The British Fell Running Relays (definitely NOT the FRAs) were last Saturday in Grasmere and 4 Carnethy teams took part. Elizabeth Leason was the hero of the day as she stopped her race to help a fallen runner with a head injury, called mountain rescue and helped to ensure the man got off the hill safely.
The Senior Male team were 9th overall which is outstanding in a super competitive field. Eóin Lennon and Andy Fallas ran a super fast leg 2 and were 4th fastest on that leg. Our Male V40s finished 65th overall. Mark Johnston and Michael Reid ran a very strong navigation leg in some challenging conditions, with cloud down to about 200m. There was some miscommunication with the team for the female V40s (totally our fault, a huge apology to all – Captains) but everyone had a great run and the team finished 154th with a standout performance from Jane Jackson on leg 1 and a great post-injury comeback run for Charlotte Morgan on leg 4. The Senior Female team finished 205th with some good runs from new members, including Danielle Dunlop who joined the club the week before so she could run in the relays! Full results here.
Working backwards, the Hodgson Brothers Mountain relays were in Patterdale a few weeks before and our open team finished 27th. We were very close to the podium teams for the Mixed category but unfortunately had too many females to count as a mixed team! It was an excellent day of racing, although a tiring weekend for Eóin and Rachel who doubled up with the SLCR the previous day! Results here.
We had 2 Carnethy teams in the Scottish Long Coastal Relays, and finished in 2nd and 10th positions. Eóin Lennon and Jonathon Marks both ran the fastest times for their legs on the day and both were very close to the existing course records. A huge thanks to Dora Parra for stepping in at the last moment to run leg 5 for a Carnethy team, and travelling up from London to do so (and to Nicola Duncan for hosting her!)
The other Carnethy team was superbly organised by Chris Henty. Thank you to Mark Hartree for stepping in at the last moment to run leg 1, and sorry about all the tarmac! Lucas Lefevre and Diane Esson both had excellent runs on this team.
There were also some great runs by Carnethy ladies running for an all-female team – Fifi and the Pixies – that finished 3rd overall. Mike Lynch and the other Carnethy marshals did a splendid job to organise this relay, which is a logistical challenge but ran very smoothly! We can definitely challenge for the win next year. Results and race report here.
Rachel