2012 Season - Fellrunners 'Leap' into Action

Latest news from Lad's Leap

Simon Bailey today's winner in 44:16

We'll bring you more tomorrow but in the meantime, here is a picture of Men's winner Simon Bailey and a link to a pdf copy of the results kindly given to us by the organisers. At the time these were printed the organisers were unsure where one Bingley runner (James Senior) came. We're sure they will rectify this as soon as they can.

Men's Results

Ladies Results

Emma Clayton, ladies winner collecting her prize

The 2012 FRA English Championships season gets a jump start this Saturday with the Lad's Leap Fell Race in the Peak District.

Lad's Leap - The Race
The Race is 5.9miles and 1700 ft. It starts from the campsite at Crowden on the Woodhead Pass. For a couple of miles, as the route climbs up on to the moor, it is very runnable. A noteworthy attraction at this stage of the race is a tall post which marks the site of an aircraft wreck.  Shortly after crossing Lad's Leap, the cleft in the moorland the race is named after, the route reduces to a stretch of unnavigable heathery hell (that has a mission to untie as many shoe laces as it possibly can) that we know the more traditional fellrunner will relish.

"Triple tie your shoe laces or I will destroy you!"

After a short (but not exactly sweet) descent, the runners will need to climb a cruel fire track for 'a good while' back to the Lad's Leap and then prove their worth, racing back, reversing the route they took on the climb to the moor, past the aircraft wreckage post, trying not to lose the places they gained in the heather or on the climb (depending where their fellrunning fortes lie).

The Lads

Rob Jebb at Lad's Leap 2003 - photo by Steve Bateson

The entry list is interesting reading.....It includes;

• Bingley's Rob Jebb, who was forced to drop out of the Championships last year when he dislocated his shoulder
• Borrowdale's Morgan Donnelly, the 2011 British Champion
• Dark Peak's Lloyd Taggart, who went on to win the 2011 English Championship 
• Howgill Harrier Carl Bell, who's been cleaning up the vouchers all winter in the Lake District
• Pudsey and Bramley man Graham Pearce, who proved strongest at Winter Hill, the star studded 'Best of the North West' race in February
• Ilkley's Tom Adams who beat Graham Pearce at Ilkley Moor two weeks later
• The CVFR posse, Ben Mounsey, Karl Gray, Gavin Mullholland, Shaun Godsman, James Logue etc
• P&B's Rob and Danny Hope, will Rob be back on form and will Danny have been training? 
• Plus Ambleside's Ben Abdelnoor, Borrowdale's Chris Steele, the Helm Hill Addisons and many many more!

Here's the entry list so you can make your own predictions.

The Lasses
It's going to be an interesting race for the ladies too. The ladies set off separately to the men (at 12 noon) and the list includes Emma Clayton, Lauren Jeska, Jo Waites, Helen Fines, Sharon Taylor, Hazel Robinson and Lou Roberts who have all been running well all Winter. The ladies entry list is here 

Here's Lou at Lad's Leap in 2003 - photo by Steve Bateson

The Records 
Male: Lloyd Taggart – 00:41:36 – 2005
Female: Natalie White – 00:50:46 – 2005

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Mark Aspinall at Lad's Leap 2003 - by Steve Bateson

Lad's Leap was a Championship Race nine years ago on 16 March 2003 and that's when the photographs we've used above were taken.

Suzanne Budgett at Lad's Leap 2003 - by Steve Bateson

Why not take a trip down memory lane and look at the rest of Steve Bateson's photographs or even (if you dare) have a look at the times people ran nine years ago to see what the 2012 runners will have to beat, now they are nine years older.

Fell Running Briefs will be at Crowden on Saturday (17 March), bringing you the news as soon as we can. Follow us on twitter (@fellrunninbrief) for the earliest updates, which also appear at the top of this page. The ladies run at 12 noon and the men are due to set off at 1pm. See you Saturday!

Marvin's picture of the route from the FRA Forum