Fell-running is a natural sport for our county, yet it’s one that I haven’t seen much of over the years.
Visits to Ambleside Sports and Grasmere Sports, as well as seeing runners emerging while playing cricket at Keswick, have been only real sightings.
So I thought it was time to find out how the sport is progressing which is why this week’s guest is Derek Hurton, a former runner now involved in coaching youngsters in the sport.
Can you tell me a little bit about your background and how you started in fell running?
I ran a bit at school, cross country and athletics, but the number one sport there was rugby union so that was mostly what I did, playing on the wing. In my early 20’s I started running and biking to keep fit.
One weekend we stayed with friends in Yorkshire and ended up going for a run on the moors around Halifax. After that it was a short step to the same friend entering me for a race in the Bowland fells east of Lancaster, and that was it.
You mentioned that you don’t run competitively now but coach and encourage youngsters. How is that progressing and is there a good core of keen new fell runners?
The last few years I’ve suffered with wear and tear in my knees and feet so I find it hard to race the downhills. I’ve been coaching juniors for nearly 20 years at Eden Runners in Penrith.
We have about 70 junior members aged 8 to 18. It can be hard to get them to have a go on the fells but some of them are keen. In recent years we’ve had a few juniors who’ve gone on to run for England or GB mountain running and they’ve been great role models for the other juniors.
Other Cumbrian clubs – particularly Ambleside and Helm Hill (Kendal) – have a real focus on the fells and turn out a conveyor belt of junior talent which is great to see.
On a broader scale, how is the sport of fell running faring across the county?
Like most sports, fell running took a hit in the last couple of years with most races being cancelled in the covid pandemic.
I don’t think race entries are back up to pre-pandemic numbers yet, although that’s gradually changing.
One quirk in 2020 was that a lot of long distance records were broken because during lockdown athletes had more time to train.
The massive growth of the off-road-running scene in recent years has resulted in a lot of people coming into the sport, but sometimes with a different, more commercial mindset.
To my mind the best events are the Wednesday night summer races that take place across the county. These tend to have fewer runners and more of a local feel but are fiercely competitive. Afer the race you end up sitting in a field at the bottom of a fell somewhere, having a craic and a pint.
How many clubs are we talking about who operate in the county?
Ten or 12 clubs are dotted all around the county from Black Combe in the south west to Northern Fells – based around Caldbeck; and from CFR in the north western fells to Howgill in the east, with Ambleside, Keswick and Eden more in the middle.
Keswick have been the Real Madrid of the men’s fell running scene for a few years now, attracting the galacticos who come north for the running.
During the season how does it operate? Are there leagues for teams, open competitions for individuals, events for men, women, boys and girls?
In the past racing generally happened from Easter to October, with just a few smaller events in the winter. Nowadays there are races throughout the year. The Fellrunners’ Association publishes a calendar which includes around 400 races across the course of a year, ranging from a mile and a bit to 40 or so miles.
The British Open Fellrunning Association (the FRA/BOFRA split is a legacy of the amateur and professional divide) puts on a series of typically short and very sharp races throughout the spring and summer, often at country shows.
British and English Championships take place each year, each with a series of races in different parts of the country. With age groups in the championships there are men and women racing up to their 70s. The national junior championships provide racing for age groups up to under-18s.
In the months after Christmas the Kendal Winter League is a series of short races in the south of the country and north west Yorkshire, again across the full age range.
The Lakes is clearly a natural for fell running but which other areas of the country have clubs and how well do they do?
There are strong fellrunning clubs in all the hilly parts of the country – parts of Yorkshire and Derbyshire (Wharfedale, Calder Valley, Pudsey & Bramley, Dark Peak) and Lancashire (Barnoldswick and Horwich), plus outposts like Mercia in the Shropshire hills.
You’ve mentioned coaching and encouraging youngsters have you any star names in your group – or potential stars of the future?
At Eden Runners Juniors the stars in recent years have been Eve Pannone (GB & England mountain running), now racing in the senior ranks and winner of this year’s senior British Championships, together with Ben O’Dowd (also GB & England mountain running).
There are a couple of youngsters currently at the club who I think could go on to great things but I’ll keep their names under wraps for the moment.
Is there a blue riband event for Cumbrian fell running and if so what does the course entail?
The races vary so much that it’s hard to pick particular ones out – and everyone has their particular favourite.
Some of them are big events like the Grasmere sports guides race which is a straight up-and-down, mile-and-a-half, finishing in the show field in front of hundreds of spectators.
Wasdale, at the other extreme, is a 20-mile, rough, demanding circuit of the fells that surround the lake, finishing over Great Gable and Sca Fell Pike.
The event that clubs want to win is the Hodgson Brothers Mountain Relay. ‘The Hodgson’, as it’s known, caps off the season in October with a relay, with teams of 8 running in pairs over four legs around Patterdale.
In a sport which is mainly about individual effort, running with a partner is memorable – especially if you’re the weaker runner in the pair!
I’m lucky enough to have been paired at times in the Hodgson with my children– some of my best ever fellrunning memories.
Undoubtedly there will have been some outstanding fell runners in Cumberland/Cumbria over the years, who are the ones that stand out?
The most famous names to those outside the sport will be legends Jos Naylor and Billy Bland from the 70s and 80s. Pauline Stuart was unbeatable in the mid-80s and husband Kenny still hold the records for some of the classics.
Names from more recent years who might stand the test of time include Yorkshireman Rob Jebb, now running for Helm Hill, and Keswick’s Carl Bell. Another Keswick runner, Hannah Horsburgh, achieved legendary status at Dufton last year by coming 4th overall (men and women!) in the one-off British Championship race.
Those in the know would give the Greatest Of All Time honours to the Borrowdale team that dominated the sport from around 1995 to 2010.
What about international fell running. Which countries are involved and how have Cumbrian runners generally fared?
There are summer races across Europe, but often on courses that are less rugged than those in Cumbria. This may explain why, on the whole, the international scene hasn’t been as fruitful for our county’s runners.
In recent years the world’s best distance running nations have begun to dominate. Uganda and Kenya took most of the spoils at this year’s World Mountain Running Championships held in Thailand.
A notable exception to their dominance was Leven Valley’s Jess Bailey who won Junior Gold.
