Swainby Sweep, 24 April
Report by Ted Leahy
Sunday saw the MaD events Swainby Sweep trial races in the form of a 7-mile route and a 16-mile one. Entered into the 16-mile race was Karen Lennox, Mark Crossland, Ian Harrison, Thomas Hodson & me (Ted Leahy). The weather was a huge improvement on last year when the 16-mile route had to be changed in the 11th hour due to Mother nature dropping a load of snow that prevented the marshals getting to points of the course. There was a cold easterly wind but the weather was pleasant and we even saw a few glimpses of the sun.
After registration the 16-mile race got underway at 09:30 with a strong Ripon Running group at the front of the pack and the first mile across the fields and farmland was very enjoyable. As the 2nd mile started, so did the huge climb that became steeper & steeper for the next 3 miles before reaching the much awaited television tower and some flatter ground. At this point I had pulled away from the rest of the group and was unable to see any of my fellow runners behind me but knowing that the pack of 129 other runners would be there somewhere meant I couldn’t relax and so pushed on in at a comfortable but stretched pace.
It was fantastic to see Ady Warner taking some pictures and shouts of encouragement as I passed him on another section of climb. Things were going great and for as far back as I could see, I couldn’t see any of the competition however this was all to change… At 7.5miles into the route I came down a grassy track which curled round to the right at the bottom and joined another lane which headed left. I couldn’t see any signs, had no one to debate with and so had to make a call as to which way I was going. Due to the track curling round to the right, this is the direction that I headed, uphill and for a further half a mile before I came across a tarmac road and no route signs! At this point, I was lost and knew I had gone wrong so I turned to some people out walking who claimed to know the area but eventually decided they had no clue where I was on my printed map and opted to try and open Google maps on their phone. After a few minutes of debate and realising that this too was proving fruitless and moved on to a different group of people who also had no idea where I was on the map! After a little talk with myself I decided that the best option was to head back the way I had come until I could pick up the route again and head on having wasted over 10 minutes and running an additional mile!
Back to the curved section of road I saw runners heading off in the opposite direction to where I had gone and realised that I was then back in the race, only my hard earned 2nd place position was now lost to a trail of other runners which did take some of my motivation but I pushed on regardless. I did manage to pull back 4 places before settling for 8th overall (2:10) when I crossed the finish line. A huge congratulations to Ian Harrison who secured 3rd place in 2 hrs 5 minutes and Tomas Hodson who was just 1 minute behind Ian. Mark Crossland finished in 33rd place and Karen Lennox (1st Female Ripon Runner) finishing in 116th place.
Whilst we were all out the 7-mile race got underway with 112 competitors, of which 16 were our very own Ripon Runners! The 1st 4 miles of the route were the same as the 16-mile course and then the remaining 3 were the last part of the 16-mile route and with the runners setting off around 1 hour behind the 16-mile race, it saw both 7 & 16-mile runners crossing the finish line at the same time which made for a great atmosphere and a lot of cheering welcoming everyone back. Our very own Jamie Barker was first home, crossing the finish line in 46 minutes (Huge congratulations Jamie & much deserved), Lenny Lennox was the next RR & 1st in his age group finishing in 55 minutes. Matt Brookes finished in 57:43. Well done to Lee-Ann Swires (1st RR female and 3rd in age group) with 1:01, Lucy Philpott 1:04, John Skinner 1:05, Sue Skinner who finished 3rd in her age group with a time of 1:12, Victoria Pang 1:13, Fiona Alder 1:14, Karen Carrington 1:30, Wendy Green 1:34 and Andrea Richardson 1:35.
I hope I’ve mentioned everyone and apologies if I have missed someone. What a fantastic event and everyone seemed to have a brilliant day (despite a few tumbles – you know who you are!).