Skirefare Half Marathon
Report by James Stuart-Mills
Andrew Harker and I completed the Due North Skirfare Half Marathon on Saturday – on my part in search of a replacement for the Dales Trail series, much missed!
There was a relaxed start above the river Skirfare just south of Kettlewell for about 110 runners, many in club vests. After a short briefing we headed up towards Arncliffe, briefly on the road (Littondale 4 runners will know this stretch). This was the last easy running at the 200m valley bottom before heading up a stiff climb to 510m over from Arncliffe to Starbotton. A pleasant track took us through woods and pastures before another climb from a small water station in Kettlewell up to 510m on Langcliffe. The route then took us back via Kettlewell with another smaller climb. In all it was a 14 mile route with approx. 800m of climb. This was a hot muggy day but there was plenty of water at the two water stations, and we were checked off efficiently twice en route. There was a bottle of beer, some skyr yoghurt and some Whittaker’s mints for finishers, and a dollop of cold pasta (not so nice).
I finished in 3 hrs 11 mins to find Andrew looking as though he’d been there for a while! The results aren’t out yet but that would have placed me 46th out of 71 in the previous year.
DT20 vets might be interested in a comparison. The winner of the last DT20 in 2017 finished in 1.20 (JSM 2.23), and the winner of last year’s Skirfare finished in 2.03. There is a bit less climb in the DT20 and I don’t remember the climbs being as steep as Skirfare. This was a much smaller, low-key event than the DT series.
Overall it is a good race and well organised, marshalled and marked. The lack of a route description or map on the day was a bit disconcerting but not really an issue. So – I reckon Skirfare is a solid challenge and I’d recommend it as an alternative to the Dales Trails (although maybe not a week after doing the Burn Valley half), and I’d rate it as midway between the DT20 and DT30. This was the second in a series of 3 races, the first being at Burnsall and the third in Skipton on 31 August, which takes in Sharp Haw and the pretty village of Hetton which has a v convivial but pricey pub.