Over 170 runners gathered at the picturesque bar/hotel of The The Calverley Arms this year for Farsley Flyers' second self-guided trail race.

Farsley Flyers is a (free) affiliated running club based at Farsley Celtic, meeting every Thursday evening at 6:30pm and supported by 20 voluntary and enthusiastic run leaders.  With typically 6 run groups each meetup, Farsley Flyers caters for abilities from run-walk 5k through 10K+ with the priority placed on socialising but support for athletic advancement with qualified coaches.

Without giving too much away in case you wish to try the course yourself, the route takes you through lovely tree lined greenery, old cobble roads, alongside becks, a nod to a few cattle, golf courses, kissing gates and beautiful views.  All of which are a delight to try at different seasons of the year and based from a pub with open fires.

The race was initiated with staggered starts of small groups, requiring clocking of start times and end times in order to calculate the overall running time.  This reduces pressure on arrival times and peak numbers but also adds a little excitement to the results as the first folk back may have their pick of cake but may not clock the fastest time!

The self-guided format of race means that the only guidance runners have are the instructions and other runners - there are no directional arrows or stewards providing on-route directions.  It can certainly be said that there is always a little tension in camp waiting for the first runners to arrive back - whilst the route notes are tested, there's nothing like a timed race to know for sure!

The first runners were launched at 6:30pm so breath was bated until just before 7:30pm when the first arrivals appeared.  Over the following five minutes 13 others returned, providing a little relaxation for the organisers - apart from the timekeepers that is, who had to frantically snap down the race numbers and arrival times.  By 8:15 most runners were back and the process of counting up how many were still to return...more fun for the organisers.

With a little relief, every runner made it safely back and we can announce the important result that over 200 portions of homemade cake, buns and tarts were well and truly demolished on the evening.  In addition to that, the timed results for the top 4 places were as follows:

Ladies:
53:00 Louise Williams
53:00 Vicky Stainburn
53:20 Rachel Mackie
53:20 Sarah Grant

Gents:
40:15 Tom Edwards
42:40 Ben Coldwell
44:35 Ali Burns
45:45 Oliver Smith

The strava segment (Calverley Cutting Climb) winners were Vicky Stainburn (2:44) and Ben Coldwell (2:14).

Thank you to everyone taking part; the race helps support Farsley Flyers and therefore hundreds locally.

A big thank you to Oliver Gregory for planning the route and managing all the paperwork (and his wife Siouxsie for making sure the timekeeping was sorted!).  Special shouts to Richard Warren, David Booth, Helen Booth, Clare Miller, Mark Crack and Helen Peel for the various roles including registration, timekeeping, signage and route checks.  A cheers out to everyone who brought cakes for the finishers too.

Thank you to Calverley Arms for allowing the event to be hosted at your lovely place - a very busy bar on the night!

Please feel free to try the route yourself - it doesn't have to be run and is a fun walk with the kids if you let them navigate!  click below for full images of the instructions or a PDF here:

Richard Warren - Farsley Flyer