Ricky makes light work of Borrowdale
Ricky Lightfoot on his way to a 2013 Borrowdale win
After a convincing win at last year’s race, Ricky Lightfoot won the classic Borrowdale fell race on Saturday. The Cumbrian took the 17-mile beast in his stride, after a few weeks which have seen him win the IAU Trail World title and finish 7th at Giir di Mont…
Showing now real signs of the effects of his gruelling race schedule Ricky took off from the start and had over a minute lead at CP 1. He steadily built this over a class field including Rob Jebb and Lloyd Taggart, to win by almost 5 minutes by the finish in 2:51:24. Jebby held off Lloyd for second, with a returning-to-form Chris Steel running strongly for 4th.
Chris Steele leads Rob Jebb early on
It was also a testament to the man and to the sport of fell running, that course record-holder and fell running legend Billy Bland was out there marshalling and shaking the hands of the runners as they passed by at one of the early check points, and we’re sure there was a little air of mutual admiration as Ricky passed Billy in this shot!
"How do?" - Ricky bumps into Billy
In the ladies race Nicky Spinks took a great win in 3:53:13, ahead of Kerry Cornforth and Catherine Spurden, showing that the Dark Peak runners’ strength really comes out in the longer fell races.
Nicky Spinks
Full results via the Borrowdale site here, with some lovely images by Paul Dobson here.
