Four Past Winners to Clash at the Three Peaks Race

Press Release / 26.04.2018

Four former winners of the Three Peaks Race are returning to the Yorkshire Dales with their eyes on victory and the chance to claim the £500 bonus prize for beating the current record of 2hrs 46mins 3secs.

They are last year’s winner Murray Strain, Tom Owens, who won in 2011, Ricky Lightfoot, first in 2014 and 2015, and Jethro Lennox when the Three Peaks hosted the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championship in 2008.

The record for the current course was set in 1996 by Andy Peace, of Bingley Harriers. As Race Director Paul Dennison says in his programme notes: “Twenty-two years is a long time to wait for a new men’s record!”

The 64th Three Peaks Race, being held at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, near Settle, on Saturday, April 28, is billed as the “Marathon with Mountains”. Its 23.3-mile route takes runners over the summits of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough – a total ascent and descent of 5,279ft.

Owens certainly has something to prove. In near perfect conditions in 2017 he had a minute’s lead on the summit of Whernside and appeared to have a good chance of beating the race record.

But Owens, who is no stranger to the route, took a wrong turning on the descent to the Hill Inn – finishing second, 4mins 22secs behind Strain. Owens’ Salomon International team mate Ricky Lightfoot, a Cumbrian firefighter, also had a bad day, pulling out at the Hill Inn.

Ladies champion Victoria Wilkinson, who is an ambassador for the Three Peaks’ main sponsor Inov-8, is favourite to win the ladies’ race for a third year in succession. Last year she destroyed the ladies’ record and claimed the £500 bonus prize – knocking off five minutes to set 3hrs 9mins 19secs. The Bingley Harriers’ 13th place was the highest ever by a woman.

Victoria, who in theory could beat her own record and claim another £500, faces competition from Nichola Jackson, second female runner last year, Sophie Horrocks, winner of the Ben Nevis ladies’ race in 2016, Annie Conway the women’s World Long Distance Mountain Champion in 2016 and Nicky Spinks, a legend in ultra-distance fell running, who completed a double Bob Graham Round over the Cumbrian fells in 2016 to celebrate 10 years of cancer survival.

But these are not the only contenders. The 2018 Three Peaks is the selection race for the World Long Distance Mountain Championships in Poland in June, so it has attracted an excellent field of 939 entrants. Around 800 are expected to start.

They include Inov-8’s Tom Payn, from Torquay, a running coach, who finished 10 minutes in the lead at the Lakeland Trails Hawkshead Race on April 14 after spending a hard week training on the Three Peaks. He is a first timer.There have been exceptions, but history shows newcomers rarely do well at their first attempt.

Race start is 10.30am. The first runners should be on Penyghent summit in 26 minutes, at High Birkwith at 11.20am, Ribblehead at 11.40am, Whernside summit at 12.10pm, Hill Inn at 12.25pm, Ingleborough summit at 12.50pm and finishing from 1.15pm. https://www.threepeaksrace.org/

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