Scafell Sky Race - Race Report 2021

The 5th Edition of the Scafell Sky Race was delivered out of Great Langdale under perfectly blue skies with hot hot sun shining down on all 118 of the runners who turned up.

21 women and 97 guys toed the start line out of 155 entrants, hailing from all over the UK and Ireland with 11 nationalities being represented in the field of Skyrunners.

The Scafell Sky Race is a highly technical course, easier in the first half and then serious trails in the 2nd half taking in 2 climbers traverses, one round the waist of Great Gable, the other coming off Bowfell, with the famous Corridor Route leading to the summit of Scafell Pike, Englands highest peak and the awesome and sublime Great Slab as a descent off Bowfell.

Hot weather prevailed, unlike the 2019 edition where Scafell Pike was removed due to sleet on the summits, and skyrunners had to battle with the sun and heat to make it round the 40km and 3000m of vertical gain over some extremely technical ground.

The Ladies Race was played out by Sophie Likeman from Cockermouth, Lauren Woodwiss from Birmingham, Sophie Gibbens from Milton Keynes and Bethan Nadin from Wirksworth battled it out around the course for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, with Lauren Woodwiss taking the lead around Seathwaite Farm and holding it from there.

Lauren took the win in a fantastic time of 06:18:09 (14th overall), with Sophie Likeman (18th overall) taking the 2nd place in 06:36:14 and Bethan Nadin (21st overall) took 3rd in a time of 06:44:54

The Vets 45 race for the ladies was taken by Sarah Dunn of Deeside Runners in 07:53:00 with Nicola Sproson taking the 2nd place in 09:24:38 and Deborah Fisher took the 3rd place in a time of 11:15:50

The mens race was played out by Spencer Shaw of Manchester, Simon Roberts from Wales and Josh Wade who is a local lad with some pretty high creds.

Alex Lawton, who finished in 7th place, made it to the summit of Harrison Stickle in the lead until Spencer took him on the descent to Stickle Tarn where he kept the lead all the way round the course finishing in a cracking time of 05:03:00 to take first place and the coveted slate trophy made by Honister Slate Mines. Simon Roberts and Josh Wade battled it out over the first part of the course for 2nd and 3rd places until Josh pulled away up Sour Milk Ghyll from CP5 at Seathwaite Farm to take the 2nd place in 05:16:50 and Simon took the 3rd place in 05:24:34 to complete the podium trio.

The vets race was won by Jeffrey Capper in a time of 06:13:48 [12th overall] with Edward Box taking 2nd place in 06:44:57 [22nd overall] and Tony Letts took the 3rd place in the Vets race in a time of 06:59:29

We'd like to thanks our sponsors, Voom Nutrition for supporting the race, alongside Mountain Fuel as the supporting sponsor. The New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel for the hire of the field and the awesome location, the weather gods for shining sun on us all day after a very bleak year since the cancelation of the 2020 edition.

We of course would like to thank eternally our brilliant marshals who come to the race to support us, make the event run seamlessly and stand on the tops to make sure everyone is safe and happy, we would like to thanks Run and Rock Guiding for managing the 6 strong safety team on the summit of Scafell and the technical sections of the course.

We'd like to thank Simon and Rebecca Patterson for making and delivering the Lakeland Cider from Cowmire Hall.

We'd like to thank Lowther Estates for allowing us to use the Great Slab section and of course the National Trust for the allowance of the foot paths.

We'd like you to note that the event was also supported by Trees not Tees and that around 40% of the runners supported this cause to keep waste down and to plant trees in the Scottish borders supporting a much needed way to plant as many trees on the planet as possible.

We would like to say that we appreciate and thanks all the runners who entered and are sorry 38 of you couldn't make it for various reasons. Without your entry, there would not have been a race.

We so much wanted to create a feeling of freedom for you all, after the weirdest year we have ever seen in our lives and we hope you all appreciated that, we certainly did.

In these current times, we find it so important to stand proud and tall and offer the most amount of freedom that we can.

We are extremely proud to be part of the Skyrunning UK . Ireland series and we were honoured to be able to deliver the 1st race of the season after Snowdon Skyline felt forced to move to September.

Finally, we would like to announce that the 6th Edition of the Scafell Sky Race will be taking place on the 4th June 2022 in Great Langdale.

Save the date and we'll have entries open very soon.