Ben and Sarah’s tough day out tackling Pennine Barrier 50-mile ultra

Report by Don Hale

https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com

North Wales Road Runners Ben and Sarah Hudson took to the hills last Saturday for a rather unusual day-out in the Yorkshire Dales.

They competed in the extremely tough 50-mile Pennine Barrier ultra-marathon race, which attracted over 600 top runners.

Described by the organisers GB Ultras, as a fantastic event, despite including some 2,593m of ascent, and fusing together some of the finest trails in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, this was most certainly a race for the most hardy and experienced athletes.

Ben and Sarah put in a tremendous performance, and ran together throughout the day. Ben eventually placed 276th male athlete from 460 finishers, and Sarah 72nd female athlete from a 141 entries.

The race started at the beautiful village of Malham with trails taking in Malham Cove, the Dry Valley of Watlowes, Malham Tarn, Fountains Fell, Janet’s Foss, and the wonderful Yorkshire 3 peaks of Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough.

It followed a stunning, but highly challenging route, backed by excellent support from the GB Ultra’s team, to ensure all runners had a race to remember.

After the race, an exhausted but delighted Sarah confirmed: “That was epic! The Pennine Barrier 50-miler – although I actually ran 52.12 miles – after a minor navigational error (which involved running a mile downhill in the wrong direction, and then having to climb back up).

“It was super-tough, and with some rather challenging weather conditions, so now we will have to go back, and do the mountains again, so that we can actually see what they look like!

“I managed to stack it running down Whernside and have the cuts and bruises to show for it, but we survived and had the most amazing experience. Thank you to all the amazing volunteers/organisers for being out all day and staying so positive in those conditions. I finished in 14hrs and 54 mins!

“Tough terrain and conditions, but an amazing event! So pleased to finish under 15-hours and before it went dark! Mountain ultras are brutal! Got lost/fell over/awful weather but we survived!”

Other results

Birmingham

Will Williams was one of several local club athletes selected to represent Welsh Masters at the Birmingham International 10k race on Sunday.

Will admitted that it was a hilly course and quite warm, but he seemed pleased with his chip time of 37.02.

After the race he said: “What an amazing day, and again it’s such a huge privilege to represent my country. I do wish that I could perform to my best though, still one min plus off my 10k PB.

“Never-the-less, I loved every second of it. Huge thanks to Bernie Jones for making all of this happen. The course was long though, but finished in 102nd place overall, and I was 14th in my age and masters cat.”

Splash and dash for visiting athletes at Conwy Parkrun

Report by Don Hale

https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com

A series of downpours over the previous 24-hours prior to last Saturday’s Conwy Parkrun quickly returned this 5k riverside course to its near usual puddle-filled state, but this popular splash and dash event failed to deter a host of top club and tourist athletes from recording some excellent results.

North Wales Road Runners entered 12 members and collected four age victories and five other top-three placings with young Harry Driscoll leading the team home in 11th place in 19.36, and he was 3rd in his SM20 cat.

Steve Mason finished 33rd overall and 3rd VM45 in 21.43, with Steve Roberts improving again in 45th place and 2nd VM55 in 22.51.

And veteran athlete Cheryl Frost enjoyed a great result to win her VW55 cat, finishing 54th in 23.22, whilst master veteran Sandy Johnston recorded his best parkrun time since October last year, to win his VM70 in 60th place in 23.47.

Kay Hatton was another veteran in top-form, winning her VW60 cat finishing 68th overall in 24.13, with Hannah Griffith 109th in 25.55, and Rob Fryer was pleased with 27.23, following his return to parkrun in 148th place, and he also won his VM65 cat.

Ceri Jones was 156th in 27.52, and master veteran Barrie Wells claimed 3rd VM70, finishing 165th overall in 28.13, with John O’Shea 3rd VM65 cat, finishing 187th in 29.27, with Elizabeth Driscoll 306th in 46.34.

The first finisher at Conwy Parkrun was visitor Robin Stacey (York Acorn), who won his SM30 age cat in just 17.41, with Lloyd Williams (Cybi Striders) 2nd in 17.47 and Helen Warburton (Gosforth Harriers) 3rd overall, plus first female and 1st SW25-29 on her debut in 17.51. And additional praise to Simon Cole (GOG Triathlon) in 4th place in 18.10.

And with Helen taking the 1st female place, Lucy Brain finished 2nd (13th overall), on her debut in 19.53, and 1st VW40 whilst Vicky Cole (GOG Triathlon) took the 3rd female place (29th), with a new course PB of 21.15. There were 316 finishers.

Credit was given to the run director and to all the volunteers and marshalls. This is the link to the provisional results at Conwy.
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/conwy/results/latestresults/

Blue runners wanted for 400th Conwy Parkrun

NWRRC official and Conwy Parkrun volunteer John Hatton says he is trying to attract 400 runners for the 400th Conwy Parkrun on Saturday 18th May, which is free to enter on the day, and starts from the RSPB site near Conwy each week at 9am.

He confirmed: “It’s Mental Health Awareness Week that week, so I have spoken to Mind Conwy. Their colour is blue, so I am trying to encourage people to run in blue.”

Other parkrun results

Prestatyn

Martin and Carla Green celebrated a family double, and recorded new PBs at the Nova Parkrun at Prestatyn, with Martin 1st finisher overall, with a course PB of 17.24, to win his VM45 age cat, whilst Carla won her VW50, and she also claimed a new PB and 1st female finisher (10th overall) in 20.31.

Well done also to Karen Butler, who ensured the Road Runners claimed a unique hat-trick of age cat winning results, following a very good performance to finish 51st on her Nova debut in 25.27 and take victory in her VW65 cat.

Penrhyn

Will Evans and his daughter Molly took part in the Penrhyn Castle Parkrun with Will finishing 7th with a new PB of 19.47 and 3rd VM40, whilst Molly made both her club and course debut, and ran very well to win her SW18 cat in 66th place in 27.13.

Stuart Culverhouse and his young son Joe also enjoyed their outing at Penrhyn with Stuart finishing 12th in 20.38, and 2nd VM50, with Joe winning his JM11-14 in 24th place, with a new PB of 22.39.

Liverpool

Kevin Higgins took time out from a friend’s stag party celebrations to run in the Princes’ Park Parkrun in Liverpool, which he completed in 30.20, finishing 426th out of 618 runners in 30.34.