By Mountain Goat
The British Mountain Running Championships where held on Saturday past in the Cumbrian village of Sedbergh. The race was also doubling up as the Senior Home International race, which meant teams would be entered from Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. It would also be the trial race to select the British team for the European Mountain Running Championships in Macedonia next month.
David Hicks and Zak Hanna where selected to run for Northern Ireland in the race and travelled over on Saturday morning after an early start to catch their flight.
Arriving in Sedbergh with the rest of the team members which included Mourne Runners’ John McKee, who was making his Northern Ireland debut on this occasion, the weather was somewhat different to what we had back home as the cloud was covering the mountains. It was raining and the mercury struggled to rise above 15 degrees.
A high quality field had lined up for this race and the best mountain runners in Britain where aiming to score points for their home nation and also aim to secure their spot on the British team.
The course took place over 2 laps on the Southern Howgill Fells overlooking Sedbergh, heading along a rolling trail towards the first steep climb to the main summit of the race at Arant Haw, before turning back to descend down towards a fork where the runners would head right to the second summit on Winder Fell. After this it was a fast, steep descent down towards the start/finish line where the 2nd lap would begin to do it all over again, covering a most 11km with over 800m of climbing.
Zak Hanna was first runner home for Northern Ireland in a time of 50:15 as he came home in 9th place overall which ranked him in the top 10 mountain runners in Britain, and this also saw finish as 3rd Under 23 runner. David was 4th runner home for the team in 32nd place after a strong run which saw him gain a lot of places on the descents off Arant Haw and Winder Fell; David finished in a time of 56:36.
The excitement for the day didn’t end there as David, Zak and John were dropped off at Liverpool John Lennon Airport. 45 before departure they found out that their flight was in fact delayed with no flights home until Monday morning! Quick thinking revealed the overnight boat from Liverpool to Belfast and a quick taxi ride ensured they got to the docks in good time. An 8-hour sailing, sleeping on the sofas, wasn’t what was planned but it made for eventful conclusion to the weekend.
