On Sunday 4th January, the 3rd race in the East Yorkshire Cross Country League took place in the grounds of Sledmere House. The 2 lap, undulating 7 mile route took runners twice round the the beautiful parkland with grass and woodland trail sections. The cold, crisp, bright weather was great for running but the frozen ground was hazardous with lots of ankle wrenching ruts and hummocks. Josie Rawes absolutely flew round in an awesome time of 47 minutes 25 seconds, placing her 1st female. She was closely followed by Mike Richmond in 47 minutes 54 seconds, Kirsty Brown in 52 minutes 43 seconds, Kelly Richmond in 53 minutes 6 seconds, Richard Robinson in 54 minutes 27 seconds and Paul Smith in 57 minutes 48 seconds. An exciting battle ensued between Andrew Garside and Lucy Saggers, both clocking 58 minutes and 8 seconds, a time which earned Lucy the 2nd F55 place. They were closely followed by Mike Wilson who finished in 58 minutes 30 seconds. Karen Farmer-Scott was 1st F60 with her time of 58 minutes 36 seconds. Next came Dave Owuor in 60 minutes 21 seconds, Rich Johnson in 61 minutes 20 seconds, Alice Hayter in 65 minutes 3 seconds, Suzy Hodgson in 68 minutes 32 seconds and Carol Wilson in 70 minutes 46 seconds. Jenny Richards tripped on the icy ground, breaking her glasses and injuring her face. She bravely ran the rest of the race without glasses and went on to finish 2nd F65 in 71 minutes 50 seconds. Then came Martin Sunley in 72 minutes 1 second, Karen Harper in 75 minutes 31 seconds and Sally Brown was 3rd F65 in 75 minutes 37 seconds.

On Saturday 10th, The Long Distance Walking Association hosted The Scarborough Rock, an event in their
Challenge Walk series. As with the Sledmere event, runners were treated to crisp cold, clear skies and sunshine but once again, conditions were tough underfoot, this time with snow and ice. Nick Cousins joined 87 competitors tackling the long route, 24 miles with 2,666 feet of climb. Nick found the slog through snow tough but still finished 21st with his time of 6 hours 39 minutes. Simon Jones made short work of the short route, 16.5 miles with over 1,500 feet of climb. Simon was 2nd overall out of 138 competitors in a time of 2 hours 31 minutes. Rachel Morley also had a good run finishing in 3 hours 27 minutes placing her 25th overall.
Karen Farmer-Scot and Serena Partridge took a more leisurely, chatty approach and enjoyed the well appointed and supportive check points completing the route in 5 hours 14 minutes. Karen Harper also took a relaxed approach, completing the route with friends in 6 hours 36 minutes.