At the start of the festival Team Mountain Fuel's focus was on the Team Trail Cup as with this came a cheque £250 which Mountain Fuels owner Rupert wanted to donate to Keswick FC Juniors to help buy new goals, to replace those which were lost in the floods.
The team this year consisted of local runners James Appleton (50k), Dave Troman (50k), Lee Newton (25k), Mark Lamb (5 & 10k) and Annabel Holmes (25k) who were joined by International Trail Runner Eoin Lennon (25k), Scott Seefeldt (25k), Damian Carr (50k), Matt Hayes (50k), Heather Mochrie (50k) and Shelli Gordon (50k) who won the Hardmoors 160 mile race only a few weeks ago.
The weekend began with heavy rain and high winds for the 25k but this didn't stop Eoin from breaking the course record and putting the first points on the board for the team with Annabel coming in 6th lady and also Lee 7th overall to qualify for valuable team points. Scott was 14th.
Next up was the 5k and Mark was entered and looking for his second win in as many days after wining the Keswick Mountain Festival sponsored Latrigg fell race on the Wednesday night and true to form cruised home a comfortable winner.
The following morning it was the turn of the 50k team and it was going to be a tough call with Trail Running champion Donnie Campbell in the line up however James had an amazing run knocking 20 minutes off last years record and finished a very credible 2nd and only 5 minutes behind the winner. Damian came in 5th registering more valuable points for the team. Dave finished 7th male and Matthew 10th male with Heather 8th female and Shelli 11th.
It was now down to Mark in the 10k and this was going to be a hard one as he was up against World champion Mountain Runner Ricky Lightfoot. The two previous races finally caught up with Mark and despite a fantastic run Ricky came in 1st with Mark 2nd but most importantly that placing guaranteed Team Mountain Fuel with the Cup and more importantly the cash prize so we can help buy some more junior goals.
Rupert from Mountain Fuel said, "It was a fantastic weekend of racing and I'm delighted that everyone not only enjoyed themselves running around on our local trails but also that we have won the cup and can help get the new goals.
We'll also be posting HD videos of all the Trail races on our facebook page
FB.me/MountainFuel so take a look as the scenery was amazing and the races were fantastic"
