Running: Cavill edged out in race for local honours (From Gazette & Herald)

Running: Cavill edged out in Ryedale Run

3:01pm Wednesday 12th September 2012 in Sport

Pickering Running Club’s Jayson Cavill came mighty close to winning the first local man trophy in the Ryedale Run.

He was just touched off by the excellent Simon Collins from York’s Knavesmire club as he finished in seventh place, clocking one hour three minutes and 25 seconds.

Cavill, who was prominent at the front of the field, was a member of a seven-strong Pickering squad which tackled the 10-mile which started at Eden Camp and passed through Ryton, Great Habton and Amotherby before the final chase downhill into Malton .

Andy Botham was also prominent throughout as the flat, long, Tarmac course was to his liking. Botham clocked 1:05.31 to finish in 12th place.

The Pickering mid-division ran well and all finished in the first third of the race finishers and all within just two minutes of each other.

Richard Todd put in a strong performance, moving away from his team-mates in the early stages and maintaining his strength to finish in 28th position in 1:13.53.

Andy Harvey, Mike Hetherton and Kim England ran as a group through the first half of the race. After six miles, England pushed on strongly to claim third lady in the overall race in 1:14.12.

Hetherton couldn’t match England’s surge and came home in 1:15.39. Harvey is a six-mile specialist and faded in the second half of the race before a strong final mile brought him back to come in just 10 seconds behind Hetherton.

Cath Watson ended up as unplanned pace maker for Paul Tate-Smith who was completing his first race in preparation for the Great North Run. Watson, continuing her recovery from a marathon she completed in early summer, had a good outing finishing in 1:30.23.

Dave Ward entered the Spofforth 10K trail race and had to contend with wet weather as well as a hilly, muddy and slippery course.

At one point the runners had to cross a knee-deep bog before leaping drainage ditches and dodging livestock. All this is right up Ward’s street and he finished in 51.49, claiming a good position of 76th out of 190 finishers.

Nick Cousins entered the Smugglers Trod a LDWA Challenge Event where participants either walk or run and navigate a 25 or 17-mile course. The route started from Fylingthorpe, and took in Maybeck, Littlebeck, Ravenscar Mast then returned along the old railway line to drop into then back out of Robin Hood’s Bay.

The terrain underfoot varied from boggy open moorland, hard-core tracks, grassland, road and a good stretch of old railway.

Cousins chose the longer distance and thanks to passing three competitors in the slog up to Ravenscar Mast, he managed to finish an excellent third place out of 130 finishers in a time of four hours 35 minutes.