View from the Organisers Chair

Sarah Brooks
This was my third year organising the entries for Totley AC at the UKA Fell and Hill relays and this year I had a plan! The plan was based on minimising the stress that is invariably involved with multi-stage application processes and events that are away from home. I have written about my two previous experiences – the first year describing the shenanigans that happened before, during and after the event and the second year describing the stress that arises when trying to make sure that 30 very active people are healthy, available and have transport for a weekend away all at the same time. I just knew that this third year had to be better.
Total spoiler alert – this year the process was smooth and stress-free and I have only praise and thanks to our runners for their outstanding commitment and hard work on the day, the organisers at Todmorden Harriers for making this a truly enjoyable experience, and to Totley AC for generously funding our entry fees.
Well done to everyone who ran.

But, there is always something worth writing about and this year it’s the disappointment that comes from not being able to guarantee that everyone wanting to run will be able to.

Before I go any further, let me describe the event a bit more. It’s a team relay event which this year involved 199 teams from clubs all over the country. Each team has 6 people who tackle 4 legs of a different distance and different technicality, this year somewhere between 8.4km and 14.9km.  Legs 1 and 4 are solo legs, legs 2 and 3 are pairs legs. All legs are mostly or partly flagged with the exception of leg 3 which is a navigation leg.   The elevations ranged from 492m through to 818m. The idea is to provide a tough but enjoyable fell running experience for everyone with each leg providing something a bit different.  Full details can be seen here including photos and full results: https://www.todharriers.co.uk/fell-relays-2026/. 

Last year thirty of us came back from the relays in Southern Snowdonia on one of those highs you only get when you’ve been worried about something but you end up enjoying yourself much more than you ever thought possible.  Our enthusiasm and enjoyment of the event caused a stir and I had people asking back in October 2025 could they be part of the team for 2026. So, I started my list early and when it came to think about entries in July, I already had 16 names and the bare bones of five teams. What a dream! 

The initial application process started properly for me in mid-July. I sent out a Google Form to our members to gather expressions of interest. By the end of July, my numbers had gone up from 16 to 36 and from that I was able to put six teams together and submit them before the deadline on 18^th August. 

For this event, rather than just entering a race like most of us would do, there is a ballot process. This means that we enter our teams and wait to see which ones are pulled out of the hat.  This year we entered 6 teams (FSEN, MSEN, FV40, MV40, MV50, Mixed Open) but had only 3 accepted (FSEN, FV40, MV40). This was a huge blow. It takes such a lot of time and emotional energy to recruit people, put them together in a team and assign them to the most appropriate leg. On the runners part, it can be a big decision involving family discussions about availability, childcare and logistics.  To tell people that they might not be running is something I really don’t want to have to do. 

As part of the ballot process you have an opportunity to appeal but only for the Senior and V40 category teams. You aren’t allowed to appeal the V50 teams or Mixed Open teams. What was immensely frustrating this year is that where in previous years there have been two more ballot stages and you were able to enter the teams that weren’t selected again, this year the initial entry window had been oversubscribed meaning there were no more ballot stages. 

I duly wrote an appeal letter for the MSEN team to the same person as last year using the same reason but with even more conviction. She actually replied to me this year to say that she’d read my email and would be in touch once the decisions had been made. If nothing else, my bleeding heart story about nurturing young talent clearly touched her and I felt the immediate building of a letter accusing the FRA of being heartless and cruel in response if we weren’t successful.  Anyway, we were successful which resulted in us having 4 teams and I could shelve my contempt for the vagaries of the ballot system for another year. 

There was a slim chance that if any other teams pulled out of the MV50 and Mixed Open categories we might be offered a place but as the weeks rolled on, it became clear that was unlikely to happen. It truly makes me sad that I was unable to do anything about it. Some of the names in the MV50 and Mixed Open teams are some of our most experienced fell runners and had been on the list for almost a year.  To not have them as part of the experience felt wrong so I nominated them as Support Crew and tried my best to help them feel part of the experience. Four of them ended up running as replacements for those who became injured which made me feel a bit better. 

The day itself was a perfect fell-running day. Not too hot, sunny and with great visibility. Todmorden was about a 2-hour drive. Parking is never close by and usually involves a trek with camping chairs, bags of clothes and food for the day. Thankfully we were able to get our incredibly heavy gazebo dropped off outside the venue and a few of us managed to man-handle it into the best position, right by the finish funnel. We saw all of our runners come in and were able to give them a loud cheer as they finished. The post-run meal was a delicious-looking hog roast or spicy bean burger. As usual, the day goes by in a blur and before you know it, you’re packing up and saying bye to everyone. This year my niece was running for her local team from the Lakes so I got to see my sister and niece and I took my little dog Kiki to double up as emotional support animal and Totley mascot. All in all, an excellent day out. I got to go to sleep on the Saturday night knowing I didn’t have to worry about it the next day which is always a nice feeling. 

I’m sure you’ll all hear about the event from around the club so I’ll leave my story there for now. If you think you fancy it for 2027 please let me know and I’ll add your name to my list. Details are generally confirmed about December time but the rumour is it will be in the Lake District. 

Michael Pattrick
‘You might want to keep that Saturday free’

Words of wisdom from Susie some time at the beginning of October.

For various reasons I have never been much of a company man (or should that be a club man). And yet I found myself being adopted by the Walls for the day.

It is hard to pick a highlight of the day. It really was brilliant from beginning to end.

It started on Thursday, yes, with two days to go. ‘We’re a man down on the nav leg with Jake for Saturday…..Are you available?’. I’d agreed reasonably quickly and within 16 hours I’d had 5 (yes, 5) offers of a lift. Totley is a friendly club after all.

So I found myself getting in the car with 4 Walls (2 competing, 2 still at primary school) at 07:30 in the morning. We must all take note that the Walls made up 12.5% of the competing runners and with any luck that number may increase as time goes by. Jake and I had both done our homework. I’d realised that Jake had recently put in a jolly good time at the Nine-Edges, Jake quickly informed me that I ‘wasn’t on Strava’. Both of us had been somewhat nervous we’d been pared with a mountain goat. Fortunately, Susie had been the voice of reason and knowledge in both of our ears and reassured us that we were well matched. Whether she was trying to set us up for a long term relationship is anyone’s guess.

We were on Leg 3, the navigation leg. Start time was a moving feast and was somewhere between whatever time leg two came in and 13:30 for a mass start. We made our way to kit-check at about 13:00 and then loitered. At least one of us did some form of cursory warm up. The mass start was pushed back to 13:45 and I took the opportunity to use the facilities. Or, at least, that was my intention. Within 15 seconds of telling Jake of my plans, we heard the announcement that Totley were coming through. Before I knew it Jake and I were ready and waiting for Alex and Nial to charge down the finishing funnel. They had put in a solid shift on leg 2.

And we were off. Leg 3 started by following a flagged route for roughly 1 mile. It was a hard, steep start and we both knew we had a long way to go. At 1 mile we were presented with 2 maps with all of the checkpoints for the remainder of the leg. We settled into a lovely rhythm, chatting about the route, life, the universe and everything. After about 500m Jake sportingly said aloud ‘do you agree that we’re here on the map?’. I looked down, I looked up, I looked down and I knew there was only one way we could both survive this, which was with honesty; ‘to be honest Jake, I have no idea where we are on the map’.

I suppose the question is why? I’m reasonably confident with map reading, I’ve walked a lot in the Peak, Eryri and the Lake District. But I have mostly used 1:40,000 maps. We were given a 1:15,000 navigation map. It quickly became apparent that I was underestimating the distance we had traveled on the map. Or, to put it in Jake’s words ‘it took me a while to find my bearings’.

A gentle descent on an easy track led us to the first checkpoint before a slog up a steep trod. This was one of those trods which on a map has the appearance of a path, or is it a right of way? Whatever this was or was not I can assure you it was steep, muddy and not well trod. We were having a great time. We picked our own line over to the second checkpoint close to a wind turbine. Tussocks and bog was the theme of the next 45 minutes or so. An absolute beauty of a descent followed to the bottom of Tower Clough. It turns out that both Jake and I are pretty confident descenders. As usual for me I found a pretty deep hole and made sure I entered it. The first fall of the day was without any major injury. Perhaps Jake was wondering who this clown was and whether he would be carrying him back to the finish.

Every descent that doesn’t take you to the finish line can only mean one thing, you are going to pay for it with an ascent. Through a wood on a decent track we shared our past experiences of spending many hours neither lost nor found on forest tracks. They never really appear on OS maps. You never really know where you are but eventually you end up somewhere you might have wanted to be.

Mudclaws and wooden bridges. Two things that should never mix as I was about to find out. The left foot was sort of planted but only for a second before I found myself seemingly sitting on the bridge with both my legs in the water. The bang was loud enough for Jake to hold back laughter long enough to check if I was okay. We carried on, caught a lovely fence line which I’d assumed was a wall on the map (is it ever possible to tell the difference?). Before we knew it were at checkpoint 4 and treated to another beautiful descent through tussocks. The kind of descent where you don’t really worry about falling as the ground looks and feels like it would cushion any kind of fall. Not slippy enough to worry, but loose enough to bring a smile to your face. That’s what fell running is about. The sense of freedom, the joy of bounding downhill in a world and a time where everything is uphill.

Another tough mini slog up besides a stream brought us to the sixth checkpoint. Heroically, I volunteered Jake to hold the dibber for the leg. This gave me the opportunity to observe Jake going the extra yard (or 20) to safely log our journey. I’m sure that Jake appreciated my humility in allowing him this great honour.

A meandering line around a wall through yet more tussocks brought us to a fast descent along a lane, past Hazel Greave Farm to the next checkpoint. I was still struggling with the ratio of the map. Luckily for me we were in the company of a couple of runners from Dronfield and, more importantly, I had Jake to keep me on the straight and narrow. I was soon treated to a particular highlight. Jake and a few others took the racing line down to the eighth checkpoint. In Jake’s case this meant a dramatic, full pelt descent close to a fence (was it barbed? Who knows, I was watching from a safe distance). Another competitor realized Jake had the best line and tried to sneak in front, whilst avoiding the fence, ducking under a very low branch, with a smile on his face Jake somehow avoided catastrophe and his lithe frame nipped in front of the opponent with no harm done. It was a delight to see in real time and no description could really do it justice.

The next section was not our finest hour. A reasonably big group used their combined map reading ability to get us to the one and only section marked as out of bounds. We had to take a different line which lost us a bit of time before regaining the main route. The majority of those around us followed suit. The final checkpoint to the finish was a descent back through the woods, into the park before the sprint finish down the funnel.

Nathan was already well on his way round the final leg and Tom, after putting in a phenomenal first leg, was there to welcome us back in.

So, what did I learn?

1. if you are going to read a map, make sure you look at the scale and understand what it means
2. if you are going to do a navigation leg, make you get along with your partner. If you’ve not met before then make sure you trust the people who have set you up
3. keep smiling and have a sense of humour. Winning does not always mean coming first. I got to know Jake before, during and after the run. We got along brilliantly. I had no moments of regret
4. these events are special and a great way for Totley runners to compete together with others and themselves
5. I have only been a member of Totley for 3 months. 5 people offered to take me to the relays. I have enjoyed every Tuesday run I have been on and I have loved putting on the Totley vest at races. I always thought I was not a company man, but I suspect I hadn’t found the right company to run with until now

If you have got this far then well done. Thank you, Sarah, for organizing. Thank you, Tom, Susie and Rachel for throwing my name into the hat. My biggest thanks is to Jake for letting me step in at the last minute, making things seem so easy for the whole run, laughing just enough at my comedy slips for me to know he cared I wasn’t actually hurt, carrying the dibber with grace and chatting all the way round. It really was a great day out.

Here’s to next year and many years afterwards.

Jo Hicks
By the time leg 3 (nav leg) came around, there was already a fair distance between the first and last teams, and waiting in the starting pen were myself (Jo Hicks – having never run an orienteering or navigation race, I seemed like an obvious choice to represent Totley) and Jo Brown ready to set off for the Totley women’s open team, alongside the women’s 40 team (Roz and Ruth). The men’s open team handed over just before the mass start, while the two women’s teams set off at 1:30 in the mass start. This turned out to perhaps be somewhat beneficial as I learnt the navigational tactic of following the faster fell runners ahead, with a brief glance at the map to make sure the direction we were heading made vague sense and saving time on debating our location between ourselves!
The route headed up through the autumnal woodland for about a mile to a point where we were handed our maps, and then stayed predominantly on open moorland, passing through a few farms, pine woodland and oak-sided stream valleys. The sun was shining, the visibility was good, and the temperatures were optimum for pushing yourself without overheating! All checkpoints were found without too much difficulty (although I was in charge of the dibber, and Jo did have to remind me to actually dib it in the checkpoint a few times…). Some checkpoints did involve splashing up streams or through tussock-y bogs, but you’d expect nothing less from a fell running competition!
Despite my lack of experience, Jo Brown’s superior speed navigation skills meant the women’s open team made it back to be cheered over the finish line by our Totley club-mates! Shortly followed by Roz and Ruth. Sarah Brook’s home baked goodies and wonderful organization meant everyone was where they needed to be at the right time, and crossed over the finish line with smiles on their faces (unless I mistook a few grimaces for smiles).