Reported by race organiser, Chris Hubbard
The Stuart Learmouth Memorial Undulator Race was run on Sunday 23 October. The race was fittingly started by Stuart’s wife Kate in the pouring rain. This year the race attracted over eighty participants despite the appalling weather – I guess that’s fell racing!
The day started off wet. A half-hearted attempt was made by the weather gods to clear up as the race proceeded, although Harborough Rocks was still shrouded in mist right to the end and justified having more than one marshal at that point to guide runners back through the mist. Unfortunately, runners ended up ascending back into the mist once more as they ran across Carsington Pasture. It was an impressive sight to see each runner appear below the mist line as they descended into Carsington.
From an organisation point of view, we had several issues. The wind blowing a course direction arrow in the wrong direction, a slightly altered route from the one advertised, cows attempting to eat the signage as they sheltered from the horizontal rain and a technical issue with WebScorer. Overall, the feedback from racers was positive despite the issues. Next year the signs will be secured in a more wind resilient way, and the weather will be considerably better. Well, I cannot guarantee the last point, but I’m hopeful!
The race was won by Havey Maguire with a time of 1:02:34 and the 1st female was Chloe Leather with a time 1:11:30. Both impressive times, well done to you both! The age category winner are as follows:
Female category winners
- FV40 Esther Broughton
- FV50 Joanne Howett
- FV60 Jane Farrell
Male category winners
- MV40 Jordan Street
- MV50 Philip Chritchlow
- MV60 Andy Hodkin
- MV70 Mick Moorhouse
Full race results can be found here WebScorer link Wirksworth Undulator 2022 | Race results | Webscorer (https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=295295)
Once again, congratulations to all those who took part and well done to all the winners. A huge thank you to the volunteers who all did a fantastic job. Looking forward to seeing everyone next year.