The Coniston Fell Race is an annual
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
fell race
Fell running, also sometimes known as hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off-road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty. The name arises from the origins of the English sport o ...
held in April or May, starting and finishing in the village of
Coniston. The route is approximately in length with of ascent and takes in checkpoints on the summits of
Wetherlam
Wetherlam (763 m) is a mountain in the English Lake District. It is the most northerly of the Coniston Fells, the range of fells to the north-west of Coniston village; its north-east slopes descend to Little Langdale.
Topography
Wetherlam ...
,
Swirl How and the
Old Man of Coniston.
History
The race was first run in 1982 and quickly became popular, attracting some of the best fell runners. In 1985, a bottleneck at the start of the route with 560 runners caused an entry limit of 400 to be introduced for future editions.
In 2016, inclement weather in the days leading up to the race resulted in a shorter route being used, avoiding some of the higher ground.
Coniston has been one of the counting races in the
British or
English Fell Running Championships The first English Fell Running Championships were held in the 1986 season, based on results in various fell races of different lengths over the year.
The winners have been as follows.
*All Jeska's athletics results were declared null and void w ...
on several occasions.
Results
The men's record is held by
Ian Holmes with a time of 1:03:29, set in 1996. Coniston was an English and British championship race that year and despite
Mark Kinch
Mark Kinch (born 11 April 1963) is an English former runner who was a national fell running champion and represented his country at the World Mountain Running Trophy in the mid-1990s.
As a youth, Kinch competed in the 3000m steeplechase but spent ...
running what he described as "the perfect race", he was overtaken by Holmes on the final descent.
The women's record of 1:17:11 was set in 2014 by
Victoria Wilkinson
Victoria Wilkinson (born 19 August 1978) is an English runner and cyclo-cross rider who was a world mountain running champion at junior level and who has several times been a national fell running champion as a senior athlete.
Biography
Wilkin ...
.
Holmes has the most victories, with ten between 1993 and 2018.
The winners have been as follows.
Coniston Fell Race: Past WinnersBill Smith, ''Stud Marks on the Summits'' (Preston, 1985), 528Fellrunner.org.uk: ResultsGraham Breeze, "All Over in 13 Minutes (Classic Fell Races Part 4)", ''The Fellrunner Magazine'', Jun 2004, 59-62
''The Fellrunner Magazine'', Jun 2006, 50"Running - Holmes Shades Coniston Classic", ''The Westmorland Gazette'', 8 May 2007Fellrunner.org.uk: Coniston Fell Race - Cancelled
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The race report in ''The Fellrunner'', Jun 2000, suggests that Louise Sharp was the winner in 1:39:01, but the 2001 championships preview in ''The Fellrunner Magazine'', Feb 2001, indicates that the first woman in 2000 had been Nicola Davies in 1:31:28.
Short course.
References
{{reflist
Fell running competitions in Cumbria