Nopesport

This morning saw the second incarnation of the South Ribble event "The Tim Watkins British Blodslitet." Inspired by the Scandinavian event held by Fredrikstad Ski Klubb, the Blodslitet is an ultra long distance mass start race with butterfly loops to split up the packs of people chasing. Today's event was held on Bethecar Moor in the Southern Lake District, and the 150 competitors were greeted with beautiful sunshine and spectacular views across to the Old Man of Coniston and out to the sea. Temperatures were bitingly cold, and there were some very long times!

The real man's race, the A Class, was (and a quote the co-planner here Steve Ferguson of South Ribble here) "a ridiculously long 19km," with a brutal kilometre of climb. Much of this was in the descent to Nibthwaite, a small patch of woodland way down towards Lake Conistion, which provided a change in navigational style and certainly served to split up the pack on the hellish descent down, the lower visibility within and the equally hellish climb back out to Bethecar! Mark Nixon led this race for much of the way, with a convincing lead even at the second butterfly, but hit the wall about 4km from the end letting a small pack through. After a mistake in the final sections, Rob Baker of South Yorkshire emerged as the victor, finishing in a huge 2 hours, 26 minutes and 32 seconds. Junior John Rocke,a very talented track runner now of Sheffield University and Leicester showed true class in terrain, finishing in huge amounts of pain only 10 seconds down on Rob after the gruelling race in front of a quality field. Veteran Andy Kitchin of Scottish club Interlopers was annoyed to miss in the final stages, but completed the top three two and half minutes down.

The women's race was slightly underplanned at 12km, but a quality field still made for an exciting race. Mhairi Mackenzie of West Cumberland showed her strength by leading the pack for most of the distance, and doing by far the most impressive descent towards Nibthwaite seen that day, snatching a close victory in a time of 1.46.55 from Pippa Whitehouse of Cleveland Orienteers and Jenny Johnson of South Yorkshire. First junior was Lizzie Adams of Sheffield Hallam University and Southampton orienteering club, just at the back of the leading pack.

As expected, the Men's Veteran race was the biggest class of the day but not the most closely contested. M45 Michael Billinghurst, a local from West Cumberland took victory, over a minute clear of Harvester Planner John Tullie of Roxburgh Reivers. These two were well clear of the chasing pack, who were a further 8 minutes down. Leading Veteran Woman on the D course was multiply England capped Dorothy Pelly, W45 of Lakeland, a minute clear of local rival Debbie Thompson of West Cumberland.

Course E was for the older Juniors, and rapidly improving M14 Jonney Malley of Newcastle and Tyneside was the clear leader by over nine minutes, taking 1:15:53 for 7.3km.

All in all, a fantastic competition, providing head to head racing at all levels with some tricky navigation and gruelling physical challenged. Well deserved winners took home huge jars of jam donated by Fredrikstad Ski Klubb. Here's hoping this wonderful and original event will continue to grow in popularity over the next few years. Many thanks to all the organisers and helpers on the day, for standing around in such icy conditions!