It’s been a busy start of the month for both the seniors and juniors at Buxton Athletic Club both on roads and on the fells.

A number of athletes took part in Lads Leap, the second race in the senior English Fell Championship, held at Crowden. First Buxton runner back in the men’s was Tom Spencer in 7th place (2nd under 23) followed by Sam Soles, Jonathan Sewell and William MacDonald.  The women were led home by juniors Amy Whelan in 25th place and Connie Jenneson in 46th place followed by Jo Bednall and Heather Fryer Winder.

Connie was then in action as week later at the Wirksworth Incline where she was 4th female in the senior race.  She led home fellow Buxton runners Jon Colebrook and her father Mark Jenneson.  In the junior race, Erin Colebrook was 2nd overall and first girl whilst Joel Tidmarsh was 5th overall, 3rd boy.  Finally, the Colebrooks also starred in the under 11 race with Nola finishing 2nd overall and 1st girl and younger brother Harris finishing 3rd overall, 2nd boy.

With the lighter evenings, it was then time for the first evening race of the season with Herod Farm race on the hills on the edge of Glossop.  Although only 3 miles long, this race can boast 340m climb making it tough for even the hardiest of fellrunners especially with wet and boggy conditions underfoot due to the amount of recent rain.  Jake Fearn led the Buxton runners home in 16th place but followed by several of the Buxton juniors with Jonty Brown in 21st place, Joel Tidmarsh 23rd and William Aspinall in 26th place.  Connie Jenneson continued her streak of fell races finishing 32nd overall and 1st under 18 girl.  Next in was Jo Bednall followed by William MacDonald, Mark Jenneson, Rebecca Cudahy (4th under 18 girl) and Pete Bailey.

Less than a week later, Connie was in action again, this time in the Lake District hills with the first race in the English Junior fell Running Championships held at Duddon.  Moving up to a new age category of under 19s, Connie had a fantastic performance to finish 2nd under 19 girl.  She was joined in the races by fellow Buxton runner Joel Tidmarsh.

Also in the Lakes, two older Buxton juniors travelled to Keswick to compete with some of the best fellrunners in the country .  In the England Athletics Mountain Running Championships, Tom Spencer came 5th (3rd u23) overall.  He then competed two days later for Derbyshire in the Intercounties Uphill Running Championships where he placed 6th and helped the Derbyshire team achieve third place.

Meanwhile, several Buxton runners took to the local hills in the Kinder Downfall race, a 9.6 mile race from Hayfield which follows the edge of the Kinder plateau.  Running on his home ground, Sam Soles took the honours of first place.  Jake Fearn was 4th whilst Stu Diamond took 2nd male under 23 and Jo Bednall first female vet 50.  Also running from Buxton AC were Ben Light, Nick Jones, Will Throssell, David Reeves, Callum D’Souza, Will MacDonald, David Newton, Heather Fryer Winder and Jasmin Reeves.

Moving onto the roads and there seems to have been marathons galore for the Buxton runners.  At the Manchester Marathon, Buxton were led home by veteran Jon Sewell who finished in 3 hours, 16 minutes and 14 seconds.  He was followed home by fellow veteran runner, Wendy Higginbottom with a sound time of 3 hours, 32 minutes and 24 seconds.  Also completing the tough 26.2 mile course for Buxton were Rebecca Corbett, Carl Nolan, Paul Markall and Matt Heywood.  

Meanwhile, Katie Rolfe travelled across the Atlantic to take part in the Boston Marathon, one of the six World Marathon Majors.  Whilst taking in the fantastic atmosphere over the undulating course, Katie managed to complete the course in 3 hours, 43 minutes and 8 seconds.  Whilst most people would then take at least the next week or two to recover, there was no time for Katie who then flew straight home before making her way to London to complete the London Marathon 6 days later in a respectable time of 3 hours, 45 minutes and 8 seconds.   

Katie was joined in London by some of her Buxton team mates who were also running the marathon.  First Buxton runner home was Mark Sherratt who was 18th veteran over 55, completing the course in 2 hours, 51 minutes and 50 seconds.  Also running the streets of London were Gemma Tredwell and George Webb.  

Further afield, and in much colder conditions, in Switzerland, Kyle Fowler took part in the Zurich Marathon where he had a storming run finishing in 43rd place with a time of 2 hours, 34 minutes and 56 seconds.