Kilnsey Show 2017
The highlight of the annual Kilnsey Show is the Crag Race. Fell races (where people run up and down hills - for fun) are not uncommon hereabouts but the Kilnsey race is arguably the hardest of all. The 2 km course starts in the valley bottom and heads directly up the fell side to the top of Kilnsey Crag and then (literally) straight back down, skidding down the scree slopes. The record was set in 1982 at 07:35 minutes, by local runner Mick Hawkins and has not yet been broken.
This year, the Senior Men's race was won by Nick Swinburn from Northumberland Fell Runners club, in 08.03 minutes. He is the guy (120) in the photo above. At that point, just after starting the race, he was in second place. A former competitor, Roger Ingham, said of it: 'The Crag Race is explosive - you need to be in pole position half way up because it's hard to pass on the scree - and it's fearsome coming down.' Nick seems to have taken that to heart and appeared to be in a good position from an early stage.
In the photo below the runners are streaming across the lower slopes. Their destination is the red flag, among the people at the top right!
Incidentally, some of the guys from my camera club were up there taking photos. You can perhaps see one of them in dark clothing on the left of the runners, with a light-coloured dog (below). They got some incredible pictures... but you wouldn't ever find me up there! There was someone taking video with a drone too.
The descent from the top flag is precipitous!
A round of applause for a worthy winner!
Not a hobby to be taking up in my retirement, methinks.
ReplyDeleteWow, just two kilometres but boy that must be both hard and tricky.
ReplyDeleteEgads! That's a steep slope. Nice pictures
ReplyDeleteIts amazing what we people will do for fun.
Good lord, I can see a lot of scraped legs doing that!
ReplyDeleteCrazy!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun to see and to photograph. I see a lot of road races around here, but none remotely like this.
ReplyDelete