A cool, crisp, starry starry night greeted our first female participants of the year - and very welcome it was too to host the Spinks and Galarunner, plus assorted hounds, and for us all to catch up over a couple of beers afterwards in the Old Hall Hotel in Hope.
The series organiser had completely failed to pull together a cake of any sort to recognise all Nicky’s efforts on our collective behalfs over the past twenty years - shame on him - yet so inspired was he by the profile of Win Hill (when viewed, it may transpire, from the wrong footpath entirely) that he has henceforth renamed the Win-Losehill Trail race “The Sphinx Trail”, in honour of its progenitor; one of many such Spinks productions during her long tenure as series organiser.
Equally as significant for the longer term prospects of the series, perhaps, Helen E declared herself pleasantly surprised by “the amount of trail” involved in the route - they’re (nearly) all like this Helen, honest, and we very much look forward to welcoming you to future Winter Mondays jamborees. If you can persuade a few others from the burgeoning women’s half of the club to join you, so much the better.
In other news, with Tom S and Harry both absent, and Simon still feigning injury, everyone but our first-time runners secured a bonus - including the first bonuses of the year for Barry and George - and George, Kerry, Keith and James all rising in the the league standings.
Somewhat to his surprise - a symptom of just how poorly he ran last week, perhaps - your series organiser also secured a bonus, and rises to number three in the charts, having exhausted the battery of his main head torch within three minutes of setting off, and the battery of his spare before gaining Thornhill Brink. Ever the optimist, having navigated the remaining four-fifths of the route by the light of his mobile phone, he can now confidently assert that the instruction for all runners to carry a mobile phone constitutes a very sensible race safety feature - even if he did get the descent to Fullwood Stile Farm wrong for the second (or possibly third) year in a row.
See you all again next week for the Stanage Trail race, and here’s wishing a safe journey home to Nicky, when she’s finally had enough of touring the length and breadth of the country.
| Position | Name | Club | Class | Time | Comment | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Gregory | Dark Peak | M45 | 00:48:51 | ||
| 2 | George Yates | Dark Peak | M50 | 00:54:07 | ||
| 3 | Kev Saville | 00:55:36 | ||||
| 4 | Kerry Saville | Dark Peak | M55 | 00:55:45 | ||
| 5 | Martyn Jones | Dark Peak | M50 | 00:56:22 | ||
| 6 | Helen Elmore | Dark Peak | W50 | 01:01:39 | ||
| 7 | Nicky Spinks | Dark Peak | W55 | 01:01:39 | ||
| 8 | Mike Annett | Dark Peak | M60 | 01:06:06 | ||
| 9 | Willy Kitchen | Dark Peak | M55 | 01:08:11 | ||
| 10 | Keith Holmes | Dark Peak | M70 | 01:10:03 | ||
| 11 | Barry Needle | Dark Peak | M80 | 01:30:54 |