Although held on a rather showery and blustery Sunday morning, the weather eased off for the duration of the race. All seven runners set off from the start at Emley Farm behind a quad bike escort for the steady uphill climb on to the moor. After a couple of km the route took us out across open hillside with some good views of West Allen Dale. By this stage the field had spread out with me at the back trying to keep-up with Philip Johnstone. The going got a little rougher on the descent into Blaeberry Burn and after a short scramble up the other side we managed to lose the route markings for a while. However we quickly rejoined the route descending on the road past Mainsrigg. After crossing the Blaeberry Burn again we faced the final bit of up-hill before re-tracing our outward route back to Emley Farm. All in all a very enjoyable race which was won by Ian Walton with Neil Cassidy in close second.

results [thanks to Andrew for spotting these in the Hexham Courant]

Andy Russell