THREE Lostock members travelled to the Yorkshire Dales to compete in the Three Peaks Race – dubbed the ‘Marathon with Mountains’ and all did well.

Thomas Grundy, Mark Shuttleworth and Samantha Sale joined around 500 other competitors setting off from the start line and made their way along the village lanes adorned with well wishers before hitting the stony track that leads runners to the first ascent up Pen-Y-Ghent.

Shuttleworth sat back in the pack while Sale overtook Grundy on the climb up as the leaders were already making their way back down the mountain.

Once you’ve hit the top its an about turn and back down the fell where Grundy returned the favour and overtook Sale and disappeared into the distance.

Then it’s a good eight miles or so run to the next checkpoint at Ribblehead just at the bottom of Whernside, where Sale caught up with Grundy and passed him again and then made good progress on the ascent up Whernside.

Shuttleworth, still going steady, succumbed to cramp as he ascended Whernside and as a result struggled to increase pace on the descent but still made the cut off in Hill Inn.

After a quick drink at the checkpoint at Hill Inn, Sale was back on her way with Ingleborough in her sights.

By this time the heat of the day was taking its toll on runners with a number retiring at the last checkpoint. Grundy was also feeling the effects of the heat by this point.

After reaching the top of Ingleborough it’s a u-turn and the six-mile descent home as fast your legs will go and Sale was first back for Lostock in 4hrs 38mins, ahead of Grundy (5:00:00) and Shuttleworth (5:27:00).

It was an early start on Saturday for Lostock AC’s Albert Sunter and Mark Sammon who set off from Ingleton at 6am on the 60 miles race to Threshfield competing in the Fellsman.

During the course of the race, participants climb in excess of 11,000 feet (3,400 metres) and cover some very testing terrain including Ingleborough, Whernside, Gragareth, Great Coum and Dent.

At around 19.5 miles in, Sunter took an unfortunate stumble which resulted in bloody fingers and a cracked rib ruling him out of going any further on medical grounds.

Sammon reached a fantastic 38 miles and seven fells before injury also forced him to retire.

It was a great effort from both men on a day it just was not meant to be, but their competitive nature means they will both be back in action as soon as they recover.

Also on Saturday, but nearer to home and sounding much more inviting, Rachel Stevens and Jo McManus competed in the ‘It’s a piece of Cake 10K’ at Boggart Hole Clough.

The course was three loops of the park with quite a steep hill halfway through each loop and the heat made for a tough run.

But the homemade cakes at the end made it worthwhile.

McManus finished in 49mins 28secs, followed by Stevens in 55:42.

The following day, three Lostockers took part in the Worsley Woods Ladies’ five-mile trail race.

First run in 2019, the race was moved to the scenic trails of Worsley Woods to take advantage of the well-maintained woodland paths.

Rachel Hancock, Jocelyn Chadderton and Francesca Corcoran all took part in the race which is a pretty flat route, out along the Worsley loop line then a couple of wooded sections and a long straight to the finish.