Report by Russell:"VARR had a spectacular turnout for this challenging event. First up was the children's (rather the Fun Run) 2 mile course. This was a multilap challenge. The first lap was .75 miles and the second took in the hill from hell, which was very impressive for the younger folk as it proved the undoing of many of the serious runners later in the day.
The main event saw well over 500 runners setting off to run a single lap course taking in woodland, hills, Eccup Reservoir (where we got a much needed breeze), hills, lots of fields, one or two (not many) stiles, hills and thankfully no rain. Did I mention hills?
All was going well until the race organiser introduced Tony Fell (and yes he did) who dropped at the 8 mile marker last year with an heart attack. A round of applause was for a huge well done to Tony who returned this year to do the 2 mile fun run and therefore complete the 10 mile journey, which took him slightly more than a year (these are the things that inspire us all).
Anyway onto the VARR championship. We had a mammoth 15 entries into the race, including one in the 2 mile run, Kara completed the course in an excellent 19:41.
The main event saw the rivals Rick and Michael go head to head. At the end of the day, with just one event to go Rick now leads Michael by 1 point. 640 v 639 respectively. A big cheer to Vikki for her gutsy performance (maybe on reflection she wished she hadn't run after all) and had to pay a visit to the professionals (St Johns). Tom also put in a good performance, but sustained man flu for his efforts.
Personally, I think this is the event when I realised that I am indeed a member of VARR. The point I realised this was when we went over the bridge to Eccup Reservoir. There was Helen, Michael, Rick, myself and Paul (Sanderson), all VARR runners one after the other in that order (for those looking forward to the Big Red Welly Challenge - Helen was leading the 5 of us). This gave me a huge sense of team manship. And I look forward to many more of this over the years. I'd also like to thank the supporters, who are just as dedicated as those running the event."
Times and position as follows:
Dave McGuire 65:11 pos 26 age cat 8
Paul Hedley 69:14 pos 48 age cat 24
Tom Williams 71:51 pos 85 age cat 41
Russell Gardham 75:13 pos 120 age cat 36
Helen Williams 76:39 pos 146 age cat 7
Rick Pullan 77:28 pos 164 age cat 27
Michael Jameson 78:48 pos 184 age cat 68
Paul Sanderson 80:59 pos 209 age cat 61
Vikki King 88:11 pos 333 age cat 33
Janet Glynn 96:23 pos 430 age cat 51
Surinder Bangerh 106:27 pos 520 age cat 77
Linda Glendinning 107:47 pos 528 age cat 60
Kay Fawcett 116:31 pos 557 age cat 87
Liz Green 116:49 pos 559 age cat 30
Kara King 19:41 pos 92 age cat 6
For more photos click here.
