For results, report and photos see http://www.britishfellrelay.org.uk/

report from co-ordinator Will Horsley:

The 25th FRA British Fell Running Relay Championship, Llanberis, 20th Oct 2013.

We were six, including four veterans of the Hodgson relays just a fortnight earlier (Will, Dexter, Emma & Paul). Three of the team had never done the FRA relays before (Steve, Emma & John) and one had never even been to Wales (John). Well, what a welcome it was – rain and wind aplenty. It was also getting progressively colder. Conditions in the old slate quarry were ominous and Emma, our starter, was looking anxious. The race got underway on time and only 47 minutes later Emma came flying down through the top of quarry with a determined look on her face to hand over to me and Dexter for the pairs leg. This was nearly 10 miles with 1000 metres of ascent topping out at over 700m where the winds were gusting at 70mph. Neither of us was feeling too great for various reasons and I think that helped to keep us at a sensible pace at the start. We made really good progress on the monstrous climb and to our surprise we found ourselves overtaking other pairs the whole way, with only two passing us. The wind was so fierce on the ridge that on each stride our legs were being blown against each other and we had to run at 45 degrees to the left of forwards. On the descent Dexter’s competitive fervour and skill came to the fore and we found ourselves in various little duels, only losing out to a pair of Tring runners in final stretch. It was an awesome run and we had given Paul & Steve a good platform for leg 3, the navigation. This is often where relay championships are made … and broken, and from the results I see that our boys secured the team’s place brilliantly, finishing comfortably in the top half of the field for that leg. Now it would be down to John Butters, still a bit injured and surely a bit fatigued from having to hang around all day in awful conditions. But unperturbed he went for the summit of Moel Eilio and brought the team back with a great individual result to put us in 45th place out of 99 teams in the open category. There was over 180 teams on the day so we would have been well inside the top half of all teams. I am so grateful to the people who made up this team, all had their various pressures, constraints and injuries but they gave up a lot of their time, bore expenses, and put in the effort for the club, and that is what the relays are about for me – camaraderie and team spirit. It’s a bonus to get a good result too. Well done all, I hope you have a taste for this competition now! Next year the competition is a bit closer to home (Kirkby Lonsdale) so let’s see if we can field two or three teams.

If you want to know how everyone else got on, including a tremendous set of results for Dark Peak, then have a look here: http://www.britishfellrelay.org.uk/

Some photos (including Ian Hodgson Relays) here

Thanks, Will, NFR Relay Co-ordinator