Not many races in the calendar this week, but of significance was the penultimate event in our 2022 road championship, the Brampton to Carlisle 10 Mile. The other race was even longer, the Slaley Hall & Forest Half Marathon.
Brampton to Carlisle 10 Mile Race
Sunday 20th November 2022 saw the 70th running of this popular road race. There aren’t a lot of 10 milers these day, but this one, hosted by Border Harriers, is claimed to be the oldest having first been held in 1952.
The course starts in Brampton, heading west along open and part closed roads (A689/B6264) through the villages of Newby East and Crosby on Eden, finally finishing on a fast downhill section across the bridge over the river Eden in Carlisle.
The conditions couldn’t have been much better; it was cool at around 6 degrees, dry and mostly sunny. A slight headwind coming into Carlisle was the only thing that the competitors had to contend with.
Otherwise, the scenery, the well marked course, and the attentive marshalls made this a race to really enjoy.
On the day we had three Elswick Harriers finish in under 60 minutes in a very competitive race. The overall winner, Phil Sesemann of Leeds City AC, finished in only 48:47. The first female was Steph Pennycook, also from Leeds City AC, in a time of only 56:33.
From field a of 711 finishers Elswick had a very respectable showing:
| Athlete | Overall | Chip Time | Category Pos |
| Luke Hilliard | 28th | 55:00 | 23rd |
| Daniel Spoor | 59th | 57:44 | 35th |
| Andrew Ball | 79th | 59:12 | 8th |
| Paul Taylor | 260th | 1:09:18 | 17th |
| Simon Allen | 262nd | 1:09:26 | 12th |
| Robert Lambert | 266th | 1:10:06 | 13th |
| Debbie Spoor | 353rd | 1:14:53 | 8th – 74th female |
| Louise Allen | 430th | 1:19:01 | 15th – 110th female |
Slaley Hall & Forest Half Marathon
Also held on Sunday 20th November there were two Elswick Harriers who braved this trail 21.1km race.
Richard Houghton commented “That was awesome but a little naughty, fell on my ass twice but such good fun“. He also seemed to enjoy the scenery, “those views though. Need to do more races like that.“
| Athlete | Overall | Chip Time | Category Pos |
| Richard Houghton | 11th | 1:38:04 | 4th |
| David Hodgson | 121st | 2:41:40 | 15th |
