This was the second year of the midweek Blorenge night fell race. It’s clearly a niche event – probably perceived as being a bit of a stiffer challenge than your average fell race. However, this route is never steep and all runnable for the majority. It’s well marked so even the navigationally challenged need have no fear of misadventure. There are no ‘technical’ sections save a small rubble filled and leaf covered gully of around 20m.

The weather stayed fair and on the traverse of the north face participants were once again treated to the twinkly night vista below – some even noticed it.

Huge thanks to Andy Creber for deploying all the reflective markers in the afternoon – no one strayed off-route.

Last year it was difficult to record bib numbers in the dark at the finish so this year we used chip timing. Another big advantage is that we were able to display the ‘live’ results at the finish so everyone was able to see their time, overall position and category position as soon as they cross the line… and the only delay in giving prize giving is the time taken for the race director to get a bun and coffee down and have a chat.

Many thanks to Mike ‘grizzly’ Evans and Andrew ‘happy days’ Dickens for getting out to the two marshal points and to Anne ‘big smile’ Jenner and Steve ‘coming back from injury’ Hepton for sweeping. Thanks also to Andy Creber for serving buns and drinks back at HQ – apparently, he does this all the time at home too.

Although a tad slower than last year both Paul Murrin and Helen Brown successfully defended their 1st places. Mynydd Du turned up in force and claimed both team prizes.

Hope to see you all at the Sugar Loaf Night Fell Race in November where we will have several cunning plans to ensure course integrity, and at the day time Blorenge Fell Race in December.       Paul Dodd