Report by: Jean Sullivan

ILKLEY Harriers were off to the Lakes this week taking part in several fell races across the National Park.

Kate Archer and Ben Sheppard tackled the Montane Lakeland 100 ‘Ultra Tour of the Lake District’.

The circular route encompasses the whole of the Lakeland fells, includes in the region of 6300m of ascent and consists almost entirely of public bridleways and footpaths. The route starts in Coniston and heads south before completing a clockwise loop which takes in the Dunnerdale fells, Eskdale, Wasdale and Buttermere before arriving in Keswick.

From here the route heads to Matterdale and continues over to Haweswater before returning via Kentmere, Ambleside and Elterwater to the finish at Coniston.

Archer and Sheppard set off at 6pm on Friday 28 July and both had superb runs, with the latter being the first home in 28:46:53, while the former finished in 29:38:12 giving her fifth place in what was her first 100-mile event.

The pairs’ runs came straight off the back of providing support to another Harrier attempting a solo sub-24-hour Bob Graham Round the previous weekend.

Simon Richardson set out on 21 July to tackle the 66-mile, 27,000 ft circuit of 42 of the highest peaks in the Lake District within 24 hours. He had a fantastic run supported by a number of club members and friends and completed the round successfully at Moot Hall in Keswick in 22 hours and 30 minutes.

Still in the Lakes, Alison Weston and Jack Wood took part in the Heart of the Lakes Rydal Round on Thursday 27th July. Starting and finishing in Rydal Park in Ambleside the event took competitors round a nine-mile route taking in the Fairfield Horseshoe and climbing over 3,000ft. Wood was the first Harrier home in 2:02:21, while Weston completed the event in 2:18:56.

Not content with one fell race, Wood took on the Beetham Sports race on Saturday 29 July, a 9.3km race covering 283m of climb in the south Lakeland village of Beetham.

A traditional village sports race, the event starts from the sports field and takes competitors up through a deer park and woods and over limestone pavements to the fairy steps. Wood had a superb run taking first place in 38:03, nearly two minutes ahead of the second finisher.

Congratulations also go to Junior Harrier Sam Bentham who, this week, was confirmed as a member of the U20 England team who will compete in the British and Irish Junior Mountain Running Championships in Peebles later in the year. This is a fantastic second national vest for Bentham this year.

Ilkley’s road runners were also in action this week at the EvenSplits 5k race series July event at the Brownlee Centre in Leeds. The races take place monthly from February to November and are designed to enable participants to measure their improvement over the series.

Six Harriers took part in the event this month with three Harriers placing in the top ten: Matthew Thackwray was on winning form and took first place in a blistering time of 16:13; Jon Denniss was next over the line in 16:54 taking third place in his age category; and Dave Foyston continued his great performances in the series finishing in 17:01 and taking first place in his age category.

And finally, there was a clutch of top three finishes for our 19 parkrunners this week: At Woodhouse Moor, Sally Armitage was the first finisher in 18:25; Jane McCarthy and Mike Abrams-Cohen were also the first finishers at their events in 22:04 and 18:45 respectively; it was a second place finish for Danny Thompson at the Selby event in 17:32; and Nick Kealey, Adam Gerrish, Mark Mon-Williams and Dave Foyston were all third finishers in their events. The Roberts Park event was as popular as ever with five Harriers turning out and it was a great run for Tom Lambe posting a personal best time of 20:25.