th June
This was a British and English championship race - a short one, only 4 miles. Andy's Hilton and Normandale ran for us with Hilton 25th (disappointed not to be a bit higher) and Normandale 75th, but 4th over 50 (very pleased).
Cleveland Summer Fell Series
We have had some good results in the series so far, but frustratingly have not managed to win the mens team race so far. We were 2nd at Osmotherley and Whorlton and 3rd at Carlton Bank. Individually we had a few near misses also with Andy Hilton twice runner up and Andy Normandale twice runner up in the over 50's category. However Jim Shemilt won the over 60's at the Fox and Hounds race at Ainthorpe and the 2 Andy's came good at Whorlton with Hilton winning overall and Normandale 3rd overall and 1st over 50. Graham Birch was 7th Others who have turned out for us are Steve Mummery, Ian Smallwood, Pete Atkinson and Chris Batterby.
The Three Peaks Races, 26th April
Jim Shemilt was our only competitor in this race, which was the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championship, hence the standard was very high. Mike Hetherton had entered to do the race for the thirty somethingth time, but had to withdraw due to injury and passed his place on to Jim, who therefore only had about 3 weeks notice. In the circumstances Jims time of 4 hurs 50 minutes was very creditable, though he could have gone much faster with more preparation.
Carlton Challenge (1st of Cleveland Summer Series), 22nd April
The summer series got off to a good start on a sunny day, albeit with a stiff breeze. The field was below strength with several saving themselves for the 3 Peaks the following saturday. Andy Normandale and Graham Birch took advantage by finishing 4th and 6th winning their respective age groups. New member Ian Smallwood was 21st, Steve Mummery 29th and Pete Atkinson 39th with the team 3rd behind Thirsk&Sowerby and North York Moors.
The Stoop, 16th December
The race at Haworth is 5 miles long but was run in sub zero conditions, with ice making the course treacherous in places. The clubs star performance came from Jim Shemilt who not only won his age category, but set a new course record. Andy Hilton stuck with eventual winner Andi Jones in the early stages, but slipped back later on to finish 4th in a very high standard field. Andy Normandale also ran, finishing 3rd in the over 50's category.
In the junior race over 1 mile Nicholas Langan finished 33rd in a field of 86.
Calderdale Way Relay, 9th December
The club has had a quiet Autumn on the fells, as most of their fell runners have preferred to concentrate on cross country. The most notable exception has been Mike Hetherton who has competed in 3 of the Cleveland winter series races finishing in the top 2 in the over 60' category in all of them, putting himself in a strong position to win the series. Ian Wilcock and Peter Murray have also competed in the series.
However come December, interest has veered back to the hills, with the main target being the Calderdale Way Relay. This is a relay over 46 miles split into 6 legs, which must be run in pairs. Hence each club must find 12 runners. The race is the top one of it's kind in the country attracting over 100 teams.
Mike Raynes and Dave Chaplin ran the 1st leg for the York club and got off to a good start with 19th place. Veterans Steve Mummery and Jim Shemilt took the 2nd leg which included the climb over Stoodley Pike and at the finish in Todmorden had dropped to 29th. The 3rd leg is short but hard as it is mostly climbing. We blooded youngster Iain Lynn, putting him with the more experienced Paul Goble. The pair ran a cracking leg which proved to be 6th fastest of the day to pull us back to 21st.
The race as well as a test of stamina is a test of navigation skills and at this point we suffered our usual blip ! While the navigation problem is usually encountered during the run, in this case the problem occurred in getting to the start of the leg and as a result Andy Hilton and Piran White lost about 8 minutes at the start of their leg. However once they got going they flew and caught up all the places that had been lost at the start, finishing back in 21st place. Jerry Barnes and Martin Nice ran a steady 5th leg, losing just 1 place and on the last leg Steve Simpson and Andy Normandale held their position.
We finished in 22nd place, exceeding expectations, but with the feeling that, but for the lost 8 minutes at the start of leg 4 we would have been comfortably in the top 20.
World Masters Mountain Running Champs, Bludenz Austria, 23rd September
This was again a superb experience with a wonderful setting and great atmosphere. We went on Thursday and returned on Tuesday which gave us a couple of days before the race to prepare and a day afterwards to go walking in the mountains. Jim Shemilt put in the best performance, finishing 12th in te over 60's despite being under the weather (top 6 next year ?). In the same race Mike Hetherton was 22nd. In the 2 previous years Mike had been 25th, so this was an improvement. In the over 50's race Andy Normandale was 20th. Andy was hoping for a higher placing as last year he was 21st in the over 45's, but actually he ran much better than last year, so was pleased with the result.
The day after the race was spent walking in the Silvretta National Park in warm sunshine and in the midst of a superb landscape of ice and mountains. When I have time I'll put some photos up.
Next years race is in the Czech Republic. I don't expect the scenery to be as impressive, but still not a race to be missed.
Bunny Run 2, 10th April, Haworth
The Bunny runs are a series of short fell races (3 miles) run over the same course at Haworth on 4 consecutive Tuesdays in April. They have become the stuff of legend, so I persuaded Andy Hilton that it might be good to try one out. The course is around a former quarry, now a country park and is more cross country than fell, though with a few short but steep ascents and descents. There are 2 laps, the first about a mile long called the 'egg stage' with prizes for the leader at the end of it, followed by longer lap of 2 miles. All the prizes were Easter eggs and every entrant was given a cadbury cream egg.A guest runner is invited to each race, on this occasion it being Ben Lindsay who represented Great Britain in the recent World Cross Country Championships in Kenya. Ben was pipped by Matthew Pierson for the winner of the egg stage, but after that fell running legend Ian Holmes took over, chased by our own Andy Hilton. Holmes proved too strong on his home patch and won in a time of 15m 10s with Andy 2nd, 8 seconds adrift. Further back Andy Normandale was 21st, but was the first over 50 home.Overall a great little race with a fantastic atmosphere. It was good to see so many youngsters taking part, but a shame I couldn't beat them all ! Andy Normandale