Buttermere Sailbeck

Hazel and I arrived in Buttermere on Friday evening to prepare for the race in glorious sunshine.  An hour later, half way through putting up our race registration tent, a torrential thunder storm set in.  This certainly speeded up operations at our end.  The next few hours were quite spectacular watching the night constantly light up.

The weather for the race started off much kinder but again it wasn't long before the wind picked up, the rain came in and even hail for a time.  This didn't seem to deter the runners and a good race developed out in front of me.

Simon Booth pulled clear from his team mate Mark Roberts only from the last check point, Whiteless Pike, to take victory. Our own Dave Taylor had a brilliant run to finish 3rd with Rhys close behind in 5th.

Borrowdale easily won the team prize again by having 5 runners in the top ten, Dark Peak took second place.

I need to say a big thank you to all the helpers, the hill marshalls in particular had a rough day with some out for many hours.  My sister and her husband (Helen and Adi) took the short straw and stood on Crag Hill again, yes they are still talking to us!  Ian Roberts (Bowland), Mike Fanning (Borrowdale), Lou Roberts (Kendal) all hill marshalled.  Thanks also to Dave Taylor and Cath, Paul Brittleton and Sally (Helm Hill), Mark Graham (CFR), Jon Broxap (Kendal), Gwyneth and Dave Ward (Pennine).

It was good to see a couple of full cars from Dark Peak again