For the 71st annual Brampton to Carlisle 10-mile road race, we had a bus full of Heaton Harriers making the journey west, with some fantastic performances.
This is a traditional point-to-point race starting as the name suggests, in Brampton and ending in Carlise. This is a race on open roads and very well attended by clubs across the North East but also North West and Scotland with several professional athletes often taking part. In total this year almost 700 runners completed the route including Olympian Stephanie Davis.
The weather was not quite as nice as it had been for Heaton Memorial the week before, but it remained dry for most of the race even if there was a slight headwind to contend with on the open sections of the course.
With a 10 am start, the hoard of almost 700 runners set off for Carlisle with a very fast start.
Despite racing on a very tough XC course the day before at Thornley, Chris Larkin was Heaton’s first finisher in a time of 52:40 and placed an impressive 11th overall in a very competitive field.
Ellie Reed was the first Heaton woman in 114th place overall in a time of 1:02:54 and was the 5th female finisher. Ellie was also 1st in the V35 age category and ran a PB. Jo Woodcock finished just behind Ellie in a time of 1:03:50 and was the 9th female finisher overall. This was also a PB for Jo. With strong runs from both Ellie and Jo, the Heaton ladies were the 2nd overall female team with Laura Oldfield placing as the third counter for the ladies’ team in 30th overall and running a time of 1:09:12 which was also a PB.
Heaton also had age category winners which included:
Ian Norman – 1st V60 male
Elaine Waters – 3rd V60 female
The race followed the usual tradition of a trip to the pub for a few drinks and lunch before making our way back home to Newcastle.
Well done to all 26 Heaton Harriers who took part in this year’s race. Full results can be found on the Timing Up North Website.