It's the last Blast in Kielder...
This Saturday sees the last championship racing for 2012 as far as England is concerned, with runners heading far North to Kielder Castle and the Kielder Blast race and the last round of the 2012 English Fell Running Championships.
Looking at these images it would appear to be more of a trail than straight-up fell race, so should be interesting. A member of the NFR club also describes the route on the FRA forum as follows:
A couple of weekends ago, I went around Will’s Kielder Blast route for a second time (couldn’t find part of the route first time!). It’s quite a mix of terrain as you might expect at Kielder, taking in the rough with the smooth – all in all, it should be quite a blast! I think Will has done well to come up with some new and interesting sections, and I’m looking forward to racing around on the day.
Much of the course will be familiar to those who’ve done Grey’s Pike or the Borderer before, but some of the route will be new to runners – and some of it seemingly through uncharted terrain! Will assures us it will be impeccably taped so there shouldn’t be any navigational problems on the day.
The Kielder Blast route
So, the racing…
There is a list of pre-entries here, but as the race takes entries on the day that isn’t really a guide as to who will or won’t be running.
As far as the ladies current standings are concerned Lauren Jeska has that title sewn-up to add to her 2012 British title, but there are still the medals to be fought for and the team standings look tight between Dark Peak and Calder Valley.
In the men’s championships Simon Bailey looks to be in control here, and possibly with an unassailable lead if he races and finishes reasonably to the fore, as those points would then be his ‘Other’ points.
Bailey leads Donnelly at Lad's Leap
However, the medals (silver and bronze) couldn’t be closer, with Morgan Donnelly (191), Ben Abdelnoor (191) and Lloyd Taggart (190) all in the mix. But, Lloyd it appears is running the Manx Mountain Marathon and we believe Morgan is doing the 3 Peaks CX!
Numbers were never my strong point, but looking at the short scores Great Lakes winner ‘The Noor’ could have the most to gain if he runs, and runs well, as he has 45 from the Lad’s Leap race. Again, it’s all hypotheses, so we will wait and see who is on the start line and healthy and await the results with baited breathe come Saturday afternoon.
The team champs on the men’s side are also close with Dark Peak leading Borrowdale by 5 points, but again the boys in purple could profit with a strong showing in this short counter, and with vets category prizes also up for grabs the racing should be fierce, of that we can be sure.
Ladies are off at 1pm with the men away at 2 and you can keep up to date with all of the usual Twitter and Facebook feeds and via our news after the event here on MST.
