As Storm Dennis caused chaos and disruption across the country, nothing was going to stop 307 hardy Yorkshire runners from tackling the annual Wombwell 5 mile.
Storm Dennis did its best, but even the flooded start/finish area at Wombwell go kart track wasn’t an issue. After a quick re-hash of the track and a check to make sure the distance was correct we were good to go on the planned start time of 10.30am.
With 300+ runners all huddled on a narrow twisting go kart track, the first 0.4 mile was difficult to get a good early pace, or indeed pass anyone. However, once opening out onto the road things settled down and the first mile out on the road was good going with little or no wind.
Mile 2 saw a bit of a climb up towards Darfield, where a solo Askern supporter shouted words of encouragement. Armed with a camera phone, David Bailey AKA Collo managed to get some quality action shots.
Heading into mile 3 the runners found themselves taking on the flat streets of a large housing estate in Darfield. Here a group of local ASBO teens shouted further words of encouragement. Unfortunately, these words are not really suitable for a family website. However it did the trick as I found myself increasing the pace so as not to find myself returning the encouragement.
We now reached the fastest part of the course with a downhill for mile 4. It was here that we once again came across the solo Askern supporter armed with his trusty camera phone. Either Collo has a twin or he had used his running skills to hastily make his way across the course for more action shots.
The race finally made its way back to the go kart track with some tight turns around some chicanes and a long straight finish. All in all an enjoyable race which was well organised and marshalled.
Finish Times
Steve Barber 32.08
Andy Pidcock 38.30
Brian Watts 43.41
Ken Barber 50.38
For the full list of results, follow the link below:
https://my.raceresult.com/149292/results?lang=en#1_9AEFB9
Race report written by A.Pidcock
