Neil Talbott on his way to victory in the Fellsman. Photo: Bob Smith/grough
The winner of this year’s gruelling Fellsman event in the Yorkshire Dales said he was thrilled to bits to have won the race at the first attempt.
Cumbria-based Neil Talbott headed the field of 341 starters to take the winner’s trophy in the 60-mile race over 10 fells in the Yorkshire Dales.
He arrived at the finish in Threshfield in a time of 11hrs 16mins 23secs, 28 minutes ahead of second-place runner Stuart Walker. Lawrence Eccles took third place, completing the course almost 40 minutes behind Talbott.
Fastest woman was Jessica Richardson who finished in 18th position with a time of 14hrs 9mins 40secs.
A total of 261 competitors completed the course, with Andrew Fowler last man home in 28hrs 52mins 32secs.
The victory for the 36-year-old software programmer was the more remarkable as he had never run a single-day ultra-marathon previously, though he has completed 24-hour challenges the Bob Graham and Paddy Buckley Rounds.
The Ambleside AC member said he was ‘pretty pleased and surprised’ to claim victory on his first outing. He admitted he was hoping for bad weather, which suits his style.
“It was a bit hot for me,” Talbott said. “I feel bad saying this, but I always hope for lousy weather on races – that gives me an advantage.
Stuart Walker arrives at the Fellsman finish in Threshfield. Photo: Bob Smith/grough
“A week ago I was thinking, brilliant, and then it got better and better but by today there was no rain forecast, so I think today was the first time I’ve won a race on a good day.
“I struggled with hydration. I picked up a litre of water at every checkpoint, but still got dehydrated. But otherwise it was a nice run around Yorkshire.”
Problems with one of the late checkpoint locations almost derailed his progress.
“Approaching Yockenthwaite Moor, or Middle Tongue as it’s called, I was feeling a bit average there. I thought, it’s not that far to Hell Gap and then to Cray. I feel like I nailed the line from Fleet Moss to Middle Tongue and I came over the crest and thought, I’m going to see a tent here and there was no tent.
“I didn’t know what to do, because I knew I was in the right place, so thought, well maybe they’re a bit low, so I went down. I went round the side, went back up and got my map out and I was panicking. Then, because you’re panicking, you’re probably working a bit hard.
“It felt like 15 minutes; it was probably less than 10 but eventually I thought, I’m going to have to go, so I went and five minutes later I saw the two guys and got my tally clipped. But the damage was done. That extra time made me feel very low so I felt pretty bad at Cray.
“But I also knew there was a big climb coming up and I’m better at climbing than I am at running so I thought just ease into Cray. I had a coffee at Park Rash and I felt much better than I expected coming down off Great Whernside.
“I thought that bit from Capplestone Gate to Yarnbury, I would absolutely detest, but I felt I was doing quite well. But the Tarmac was awful; I hate Tarmac – all the Tarmac but especially the last bit.”
The event entails navigating a route round some remote fells and moorland, but Talbott said preparation was the key to his win. “On the bits that are open access or rights of way, I’ve done one recce.
Lawrence Eccles took third place. Photo: Bob Smith/grough
“I’ve studied the map very hard, so I knew what was coming. I knew what I was going to do. The first four hours I was with Lawrence Eccles. He’s done it, I don’t know, about the eight times, so he knew the short cuts so that was quite useful. But after that it was just based on preparation.
“I had a bit of a lead coming into Dent, then I somehow managed to take the wrong road out of Dent. Of all the places to make a navigational error, on a road, it’s pretty embarrassing. So I went from probably being two minutes up to a minute down there. But I think I got a very good line at Blea Moor and I don’t think Lawrence got a great line and I actually overtook him on that climb.
“I didn’t see him again until descending off Great Knoutberry where you backtrack, so I knew then I’d got maybe three minutes on him.
“I was actually more worried about Stu Walker, who was in third, because he looked really really comfortable early on. I thought Lawrence was probably going a bit too fast. I thought I was going a bit too fast to be honest but Stu just looked really comfortable.
“But I didn’t pass Stu until I was at the bottom of the hill and I thought, that’s more than I was expecting. From that point on, I didn’t see anybody.”
The Fellsman victory in part compensates for disappointment in the Dark Mountains event where a late navigation error led to non-placement in the leaderboard.
“We were leading coming into the finish, made a daft navigational error, went slightly off-bounds and got disqualified. I still can’t quite believe we did that.
“Until this year, I’ve always thought this kind of event was too ‘runnable’ for me. I don’t really do ultras as such. I’ve never done a half marathon or marathon or 10k; I’ve never done a trail race. But I thought this was just rough enough that it might suit me. If it had been twice the climb it would certainly have suited me but I didn’t know how I’d cope with the running.”
Conditions on the Yorkshire Dales hills were relatively benign. “It was fine underfoot.” Talbott said at the finish. “I just have more insulation than most fellrunners and I know I’m really dehydrated now and I can’t drink any more. I was really struggling with stomach cramp, particularly on the road coming down. I couldn’t have eaten or drunk anything else but I’m dehydrated so I don’t know how to deal with that.
“It feels surreal really, to have won. It’s certainly the biggest running event I’ve ever won, because I tend to do rough terrain events such as mountain marathons and rough fell races. It’s only really been in the past six months that I’ve started to improve my running a bit.
“I did the Dragon’s Back last year and what that showed me was that the guys who were winning that, the top couple of guys, were just much much better than me at pure running. So I’ve made a conscious effort at getting a bit better at that.
Neil Talbott starts his ascent of the final fell, Great Whernside. Photo: Bob Smith/grough
“Until this year, I’ve always thought this kind of event was too ‘runnable’ for me. I don’t really do ultras as such. I’ve never done a half marathon or marathon or 10k; I’ve never done a trail race. But I thought this was just rough enough that it might suit me. If it had been twice the climb it would certainly have suited me but I didn’t know how I’d cope with the running.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to bits.”
He’s now looking forward to tackling a mountain marathon again. “I’ve won the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon A-class a few years ago. That was in 2011 and I haven’t done the LAMM since, but I’m going to do it this year on the Isle of Harris, so I’m really looking forward to that.”
The Fellsman was first run in 1962 and involves about 11,000ft of ascent over Ingleborough, Whernside, Gragareth, Great Coum, Blea Moor, Great Knoutberry Hill, Dodd Fell, Yockenthwaite Moor, Buckden Pike and Great Whernside. The event starts in Ingleton and finishes in Threshfield and is organised by Keighley Scout Service Team.
tinyman
30 April 2018Carol Morgan wasn't the fastest woman. She was beaten by 10minutes by Jess Richardson of Lonsdale Fellrunners.
Bob
30 April 2018Apologies for the error. We've corrected the story.
Bob Smith, editor
Claire
30 April 2018It was Jess Richardson's first attempt at the Fellsman too.
Maybe you could change the headline to reflect this? You could also include some comment and analysis from Jess.
Simon
01 May 2018Yes I was running close to Jess and Carole and the race was very competitive. Both Jess and Carole were pushing very hard spending next to no time at the checkpoints. It would be interesting to have a comment from them.
Mutney
01 May 2018Jess beat 3 previous winners of the women's race, and it was an interesting battle all day between her and Carol Morgan. It would be great to have a follow up on this.
Ken
01 May 2018Great write up on Neil, but just one line on the women's race?! I notice the Three Peaks write up also mentioned just the first woman. A little archaic.
Ken
01 May 2018(Apologies - I note the Y3P article does actually have a couple of lines on 2nd and 3rd women towards the end)
Carol Morgan (2nd placed female)
01 May 2018This is my fourth Fellsman podium place and the standard of reporting for this year is exactly as rubbish as it has been for the last four years. Grough has consistently ignored, misreported and underrepresented women in this race for each of those years, & other years. Perhaps it’s time to wake up to the fact that women run this race and compete and complete it competitively. We deserve equal representation in your news articles. This is shockingly sexist. You should be ashamed of yourselves. I hope your sisters, wives, daughters and mothers are treated better than this!
I also would like to say, well done to Neil, I would never like to take away from his win.
Jess Richardson (1st placed female)
01 May 2018I'm also extremely dissapointed in your reporting. This was an incredible personal achievement for myself so to have it reduced to one line is disappointing to say the least. I trained extremely hard to run this competitively so for Carol and Emma (both distinguished national ultra runners) to be there to battle it out against was exciting for me. I was being chased down by Carol from mile 30 with only a 5-10 minute gap, it doesn't get much more exciting than that. As Carol says, this is a competitive event for women as well as men.
A huge congratulations to Neil of course for his achievement. Massive respect to you for your excellent time!
Bob
01 May 2018Carol, I’m sorry you found our coverage of the Fellsman ‘rubbish’.
We are not, and I personally am not, sexist and wholeheartedly support the efforts of women in outdoor activities and competitions. I would cite our coverage of Shauna Coxsey’s successes in the bouldering world cup and Molly Thompson-Smith’s podium in the lead-climbing competitions in which male contestants only received a brief mention.
I’m sincerely sorry I initially credited you with victory. This was due to a misreading of the tracker leaderboard. I apologised for this and corrected it as soon as it was brought to my attention. I’m human; I make mistakes.
It’s clear from comments above that you and Jessica Richardson had an interesting battle for the lead women’s position. If I had been aware of this I would, of course, have reported it. However, the Fellsman organisers don’t issue press releases or indeed press information of any kind unlike, say the Three Peaks Race staff. Our only source of news, apart from an interview with Neil Talbott and a chat with staff at Threshfield to get overall numbers, was the leaderboard.
The interview with Neil was conducted face-to-face at the finish and the second- and third-place men also arrived at Threshfield while I was there so I was able to grab photographs of them finishing.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be at the finish at 10.39pm to interview Jessica or yourself, but I had by this time made my way home to be with my wife.
My working day on Saturday began at 8.45am when I was taking pictures for a dementia charity I support in my home town. I then made my way to the summit of Ingleborough for photographic coverage of the Three Peaks Race, before searching out the lead runner in the Fellsman at Park Rash and Yarnbury.
Ordinarily I would have started my Fellsman coverage earlier, enabling lots of the runners to be pictured, including most likely Jessica, you and other leading female runners but I didn’t want to let down the charity which requested me to take pictures for them.
We’re only a small outfit and with a limited number of people – in this case just me – so our operations are, by necessity, limited.
I have every respect for all the participants, women and men, who undertake incredibly difficult challenges such as the Fellsman, The Spine and the Three Peaks Race and can only marvel at the sheer mental and physical strengths of those who complete these events.
Your and Jessica’s times were little more than half the time it took me to complete the event in 2003, so you have my utmost awe.
In the light of your and other people’s comments I’ll be reviewing our coverage of the Fellsman in 2019.
For your information, I have no daughters. My sister and mother both passed away some years ago. I treat my wife of 41 years as my absolute equal if not my superior.
I wish you and all the competitors, female and male, every success in your future challenges.
Bob Smith, editor.
Colin Davis
02 May 2018I think I'm right in saying there isn't a separate race for men and women in this event and they're all in it together as equals. in which case I don’t hear many of the men who came in way down the field complaining because they weren’t reported on.
Funny how women want to be treated as equals with men (which I might add is only right). that's equal up to the point when men come in ahead of them. Then they pull out the sexist card and want to be treated as special.
Simon
03 May 2018Dear Bob
In the interests of balance I wanted to say something positive about you and the publication. Grough is a consistently excellent and interesting magazine that I have read over the years and I cannot think of anything comparable.
The fact that you get out and attend the events, then write them up, then edit the publication says a lot. For years my brother worked at the Ripon Gazette and when he started there were 7 people and he could do what he called proper reporting - so attend Court, Council meetings and so on. But by the time he left there were just two people that worked there and all he did was collate press releases and never got out at all. The fact that you do it all is great, and still keep it all going is an achievement given the economics of local newspaper industry so well done.
It is correct that Jessica and Carole achievements are in every way equal to the achievements of the men: they will train equally hard and long, prepare as meticulously, go through the same highs and lows through the day but have the same determination to push and suffer, and will feel as equally as shattered at the end. But you will entirely agree with this.
To assist with future reporting this might assist: it is the live tracker that shows the results in real time and is accessible immediately rather than waiting for the official results. Start here - https://felltrack.com/ then login as a guest and you can see all the splits here https://felltrack.com/cgi-bin/felltrack.cgi so there is enough detail to be able to give some commentary (apologies if you were already aware).
Keep up the good work Bob.
Baa baa black sheep
03 May 2018There was very definatly a prize, trophy and certificate for the first woman equal to that of first man, you sexist finger pointing isn't very valid in this case