Hardmoors 110
Lena Conlin and Claire Baker both completed an epic 110 mile race over the weekend, with Lena running the race of her life to win the ladies title in a stunning time of 27 hours 35 minutes.
The Hardmoors 110 event is run over the Cleveland Way national path and starts in Filey with a finish the finish line in Helmsley. The route takes in the North Sea coastline for the first 53 miles as runners make their way to Saltburn, before heading over the North Yorks Moors with Roseberry Topping and Captain Cook Monument among the numerous climbs that make up the 19,000 feet of ascent.
Starting at 8am on Saturday morning, entrants have 36 hours to complete the course, something that they both managed to do with hours to spare and recording the fastest two times by any Ripon Runner.
Lena managed to keep a constant pace going despite picking up an ankle injury at the 20 mile point, which was badly swollen by the time she had finished. But with the support of husband Billy on the route, and aided by safety runners John and Jane Grundy and Kim Holden through the night sections, crossed the finish line on Sunday morning at 11.35am.
Claire was supported by husband Jonathon, and also suffered injury, this time a knee problem around the 40 miles marker, making ascents particularly slow and painful. By mile 55 any kind of running was no longer possible, however, she was encouraged to continue by her support crew and runners (Alex Fawcett, Natalie Wood and Matthew Holt) to finish 5th female out of 22 finishers in 30 hours 29 minutes.