Clayton Le Moors dominate in Manx Mountain Marathon
Clayton Le Moors athlete Paul Thompson took the spoils in Easter Saturday’s Okells Brewery sponsored Manx Mountain Marathon. He led from start to finish taking his 4th win over this gruelling 31 mile course in a personal best time of 4 hours 42 minutes and 17 seconds. It was a good day all round for the Clayton Le Moors club with Wendy Dodds taking the ladies title and the men winning the team prize.
The island’s premier fell running event was once again included in the Vasque Ultra Running Championship which helped to boost the entry. Unfortunately the inclement weather and the subsequent disruption to the ferries over the holiday weekend meant that a number of competitors were unable to travel.
Buoyed by a strong northerly wind, it was Paul Thompson who set the early pace through the Elfin Glen an on to the first checkpoint at North Barrule. Pudsey & Bramley runner Richard Pattinson was second to the checkpoint just over a minute behind with Dan Gay, Andrew Brierley, Jonathan Wright and local fell runner Simon Skillicorn all in close company. The frozen ground made conditions tricky on the tops as some competitors struggled for grip but this was no problem for Thompson as he continued to extend his lead.
By the halfway mark at Greeba, Dan Gay had moved into 2nd place, with Pattinson and Brierley in close company some 3 minutes back. The unrelenting pace had proved too much for Skillicorn and, after months of preparation he began to lose touch with the leaders.
By South Barrule, still some 7 miles from the finish, Brierley had taken 3rd spot and a sub 5 hour time looked well within his grasp. The Fife AC man is a regular competitor at the event and has shown consistent and steady improvement over a number of years. Another regular, veteran Bryan Carr had come into contention too over the latter part of the course.
At the finish in Port Erin, Thompson was confirmed as the winner with Dan Gay some 5mins back in 2nd. The race for 3rd, and the first Vet40 prize , proved extremely close with Brierley finishing ahead of Carr & Pattinson, less than 90secs separating the three of them. 1st V50 went to regular MMM man Pete Booth of Clayton Le Moors in 5hrs 44mins & 1st V60 was a good friend of the MFR club, Roger Ashby of Sale in 7hr 25mins.
Simon Skillicorn finished first local, claiming 8th position in a very respectable time of 5hrs 6mins. There were some big personal bests for the other leading Manx athletes with Ben Scott finishing 10th in 5hr 11mins and Anthony Bell-Scott 15th in 5hrs 34mins. The fast finishing Richard Sille (5hrs 42mins) just pipped training partner Rob Sellors to 17th place and David Griffin was the final local runner to dip under the 6 hour barrier. The Manx Fell Runners trio of Skillicorn, Sille and Griffin claimed 2nd prize in the team competition.
In the ladies race, Wendy Dodds led from the start taking the victory by almost half an hour from Pip Fitzpatrick of Manchester Harriers who had an excellent run on her debut. Just seven minutes behind her was another former winner, Clare Kenny, who this time had to settle for third.
The only local lady competing was Cal Partington, her first attempt over the full Mountain Marathon distance. She was delighted to finish in a time of 7 hours 6 minutes for an excellent 56th place overall.
Half Marathon
There was another good entry this year for the Half Mountain Marathon, which takes place over the latter part of the full course, starting from St Johns. Last years full course winners Lloyd Taggart and Jackie Lee were clear favourites and did what they do best by taking convincing victories and setting new course records in the process. Lloyd’s win was particularly impressive considering he’d taken a wrong turn through the Garey Gate section meaning he had to double back up the course at a cost of some 3 or 4 minutes.
Second in the men’s race went to Pudsey & Bramley runner Ian Nixon with last year’s winner, local man Tom Cringle taking third position in a time 4mins inside the previous course record.
In the ladies race Jackie Lee was dominant finishing in 1 hour 56 minutes 37 seconds with Jean Shotter runner up and Isaline Hughes 3rd. Leading local lady was Rose Hooton finishing 20th overall.
