Meltham AC had another great weekend of running this week. Starting with new member Jeff Miller running the iconic Fairfield Horseshoe fell race on Saturday 11th. The race from Rydal House near Grasmere in the Lake district took place in terrible weather with wind and rain lashing the runners.  As Jeff said “serious climbs, fast descents, route finding and tricky terrain; all wrapped up in wind, rain, hail and cloud”. A full report and results can be found here.

On Sunday 12th the next championship run, The Sheffield Half Marathon, was run from the Don Valley stadium in Sheffield. Meltham were lead in by Penny Ditchfield again in a great time of 1:25:52. Adele Tayles achieved a PB with her time of 1:50:11. Other runners were, Mark Cope, Richard Beaumont, Tony Crosby, Gilly Markham and Ruth Thomas, in a great club effort all ran under 2 hours. Full results here.

Meltham AC members were running in the Bluebell Trail 10 on Sunday 5th May. The 10 mile multi-terrain race through woodland, canal towpaths, tracks trails, cobbled streets and a river crossing is hosted by Stainland Lions, thank you to them for a fantastic event.

Congratulations to Penny Ditchfield who posted a great time of 1:17:44 to win the Ladies race. Penny was aided by Andy Whitworth 1:17:45, followed by Mark Hoath 1:35:04, Christian Lloyd 1:35:04, Mike Harrison 01:46:23, Gilly Markham 01:47:27 and Martin Sturdy 01:54:14. Full Results can be found here

Well what a weekend of running it has been this week at Meltham AC with outstanding achievements by three members of the club, Penny Ditchfield, Hayley Lomas and Jeff Taylor.

Things started at the Park Run on Saturday 27th April morning when four of our runners ran PB times. Gilly Markham ran 26:48, Adele Tayles ran 23:05 and Tony Daniels ran an 19:00, but the outstanding run was from Penny Ditchfield whose time of 18:51 was an outstanding PB time, making her the fifth fastest lady at Huddersfield park run

On Saturday also Hayley Lomas completed ‘The Fellsman’ ultra marathon, 61 miles and 11,000 feet of the Yorkshire Dales starting in Ingleton and finishing in Grassington it is one of the iconic events in the fell running calendar. Not only did she complete the course but she did it the week after completing the London Marathon. Truely a huge achievement of endurance almost beyond imagination.

On Saturday the three members of the club, Steve Perren, Nick Thompson and Andy Lang took part in the Lakeland trails Hawkshead event with it famous coffin trail mile long hill.

On Sunday 28th Meltham had a number of runners in the Yorkshire Vets second race at Honley. Gilly Markham was second in her age category in 59:42, but after moving up an age category our oldest member, Jeff Taylor won the M75 category in 61:06. A truely inspirational run Jeff and one that we all hope to be able to emulate.

Congratulations to our London Marathon runners this year.

Mark Cope – 3:56:54

Hayley Lomas – 3:57:09

Nick Thompson 4:33:02

Well done to Mark and Hayley for getting under the magic 4 hour mark, particularly as Mark picked up an injury in the last weeks before the Marathon. Well done to Nick as well, an excellent time considering this was his second marathon is as many weeks, having previously completed the Paris Marathon in 4:24:59. A real feat of endurance, well done Nick.

Please click here for the club calendar for April / May 2013.

The Lakeland trail series started again with the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Race. Steve, Nick, John and Andy where running again in exceptionally muddy conditions over a fantastic course. There are a number of tough hills with great views over Morecambe bay. After 10 miles of hard muddy running we managed to clean off in the stream just before the finish.

Following the last race of the season, the final championship tables of our current season have been calculated.

Congratulations  to the winners:

Ladies Champion - Gilly Markham

Men’s Champion - Paul Elliott

Ladies Handicap Champion – Fiona McArthur

Men’s Handicap Champion – Mark Cope

Ladies Fell Champion – Gilly Markham

Men’s Fell Champion – Ray McArthur

Ladies Fell Handicap Champion – Fiona McArthur

Men’s Fell Handicap Champion – Mike Harrison

Team Championship - Gilly Markham, Giles Bailey & Mark Cope.

Full Tables can be found here :-

Championship

Handicap

Fell Championship

Fell Handicap

Team

There was a great turn out from Meltham AC at the Huddersfield Road Runners on Sunday 24th Feb with 16 runners competing the tough course. The race was won by Mohamed Aburezeq of Altrincham & District AC who beat the 16 year old course record by 17 seconds. First Meltham runner was Penny Ditchfield in 40:52, she was 26th overall, second lady and first in her category, a real great run. John Hobbs was first in the M70 catergory with a great time of 46:56. Other runners who came in the top five of their categories where Tony Daniels, Ray McArthur, Jeff Taylor, Adele Tayles, Gilly Markham and Fiona McArthur. Penny Ditchfield, Hayley Lomas and Adele Tayles where also the third female team. Well done to all on a great days running, full results can be found here.

Meltham Athletic Club held its Point to Point race on Tuesday. There where five pairs of runners who had to run between five out of six points around Meltham marked by post boxes. A map of the points can be found here.

Due to snow fall during the day and then rain conditions were not the best with slushy paths and ice cold puddles and streams on footpaths. The competition was handicapped to the usual club handicaps and won by Steve Perren and Gary Spivey, full results below:-