Mercia Fell Runners Club

We’re pleased to have been able to upload the final results tables today – these have now been checked and the tallies verified.

For Long course results click here; for short course results click here; the course map is here.

Winners of each category are given in bold – if you didn’t make the presentation then your medals will be posted to you shortly. Here’s Jim’s report on the event.

Route Notes

I planned the routes to make the most of the event’s base at Little Stretton, which hopefully allowed us to access some areas of the Mynd which are a little less often visited. I wanted everyone to run in, up, or across Callow Hollow, Minton Batch and Ashes Hollow. To do this we would have to have a lot of climbing at either the beginning or the end of the event, and I plumped for the beginning as this would mean runners would be more likely to have the wind at their backs along the exposed plateau at the top of the course, and also would find the running easier as they tired.

I see the Hill Trial very much as a training event which should give people a bit of confidence to try races or other events involving navigation, so I deliberately planned the checkpoints to be obvious if you were looking in roughly the right place. I wanted the test to be identifying a good route between each checkpoint and then executing it well enough to be able to spot the checkpoint, rather than testing folks ability to find a tiny little kite hidden under a wall or in neck deep vegetation.

The first leg offered a choice of routes – along the fence under Callow or up the Minton road. I think there was very little in it in the end, although the road route required a little more careful navigation to get into Callow Hollow. Leg two to the fence corner on the far side of Minton Batch was always going to be the most testing element of the run, and it was pleasing to see competitors judged their routes well, with the very fastest runners almost straight-lining but making good use of the paths on top of Minton Hill. Many of you chose to reverse the Valleys route out of Callow Hollow or traverse a little lower between Packetstone Hill and Shooters Knoll. Some of you also went via Sleekstone Bank, which looked like a pretty good option. The leg certainly had the desired effect of spreading you out a bit and making the event a little less of a procession.

Most people seemed to work out leg 3 quite well, again reversing the Valleys route in part, but using the lower gully to climb onto the shoulder of Minton Hill. I chose the checkpoint location because it’s the very best of the wild upper reaches of Callow Hollow, and a place none of our races actually pass. Climbing to CP4 I intended to test whether people could follow the stream / marsh (keeping right of it was the option I’d have chosen). I used the northernmost pool for the checkpoint because it was just before the big obvious path and a path junction so no-one should have overshot by too far. I marked from here to CP5 so you’d all approach the road and the checkpoint in a predictable direction which made things easier for Mike Burton and Don Hale at CP5.

Splitting the course here was done deliberately so Mike and Don could ensure no-one accidentally forgot and set off on the wrong route, although if/when I do another “linear” course (checkpoints in order) I think I’d split the long and short at the start and bring them together midway when the runners are more spread out.

Anyway the long course had a fairly straightforward leg to CP6 at the stile beyond Pole Bank. There were two main options from there – down to the road, across the “triangle” and down and up over the top end of Lightspout Hollow, or along the Portway over the Ratlinghope Road and then a right turn in 600m or 750m. I’d not expected this to be as difficult as some people found it. The key for the first option was careful navigation into and across Lightspout; for the second option it was vital not to miss the correct point to turn right off the Portway. Several people obviously got carried away with the fast running and ended up overshooting onto Haddon Hill.

I always love down and up options in races (the classic one being right at the end of the Edale Skyline when your legs are gone), and I wanted to get one in here. Most people worked their way down into Lightspout Hollow and crossed it 200m above the waterfall using the track marked on the map to head south east to the edge of the vegetation and then east for 500m to CP8. This was probably the wise option. Those who tried to straight-line were faced with a horrible slog up deep heather to the CP at the top of the ridge. One or two even started one option and then tried to switch to another. This generally doesn’t work out well, usually when I change my mind mid-leg I’ve ended up combining the worst bits of both routes.

From CP8 to CP9 the intention was for you to have a nice, easy fast run with great views down into New Pool Hollow and Townbrook Valley. I’m told at least one competitor tried to straight-line this. If I knew who you were, you’d have had a special prize for taking on two big and completely un-necessary climbs! The checkpoint on the little hill should have been easy to locate as it was in the “Y” of the paths and right in front of you as you ran down the flank of Yearlet. I suspect one or two head might have been down by this point.

All that remained on the long course was the final descent and a skip across the campsite. In hindsight I should have put CP10 at the stream junction in Ashes Hollow between Yearlet and Ashlet. Most of you reversed the Callow race route to get off Ashlet and found the final part of this descent slippery and rough. Experience or careful map reading would have told you it would be steep, and the much easier option down the blue dotted line into the valley between Ashlet and Yearlet might well have been as fast for the less committed descenders. Anyway you all arrived looking as if you’d enjoyed it and had a challenge, even if one or two needed a little “patching up” at the Event Centre.

The short course continued from CP5 to the top of Narnell’s Rock for a view into the wildest reaches of Ashes Hollow. To those of you who braved a straight-line route (which probably necessitated a compass bearing or a bit of relocation towards the end of the leg) I salute you for your ability to wade through endless heather. The smart money was probably on making use of as much path as possible on this leg.

Everyone I spoke to had taken the option of heading south west from Narnell’s then turning across the head of the side valley to run on the Ashes side of Round Hill to Barrister’s Plain. When I tested the course I also tried a very rough but fast descent into Ashes Hollow and then using the ramp path to Barrister’s Plain. The hard man’s route is at least as quick but my legs didn’t half ache heading up through the heather to Grindle.

The final leg was another classic “caught in two minds” descent. Some of you headed down the ridge to where “Nills” was marked on the map, and then either had to drop right down into Small Batch to the south or contour round north east to the fence. You really needed to make a decision at the top and head either for the saddle between Grindle and Callow and down the path on the south side of Small Batch, or head down the northern of the two ridges where the blue line was marked and pass the long course CP10. Neither route is much quicker than the other, but in between is tough and slow.

Report

Registration was a little easier than last year thanks to a successful trial of the SI entries system. In contrast to last year’s driving snow, the 93 runners were blessed with a much better clear and calm sunny winter’s day. We were expecting a real battle for the honours on the long course with last years’ winner Kristof Nowicki up against Nic Barber of Pennine Fellrunners and vastly experienced mountain marathoner Tim Higginbottom.

Kris set off at 10:27: Tim and Nic set off as the last two runners twenty minutes after Kris. They were out of sight of each other almost instantly as Tim took the higher route to the first checkpoint with Nic opting for a dash along the road towards Minton. Tim’s higher route worked at least for a time and it took Nic until CP3 to reel Tim’s minute start in. At CP5, Nic was two minutes slower than Kris, with another four minutes back to Tim.

Meanwhile Kris had gone for the brutal down and up option between CP7 and CP8 and this must have put some real work on his legs. Tim, realising it was not going to be his day has sensibly opted to save his legs for Dark Mountains, and pulled out at CP7, jogging back to the Event Centre.

Kris was first back off the long course. We watched him coming down the top of the Ashlet from the Event Centre and he was clearly motoring, finishing utterly spent and having given everything in 1:35:59. The course was obviously running hard though – Kris had trimmed my 9.8 mile optimum route to around 9.5 miles but at the cost of a few hundred feet more climbing.

We watched the clock carefully scanning the hill for signs of Nic, but it was the lead Mercia pair, Jack and Mark Agnew, who broke the skyline first. Starting two minutes after Kris they’d put a great run together combining Mark’s amazing knowledge of the Long Mynd with Jack’s huge new-found ability to push his Dad beyond the redline. Nic was hot on their heels though and it all hung on the final descent. We couldn’t see the steep section, but Nic must have crushed it and the flat run in along the campsite to run the second half of the course a minute and a half quicker than Kris. It was all to no avail though, as Kris finished the winner by a mere 35 seconds.

There was other local success too for Naomi Watson (first solo lady in 2:15:49 and fastest dogwalker) and Team VirgilMelonZeus (first mixed pair, 2:22:12, and second fastest dog). Mercia is now very well equipped with rapid canines. Andy Creber was the third solo man (2:00:51) and Judith Austerberry and Vanessa Lawson the fastest lady pair (2:19:31) making it a successful day for Chepstow Harriers too.

On the short course honours were shared nicely amongst the Shropshire clubs. Newcomer to Mercia, Tim Kieniewicz won comfortably in 1:33:38. Fellow Mercian Kate Whitfield overcame her navigation demons to become the only genuinely unaccompanied solo lady to finish either course, overcoming a few mishaps and learning lots (hopefully) along the way (2:56:10). Local orienteer Sharron Richardson combined with Helena Bramwell to take the lady pairs for Shropshire Shufflers in 2:13:08, and Helen Edwards and Tim Edwards take medals back to Newport & District as mixed pair winners in 2:23:18.

Massive thanks to Keith Richards, Pauline Richards, Elaine Nichols, Charlie Leventon, Arthur Clare-Hay, Don Hale and Mike Burton for all your help. Well done to everyone who took part, I hope you all got something out of it and that some of you would now consider entering events such as the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon, or just coming along to the Wrekin Orienteers’ Long-O event (a very similar challenge) on the Mynd on 21 September 2014.