Tough conditions at Narradale are No Barrier for Taggart

Posted on July 5th, 2010 by TomC

Report thanks to Rob Sellors

A decisive victory for Lloyd Taggart notched his wins to 7 in the Manx Fell runner’s league this season. In a time of 1 hour and 50 minutes, Taggart comfortably beat record holder Simon Skillicorn’s time of 2 hours and 10 seconds in the same race in 2008.

Solid performances from Ian Gale (2nd place) Simon Skillicorn (3rd) and Nigel Armstrong (4th) demonstrated their consistent form this season with close finishing times and a very creditable run also from Peter Bradley wrapped up the top five, all under the 2 and a half hour mark. Winning the ladies race today was Lorraine Stigant in just over 4 hours and taking the Veterans over 60’s prize was Dave Young in just over the 3 hours.

Conditions for the 17 runners (4 of whom opted for the early start) were diabolical in the early stages with driving southerly gales and heavy downpours, providing very difficult running conditions on this already challenging 12.5 mile route, starting at Sulby Claddagh, and then ascending up through Ohio plantation before reaching the first summit of Slieu Mannagh. The route which then descends to Block Eary followed by a punishing climb up to Snaefell summit affords many route choices and runners needed the help of map and compass to navigate in the mist.

A particularly gruelling course all round was rewarded with celebratory sunshine towards the finish as runners descended from the Mountain Box to Glen Auldyn before the final climb up to the Millennium Way track and then back through the plantation. All runners deserved congratulations for competing today, even those that managed to take several unplanned detours, including the stray runner who ended up in Ramsey and had to trudge wearily along the TT course for 5 miles back to Sulby.

A special thank you to all the marshals, timekeepers and route markers who braved the elements and supported the runners, as well as the land owners.

Full results are here

The next race, the penultimate one in this season’s calendar on 17th July at 2.00pm is the James Coulson Laxey Fell race, starting at Glen Roy Farm. For further information. please visit the MFR website here

Filed under: Narradale

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2 Responses to “Tough conditions at Narradale are No Barrier for Taggart”

  1. Lewis, on July 5th, 2010 at 8:16 pm Said:

    Hard, but very satisfying when it was over! A big thanks to the marshalls for their patience.

  2. Peter, on July 5th, 2010 at 10:50 pm Said:

    Thanks to the poor souls that marshaled - I ran and I loved it especially climbing up Snaefell! Didn’t get my compass out once, which meant I nearly ended up in Ramsey too! Great fun :-)

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