Great Whernside Fell race - 2006

After 2 years of fantastic weather for this event it was too much to hope for a third year the same. At 10am I was forced to make a decision whether or not to shorten the route. At that time the clag was down to 500 meters with snow, sleet and hail being driven by strong westerly winds across the fells. Casting aside my rating in the popularity stakes I decided to err on the side of caution and directed the summit marshals to man the cairn above Hag Dike at 500 meters, which would roughly half the distance of the route. In typical fashion when the race began at 11am it was fine, but that's life!

Simon Bailey now took full advantage of a shorter faster course and flew back a full 22 seconds ahead of Ian Holmes and Rob Jebb who were stride for stride towards the finish funnel. My money was wisely on Holmsey who nipped into the funnel ahead of his junior.

In the women's race it came as no surprise that English and British Champion Natalie White had a real flyer coming home in 16 th position just over a minute ahead of Calder Valleys Jo Waites.

Picture shows winner Simon Bailey (93) flanked by 2nd Ian Holmes (110) and 3rd Rob Jebb (199)

My thanks go to sponsors Ronhill for their generosity in supplying vouchers, to the marshals and funnel team for getting cold and wet, to my secretarial team for keeping warm and dry in the camper van, to farmers, land owners and publicans for putting up with such a motley crew on the day.

Just for the record I calculate it as 2.5 miles 950 feet.

Written by Peter Jebb