14 Tod Harriers headed up to the Langdales on Saturday to join 420 runners for the final counter in this years English Championships.
The race is just over 21km long with 1450m of climbing packed in. The weather was pretty fair for October with light winds and a just a few clouds on the highest tops. However the course was very wet from rains earlier in the week resulting in a number of accidents on a race that is described as a rough tough course over almost exclusively rocky & slippery ground with lots of pathless sections!
Mr consistent Doni Clarke had another great race finishing in 3rd place overall, 1st V40. He would probably have been 2nd but for a slight navigation error off the final summit of Pike O’Blisco. Doni has completed all 6 Championship races and congratulations are due on securing the overall V40 champion along with what will be a very high finish in the overall open championship.
The race was won by Matthew Elkington from Ambleside in 2:02 & and first woman was Nichola Jackson of Keswick in 2:24.
Other impressive Todmorden runs came from Debbie Gowans who finished 1st in the W55 category and Claire Shaw who was 3rd in the W45 category.
On the down side Dave Collins took a fall coming off Bowfell giving himself a bad cut to his head and had to retire; special mention goes to Mel & Rebecca who spent about 15 minutes getting Dave patched up and safe to go down.
Full Todmorden results:
3rd Doni Clarke – 2:08 1st V40
69th Ian Symington – 2:41
143rd Nick Barber 2:57
159th Chris Goddard 2:59
201st Deborah Gowans 3:08 1st W55
240th Claire Shaw 3:16 3rd W45
279th Charles Colbourn 3:25
291st Robert Halstead 3:26
299th James Riley 3:30
358th Stuart Wolstenholme – 3:46
363rd Melanie Blackhurst – 3:47
364th Rebecca Patrick – 3:47
Mandy Goth Rtd
Dave Collins Rtd
