The clocks moving forward herald longer evenings and the arrival of the South Yorkshire Road league.  Four 5 mile road races held over an eight-week period on a Wednesday evening .  The league has a long history with previous events occurring in places like Dinnington, Dam Flask and Doncaster but it now seems to have settled on a series of races in Elsecar, Lodge Moor, Worsborough and Ingbirchworth.

An impressive total of 70 Striders have signed up to complete at least one race in the series, and 46 were on the start line for first one in Elsecar on April 2nd.  The courses are all approximately 5 miles long, and invariably give the chance to enjoy some of South Yorkshire’s finest hills. Roadworks on the course at Elsecar meant the usual start and finish points had been moved, and a number of people clocked the course at around 300 metres over-distance.

The low key nature of the event was illustrated by us being led out of the Heritage Centre car park onto the main road for the start, and with a quick “off you go” from Keith Binney, off we went.   The first couple of miles climbed around 300 feet up to Wentworth, followed by a couple of miles of rapid descent, with a flatter final section to the finish.

At the sharp end Rob Byers and Naeem Stevens had a great tussle with Rob edging Naeem by just one second to claim 15th and 16th positions.  Annie Chambers finished an excellent third in a fiercely contested women’s race, close behind Barnsley’s Naomi Drakeford and Hillsborough’s Jenny Davies.

 

Prizes are awarded for the top 3 in each age category who complete three of the four races, including the final race at Ingbirchworth.  At present we have Annie and Yasmin lying 2nd and 3rd in the Senior Female category, Gillian Allen second in the F35’s, Karen Clark 3rd in the F60’s, and Kate Waddicor leading the way in the F70’s.  For the men. myself and Jed Turner are 1st and 3rd in the M60’s and Graham Hague 3rd in the M70’s.  All to play for over the next three races.

 

All photos by Malcolm Baggaley

Next up will be the delights of the hills around Lodge Moor on April 16th

The men’s race was won by Mark Jones from Sheffield Running Club in 27.07.  Naomi Drakeford’s winning time was 31.07.

Striders results