The Lakeland 100 enjoyed perfect weather conditions this year - a mix of sun and cloud and reasonably cool - and this led to some very fast times in both races.
The fields were stacked in both races but unfortunately some of the favourites didn’t have their best days. Paul Tierney, James Elson, Nicky Taylor and Richard Ashton had to drop from the 100, which was a real shame and we wish them all a speedy recovery.
It looked like the course records for both men and women would be broken in the 100. In fact, the leading woman, Beth Pascall, was on course to break the men’s record for much of the race. Beth had an incredible run, finishing in 4th place overall, 1st woman, and smashed the previous women’s record by an amazing 2 hours and 45 minutes. Michael Jones was just outside the men’s record in the end but he won in a fantastic time of 20 hours 30 minutes. Marco Consani continued his great track record at this race, coming second in 21 hours and 13 minutes, and Chris Brookman completed the men’s podium in 21 hours and 26 minutes. Special mention must also go to Duncan Oakes, who finished in 9th place in 22.30, half an hour quicker than last year when he came joint 3rd. Duncan is 51, has a host of fantastic race results to his name, and just seems to go from strength to strength.
In the women’s race Fiona Marley Paterson finished in 2nd place in 29.08 and Ashleigh Bennett was 3rd in 29.25.
We think that there was about a 67% completion rate this year, which shows that conditions were pretty good.
The 50 set off late on Saturday morning, also in perfect conditions. Times were fast in this race as well, with Jayson Cavill taking the win in 7.38 and bettering his winning time last year by 26 minutes in the process. He also just beat Ben Abdelnoor’s course record by one minute! One of the big stories of the day was Casper Kaars Sijpesteijn, great mountain biker and great runner too as it turns out, finishing second in 7.50. Matthew John completed the men’s podium in 8.01.
In the women’s race last year’s winner Sally Fawcett was forced to pull out at Kentmere. Sabrina Verjee took the win in an impressive 8.54. Charmaine Horsfall was 2nd in 9.04 and Jess Gray continued her fantastic year with 3rd place in 9.26.
Full results are available
here.
Photos by Pip Haylett
