Todmorden Harriers ladies made up one in eight of the field for the Hodder Valley race near the Forest of Bowland.
Lucy Burnett led them to second place in the team competition.
Tod’s second and third counters. Mel Blackhurst and Kath Brierley, also took fourth place in their age categories with Jane Leonard completing the team.
Harriers saved their strongest men’s team for the English Championship counter and finished a fine sixth.
Although only four miles in distance, the 1500 feet of ascent made this a very tough race. After a short flat start the first climb had most runners walking. A brief respite from the climb was followed by a steeper climb and a lung bursting walk to the top when runners were free to career back down to the show field.
The men’s race was won in an amazing time of 32.44 by veteran Morgan Donnelly. Todmorden’s closest challenger was Jon Wright in 39.00, holding off the challenge of team mate Nick Barber.
Ben Crowther, Paul Hobbs and Craig Stansfield battled it out with just 40 seconds separating them and Dave Gardner completed the team in 99th.
Tod times - men: 38, Jon Wright 39.00; 41, Nick Barber 39.17; 57, Ben Crowther 40.36; 61, Paul Hobbs 40.52; 68, Craig Stansfield 41.16; 99, Dave Gardner 43.20; 101, Ivan Gee 43.29; 134, Dan Taylor 46.29; 175, Paul Brannigan 53.09; 181, David Leslie 54.02; 201, Dave O’Neil 72.51
Women: 10, Lucy Burnett 46.25; 27, Mel Blackhurst 49.39; 47, Kath Brierley 54.19; 51, Jane Leonard 56.00; 57, Kirsty Patten 57.59; 63, Catherine Elvin 60.09.
The overcast sky and slight chill in the air, coupledwith relatively dry conditions underfoot, made for good conditions for the 400 or so runners at the Yorkshireman half marathon.
The sole representative of Todmorden Harriers in the half marathon from Haworth was Christine Preston, who completed the course in 2.34.47, finishing in 119th
FourTodmorden Harriers completed the course in the full event.
Steve Pullan was first home forTodmorden, finishing 14th in a time of 3.49.13.
The other finishers were John Allan in 16th in 3.50.55, Jonathan Daniels in 39th in 4.17.08 and Paul Cruthers in 109th in 5.16.40.