2025 : UK Fell Relays, Wales
The UK Fell Relays are an annual highlight of the UK Fell running scene. Unlike other running disciplines who seem to have team relays of many and various flavours, in fell racing there is just one – keeping it simple and really focusing our attention on that one weekend in the annual diary – mid October. This year the event was hosted by what I think is a new club to the event – Meirionydd Runners who are based in Southern Snowdonia. A huge thanks to their club and their community for making it all work out so well.
The race format is 6 runners per team covering leg 1 short solo, leg 2 long paired, leg 3 long navigation, leg 4 short solo. We’d been to several iterations of the fell relays now as a club so we naively thought we knew what to expect but boy were we wrong when we got to the car park!!! Opposite the car park was the race routes – about 600m of vertical and it was literally that – almost vertical! The only saving grace being that they were mainly grassy with no rocks – which seemed to make most harriers more smiley
The event centre was compact but concentrated and it was great to see club tents everywhere with the Belper Harriers flag being the first tent we could see as we entered the field. Andy & Wyke had stayed overnight the night before in their campervans and had kindly set the tent and flag up ready for us when we all arrived.
It was great to see all 24 racing harriers arrive safe and well on the start line – previous years have seen many last minute dropouts and there’s been lots of lurgies around recently so I personally was very thankful that there was no last minute surprises as our reserves were very thin on the ground! Everyone arrived at the event with a heady mix of excitement and nerves but also of shared club friendliness and warmth. Fell running brings the best out of folk as we typically don’t worry about gear or tech but just want to battle nature and the mountain was reassuring to see new friendships emerge as many of us hadn’t met before and importantly it was great to observe everyone looking out for each other assisting where they could and lending a hand. As the race got underway we were all keen to see how leg 1 runners found the course – how steep it was, how much running there was and how much bum sliding on the descent too! It turned out to be quite off the scale in terms of difficulty – steepness both up and down were unrelenting – with even our strongest runners saying it was bonkers and mental!
The “short” leg 1 was only 4km, but no one felt short changed as it took our runners between 35 and 60 mins to complete less than a parkrun! Expressions on faces were a real picture as everyone was so excited to hear how the leg 1 runners got on and their thoughts on running in the Meirionydd. You can see the photo below of Ant “debriefing” everyone after his leg 1 epic. We soon got into a rhythm of cheering one leg off then cheering the next leg in, followed by the mandatory debrief session to see how everyone was finding it.
The fell relays never disappoint in terms of difficulty and being pure technical fell as all legs involved sections of almost climbing on the ascent followed by bum slides on the descent – with Simon Lloyd adding on a forward roll or two too for good measure!
The navigation leg also excelled this year – surprising everyone by taking them onto the opposite northern side of the road and out into the huge open expanse beyond the 550m ridge we could see from the event centre. Where it excelled was by taking them into areas rarely visited by anyone, let alone runners – with leg 3 covering a small proportion of the vast tract of desolate but stunning wilderness area which extends as far north as the Arans and eventually Lake Bala.
There turned out to be quite a tussle in the results between our Open Men and VM40 teams with youth winning over experience by 6 mins in the end.
Results courtesy of Sportident
The weekend was topped off with a stunning drive through some of Wales’ finest scenery north to our accommodation in the superb Vagabond Bunkhouse in Betws y Coed followed by a big celebratory meal, drinks, much merriment and I think several games of pool into the early hours.
2024 : Malham YHA
October 24 saw 18 keen smiley Harriers head up to the Yorkshire Dales. We’d pre booked Malham YHA which is absolutely perfect for runs of any distance. Car shares, rooms, pub meals, runs and breakfasts were all lined up in advance for us so we could all just concentrate on the task of enjoying a few days away with running friends. The original plan had been to enter several teams for the UK Fell Relays a few miles up the road, but strictly limited capacity on the event meant we will defer that until 2025 instead.
The weekend was an absolute pleasure with no stress, maximum chin wagging, loads of laughs and of course stunning running among some of the best trail scenery in the UK. Going on weekends like this enables us to actually “connect” more as a group of friends instead of being just a collection of runners.
The local Charlesworth Chase fell race on Sunday gave the hardcore of us quite some surprises….. conditions for the race were really really tough with the summit trig point being “like a jetwash” and the super steep muddy and rocky banks offering plenty of challenge. What was the most unique part of the race however was the fact that all participants had to finish a drink (pint / half / soda water) before crossing the finish line!
2023 : Keswick
Read all about our fantastic trip to Keswick in October 2023 here
2019 : Swaledale YHA
Thanks to Darren for a great write up of my favourite weekend so far with the club up in the Yorkshire Dales.
2018 : Borrowdale YHA
2017 : Borrowdale YHA
Another great break which was open to all members of the club.
On Saturday we split up into about 3-4 groups all navigating our way up to Honister cafe. Once there (and we all discovered those Sausage Rolls!) we headed out again in the direction of Keswick – some choosing longer routes than others, but all reconvening and sharing tales in Wetherspoons in Keswick before getting the open top bus back in absolutely glorious sunshine – it was just like being a kid again!
Sunday saw most of us again attempting the Castle Crag Challenge (run to the top of the local hill to clear the head – taking about 15-30 mins) before the heavens opened.
Really enjoyed the weekend and great to see lots of new faces who couldn’t make it the previous year!
2017 : Girls Trail Weekend, Northumberland
{write up below courtesy of Sal Chaffey…Thanks Sal!}
This was my first trip away with Belper Harriers. The race was harder than expected, but we had a cracking weekend! Rachel organised this as a girls trip, and booked Alnwick Youth Hostel for about 20 of us – the early risers for the Marathon & Ultra races in one dorm and those for the Half and 10k in another couple of dorms.
It’s an A–B race, with everyone finishing at Bamburgh Castle early–mid afternoon. So the start times are staggered, the Ultra starting at 8:20, the Marathon at 9:30 – you get the idea. We had to drive to register at Bamburgh and get bussed back to the Start. Registration was in the old stables & we collected our number, dibber and whatever variety of Cliff Bar that took our fancy.
Good thing we were allowed an extra layer for the bus as it was pelting it down during the pre-briefing … and when we got to the Start, one of the feather banners snapped in the wind!
I wished Wendy good luck and off we went. The first 6 miles or so were thru fields, tracks and minor roads down to the coast at Alnmouth – quite fiddly but well signed. From Lovers’ Lane there’s a lovely terrace of pastel coloured ‘Balamory’ houses, then you hit the coast. It’s a good feeling, as it’s here that you embark on the race proper.
Several sections were along the beach and I ran in the water every now and again to nip any blisters in the bud. The exits from each beach sections were marked with a feather banner – which always seemed to be getting smaller rather than bigger :O
The 2nd checkpoint (12.9 miles) was a mile so south of Craster and I got there in 1:59. Jelly Babies, bananas and crisps were the standard fayre – but you had to get the crisps opened for you otherwise it would be salty confetti, it was so windy!
Next highlight was spotting the Harriers bobble hats at the Half Marathon Start. They were just taking a group photo when I ran through! Soon they overtook me tho, on fresh legs.
The romantically ruined Dunstanburgh Castle was next, then another long beach to Checkpoint 3 at 19 miles. The next miles to CP 4 at 25 miles were the worse and I was contemplating opting for the Marathon instead of the 35 mile Ultra, but when I got to the checkpoint, the thought that I only had 11 more miles to do gave me a second wind!
Seahouses was pretty. The last beach was long, and – worse – doing the Ultra you had to loop past Bamburg Castle and run along it twice. But at least I felt on the home straight by now & got a fantastic cheers from Rachel, Claire & other Harriers at the Finish.
The loop continued along the coast across a golf course with views of Lindisfarne Castle (apt: oldies will remember the band’s 1978 single, Run for Home), then turned inland on minor roads and finally repeating the last mile of beach. The thought of a sub-7 hour time kept me pushing, but in the end it was 7:02. I was pretty delighted with this, especially after finding the 2nd Female Vet 50 had done 7:04!
Claire met me at the Finish with cake ‘n’ crisps and lent me her duvet jacket. I watched a few finishers climb up to the castle, then drove back to the YH for a shower ‘n’ chill before a great meal at Lilburns’ in Alnwick where the anti-inflammatory Pinot Grigio flowed!
Here’s a link to the EnduranceLife Coastal Trail Series events. My Women’s over 50 prize was a £10 voucher for entry into another race. I see this one scored 2/5 for difficulty and all the others are harder … so maybe not, but I’m glad I did it!
2016 : Borrowdale YHA, Lake District
Here’s a few things we got up to in Borrowdale ’16…
- Wild swimming in the Rivers and Tarns both days
- 3 group runs on the Saturday ranging from
- Group 1 explored some rocky offpath sections capturing some of the lesser visited corners of the lake district, (up to) 22 miles.
- Group 2 (a and b) ran over Glaramara then Styhead and Great Gable / Honister pass, 13 miles
- Group 3 covered Grange, Catbells, High Spy and Dale Head on the way to Honister, 8 miles
- Optional Saturday afternoon small group Navigation exercise from Honister back to the Youth Hostel
- Fully catered accomodation – breakfasts both days plus 3 course evening meal Saturday night
- The Hostel had a really nice bar too – an unexpected bonus which didn’t help us have clear heads for running!
- We tackled the “Castle Crag Challenge” as a group on Sunday morning – a timed route along the river and to the summit of the nearby Castle Crag.
The weekend was a resounding success, so much so, that we’d already decided it was going to be an annual event before the end of the weekend! See you next year!
