Duddon Juniors

Duddon Juniors on Sun 21st Apr 2024

Dark Peak’s junior racers were in the Duddon valley on Sunday – with the races onthe hillside above the Newfield Inn – the slopes of Caw, White Maiden and in between.

As in previous years, the weather was once again kind for this first race of the series  – a dry day with pleasantly cool running temps.

Underfoot conditions however were  certainly not dry – not surprising considering the months of rain. The usually boggy starting slope in particular being more marsh-like than last year. Not to mention the initial slippery stream crossing which always seems to catch a few out. This race has been somewhat of a nemesis for some of our junior runners, so it was great that all the brown vests got round unscathed, most smiling, and with no face-plants into the marsh or other boggy sections. To say that this is not our local turf, all of our juniors looked pretty sure-footed on what was ‘proper’ Lakeland fell terrain.

The setting of the races is great, with the hillside facing across the valley to Harter Fell and the full Scafell range.

We had seven runners, spread across three of the races. All did the same initial hill, then headed left on loops of progressively increasing length and height according to age.

U13s ran a 2.9 km course, and the U15s ran 5 km with a bit of extra height gain.

The U17 race went all the way to the summit of Caw. From the summit they were straight back down the technical hillside – pretty much the same as the final descent of the classic long Duddon Valley race.

We didn’t have any junior in the U19 race, but that age ran with adults on the great Duddon Dash course to White Maiden and Caw, a tough AS - Austin represented for Dark Peak dads.

Also must mention Keith, once again there to help out the junior race scene in the field and on the fell.

This was the first of the FRA junior championships, which are open runners aged 6 or above. The remaining races are Sedbergh (12/05), Shutingsloe (19/05), Rossendale (09/06), Weaver Hills (15/06) and Clwydian Hills (07/07).

Shutingsloe and Weaver hills are both fairly local – western and southern Peak.

Juniors who complete 6 races get a free hoody, and there’s a T-shirt for 4 races.

Full set of results can be found here.

Jon Coe

25th April, 2024