#CountryKids Fell Running Association Junior Championships Todd Cragg

This Sunday saw the opening race for this year's Fell Running Association Junior Championships at Ambleside. My son hadn't taken part in previous years so he decided to give it a go this year. All the races had to cross the historic Miller Bridge from Rothay Park:

There were 6 different age categories and each route was well marked and marshalled. My son and I walked his route so he knew where he was going and I could choose from filming locations.  The under 9 race (for 6 years and over) was just for 1 km and they went up the tarmac hill and back down again:

I captured their race from a few 100 metres below their turn. There were some scary speeds as they raced back down past me:

All the other races were sent over the stone stile to head up onto the actual fell:

They had to run over a wooden bridge and then up these steps:

It was from just above these steps that I filmed the under 11 race:

Once again the routes diverged part way up the fell side with the older runners having to further on:

The route was quite rocky and also followed a stream so plenty of chances for getting muddy:

I filmed the under 13 from at the top of the gully:

They rounded the hill behind me:

Before heading on the descent via a different path (the marshall at this point had to keep saying "go left" as there were runners coming up and down...):

For the under 15 race I had time to capture them both in the gully and on the start of this descent:

The descent route took them past the point where the under 11s had turned to head back down:

With runners of different abilities they definitely needed to obey the keep left on the descent as runners were going in both directions in the under 11 and under 13 races:

The under 17 and under 19 races were descending via the road as their routes were a lot longer. So I had to walk lower down to capture them going up. There was a 5 minute gap between the two races starting. Then I worked my way back to the bridge having to pause and film the runners as they headed towards the finish line:

I finally managed to make it back to the bridge in time to capture some of them as they ran over it:

My son was very unlucky that as there were so many runners in his race he was 3 places outside the points... Let's hope he is able to do better at Blacko! To see the current standings go to the FRA website.