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Saltaire Striders The Bradford Millennium Way Relay is a relay of five legs with two runners per leg,
taking place each June in hilly terrain near the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is
already one of the premier club relays in northern England and attracts teams not only
from Yorkshire and Lancashire but international teams also. |
The 2011 race was won in a record time by Bingley Harriers, knocking almost 2 minutes off the course record, becoming the first team to complete the course in under 5 hours 30 minutes with a time of 5:29:28. The winning team posted new leg records for leg 2 (Ian Holmes and Andy Peace - 63:08) and Leg 3 (Marc Teasey and Sarah Jarvis - 55:07) whilst also posting the fastest legs of the day on legs 4 and 5.
A new leg record was also posted on leg 1 by Yared Hagos and Quentin Lewis of Airedale Athletics.
In the vets category both the first 2 teams Accrington Road Runners and Horsforth Harriers were inside the previous Vets category record, Accrington triumphing by almost 5 minutes. JP Hopkinson and Marco Gvero of Keighley set a new vets category record for leg 3. Shaun Livesey and Graham Morris also set a new vets category record on leg 5.
Accrington Road Runners were also triumphant in the mixed category taking over 10 minutes off the category record. Philip Dunn and Julie Brady setting a new mixed category record on leg 3 and David Thornton and Amanda Parkins also setting a new record by over 5 minutes on leg 4.
In the ladies category Keighley and Craven won by almost 5 minutes. With Amy Green and Helen Glover taking over 5 minutes off the ladies record for leg 2
The Horsforth Harriers Team (2) on leg 5 were disqualified for not registering at the start of the leg and running without numbers. This put the event organisers in a difficult situation and could have caused us to close the finish before all teams were in - putting the remaining athletes at risk.
| Next Relay: | Sunday, 10 June 2012 |
| Clubhouse: | Bradford and Bingley Sports Club, Wagon Lane, Bingley, BD16 1LT |
| Start-time: | Registation of team at the clubhouse by each team-captain from 07.00 (deadline 07.30), race starts at 08.00 |
| Legs: | relay of 5 legs with 2 runners on each leg (thus, a team comprises 10 runners) |
| Distance: | 76km or 47¼ miles, involving approx. 1920m or 6300 feet of climbing (5 x 13-18 kms / 8-11 miles) |
| Categories: | a) Open (men or women, 17 and over) b) Ladies (17 and over) c) Mixed (5 men and 5 women, 17 and over) d) Veterans (any combination of men and women 35 and over) |
| Prizes: | trophies for each category, plus fastest pair on each leg |
| Registration: | £70 / €100 per team (includes free t-shirt for each runner, plus food and drink in the clubhouse after the finish); deadline 31 May prior to race |
| Teams: | maximum 50 teams (100 runners per leg) - primarily from northern England, and particularly clubs with a speciality in "fell-running"; but also overseas teams |
| Programme: | Friday afternoon prior to race, 12.30 till approx. 17.30 - supervised reckie of each leg by member of host club Sunday, 08.00 till approx. 16.30 - race; showers; prize-giving (approx. 16.00) |
| Accommodation: | hotels in locality (discount rates through the Tourist Office - list of suitable accommodation can be supplied by Saltaire Striders after registration). Should be organised well in advance of the race. |
| Cardinal rules: | a) do a reckie of the route b) runners must run together at all times as a pair c) follow the Countryside Code |
| Terrain: | Yorkshire Dales - footpaths along becks and through woods, tracks across fields, tracks across heather moorlands; very undulating; sandstone rocks and peat on moors. At this time of the year the ground should be mainly dry and not boggy. |