Weekly roundup and race report - week ending 21st August

Pilgrims Cross Fell Race

On Wednesday the latest race in both club and fell championships took place on familiar ground over 7 miles of Holcombe Moor.

It’s a medium length and elevation fell race starting with a challenging climb from Helmshore to Pilgrims Cross which is visited twice in a figure of eight that also takes in Bull Hill before the tricky descent back to the start.

We had another fantastic turnout with age grade prizes for Paula Pilling and Nigel Hartley and prizes for Sam Booth (m) and Paula again as first finishers from the best represented club.

Blackspur Ultra

Ultra regular Andrew Giles was competing and volunteering at the 108k Blackspur Ultra in British Columbia. “This is a race wrought from the winding, technical single track that trail runners dream about. No pavement, big climbs through rugged terrain, and stunning scenery”

Trimpell 20

Alice Bernstein was our only runner in this popular race for autumn marathon prep. Alice’s Strava went a bit wonky but not wonky enough to hide some incredibly fast kilometres.

This race attracts a large field of elite national level athletes and Alice finished 6th Female overall with a super time of 2:20:30. We all wish her well in the final stages of her Chester Marathon preparations where she will represent England!

MCC at UTMB

One lucky Ram managed to bag a place in the highly sought after MCC race at the Ultra Trail Mont-Blanc series. Lee Troughton completed the 42km route which climbs up through the vines of Martigny-Combe to the Col de la Forclaz then the Col de Balme before descending to the finish in Chamonix.

A race described as 'appealing to the participants' uphill capacities', I'm sure Mr Troughton will have plenty of mountainous stories to tell!

parkrun

Ramsbottom Running Club was represented at 21 different parkrun events this weekend with some familiar holiday locations popping up!

At the Eden Project we had Andrew Patterson while Darren Street was at Whitby.

Christine Howes ran Wormwood Scrubs parkrun, if she runs it every week for the next 5 years then we need to see if we can visit.

Over in Ireland Macroom Castle was the scenic location for Steph Twomey.

Our biggest turnout was at Heaton paerkrun where Paul Marshall was the 6th finisher with a notable time of 17:52.

Chris Swainson was in Croydon and Sacha Cooper at Rother Valley, while on the Lancashire coast we had Steven Yates and Ben Knight in Blackpool and Alan Blagburn at Kew Woods in Southport.

Congratulations to everyone who ran for fun or for competition this week!