A team of some of the best fell runners from the UK and Isle of Man smashed the course record in The Children’s Centre’s Race The Sun relay last Saturday (May 18). The event – organised by the Island’s leading charity for families and children and sponsored by Mann Made Group - involves teams running a clockwise lap of the Island’s Raad ny Foillan 98 mile coastal footpath starting and finishing in Peel. There are 10 legs of the relay with teams allowed a maximum of 10 runners. Manxman Lloyd Taggart led an eight-man team which clocked 10h 14m 54s easily beating the previous record of 11h 37m 50s set by a team representing The Children’s Centre in the 2010 race.
Taggart was joined by Andy Davies, Tom Beasant, Tom Edwards, Rob Little, Pete Hodges, Neil Northrop and Rhys Findlay-Robinbson. All the team are elite fell runners drawn from either the Manx Fell Runners club or the Dark Peak and Mercia fell running clubs in England. The team was carefully selected to include athletes with orienteering expertise which they used to navigate around a course that was unfamiliar to those team members from off-Island. Taggart says he was confident that the squad would break the record, but even he was surprised by the margin by which it was broken. However, despite the impressive time he says that the course is more suited to a team of cross-country or road runners rather than fell runners.
Race the Sun is so named because the main aim for teams is to complete the course before the sun sets in Peel.
Mark Eastham, Adventure Events Fundraising Co-ordinator at The Children’s Centre, congratulated the winners and thanked all of the 27 team that took part, plus sponsors Mann Made Group and the Up & Running store which provided various prizes. He added:
“The weather this year meant that it was more like Race The Rain than Race The Sun, but there were tremendous displays of team spirit throughout the day which just added to the experience. So far this year’s event has raised ?8,800, but we expect the total to be more than ?10,000 when all the funds have been collected.”
A team from AXA Isle of Man won the ‘Golden Shoe’ award as the top fundraisers collecting a total of ?1,100. Now in its sixth year the event has raised over ?50,000 with money going directly to support vulnerable children and young people in the Isle of Man through The Children’s Centre’s Mobex project. Such is the increasing popularity of Race The Sun that that some teams have already signed up for the 2014 event. Full results can be seen at www.manxtimingsolutions.com.
Photo - The Dark Peak and Manx Fell Runners team which broke the Race The Sun record. Back row, left to right, are Tom Cringle, Rhys Findlay-Robinson, Rob Little, and Tom Edwards. Front row, left to right, are Andy Davies, Pete Hodges, Tom Beasant, Lloyd Taggart, and Neil Northrop.
