Seven race weekend for busy Buxton AC

The Hayfield ‘Three Days in May’, a series of three races based in the village over the weekend, kicked off on Friday with junior Will Longden, having recently qualified for a GB vest in the upcoming World Mountain Running and Trail Running Championships, taking first place in the May Queen Race followed by Stu Diamond in fifth place.

The next morning, at Hayfield, it was seniors only for the gruelling Mount Famine Race which, with its hands and knees uphill start, has a fearful reputation among fellrunners.

Buxton was led in by Johnathan Sewell in 23rd place with a time of 1:01:04 followed by Joanne Bednall in 40th place and first Female vet 50 with a time of 1:05:17.

They were followed in by Tania Bramley, 55th, Richard Bouglas, 56th, and Paul Markall, 64th.

Meanwhile, the juniors had an early start on Saturday morning to Cumbria where they took part in the Storth Stampede, part of the English Junior Fell Championship.

Despite the scorching weather out on the hills, Georgia Cudahy came 13th in the U11s followed by Evie Willis and Hannah Cudahy, who were 16th and 21st respectively in the U13s.

In the U15s race Joel Tidmarsh came 18th and Rachel Cudahy 30th while Connie Jenneson was fifth and Rebecca Cudahy 20th in the U17s.

The team was missing Grace Longden who was competing in her first triathlon, the Cheshire Triathlon, winning her age category and coming fifth out of 202 women.

On Sunday morning, it was back to Hayfield for the Lantern Pike Dash.

The senior race heads straight up the face of Lantern Pike from Little Hayfield and back down. Despite racing the day before, junior Connie Jenneson made light work of the calf burning climb to take first lady in 10th place overall whilst her dad, Mark, finished in 26th.

The main race was followed by a junior race which saw 12 Buxton juniors help make up the 24 runners who took part, led home by Oliver Ball in first place and Nola Colebrook first girl.

A group of seniors opted to race in the Youlgrave Pommie Panter where Joanne Bednall, despite her run at Mount Famine the day before, was the first Buxton back in 43rd place and again first female vet 50 with a time of 54:03.

She was followed by Richard Bouglas, 53rd, and Paul Markall, 55th, who’d also raced at Hayfield on Saturday, along with Heather Fryer-Winder, 105th, who was fresh from walking the 20 mile Hathersage Hurtle the day before.

Later in the day Buxton competed in the Shutlingsloe Fell Race, part of the Wildboarclough Fete. Georgia Cudahy kicked off proceedings, coming third girl in the junior race.

The older juniors were able to take on the main, up to the top of Shutlingsloe and back.

They were led home by Joel Tidmarsh in 17th place, followed by Connie Jenneson, in her second race of the day, with second female.

Nick Jones finished with 23rd place, Will Aspinall came 29th then Lucy Bednall, 35th, followed by Jonty Brown finishing with 37th place

In 39th place, and first vet 40 female, came Samantha Willis, followed by Mark Jenneson, also on his second race of the day, in 48th place with Evie Willis then coming 57th and first U13 girl, then Rebecca Cudahy, first U17 girl, in 58th with mum Joanne Cudahy in 72nd.

Closely following was Peter Bailey in 73rd and Hannah Cudahy finishing 78th in a field of 90 finishers.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​