400+ after 12hrs. Not too bad
400+ after 12hrs. Not too bad
I was talking to Harry Walker yesterday. He told me that before his time, Herb Elliott had arrived to do the Three Peaks but didn't race on the day as the clag was down.
The greatest miler/1500 runner of his time - seems odd - but I'm sure Harry is correct. Does anyone know of this - must have been 60s I imagine.
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
can't help you with that one WP, but, heard a lot about Harry Walker, is he around at BH events a lot? Would love to meet him and talk fell runningOriginally Posted by Witton Park
He comes to Witton for races sometimes with John Calvert who's also a legend. Both great blokes and I'm chuffed to get to know a little of them. Harry will be the Marshall on the Whernside descent just before you hit the steep bit, so say hello to him.
I'll see if I can find out when he's next watching. I suspect he'll be around the Stan Bradshaw as he's walking on Pendle a lot.
Brill, cheers! I only mention as my Grandad talks about him a lot, has tons of memories of doing a lot of the same races as Harry, speaks very fondly of him and how good of a runner he was
Well Harry was the second "Fell Runner Of The Year" (= British Champion) in 1973 and he is on the cover of FRA website-archived The Fellrunner dated Christmas 1978- the year he won the first of his three PPP wins.
As to his anecdote about Elliot and the PPP: well it is certainly a good old fell runner's tale, "Olympic Gold Medalist doesn't start trail race because of a bit of clag" but I would want to check with someone ever older than me like Dave Hodgson or Bill Wade.
Harry Walker won his PPP between 1978-81 so well past the early 1960's when Elliot was in England apparently studying at Cambridge University after winning the 1500m Gold Medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960.
But what Bill Smith does say in SMOTS is that Elliott did not start the 1963 Mountain Trial because he had been advised by the AAA Secretary that his amateur status might have been compromised by some (paid) broadcasting that he had done. Bill was usually right (and I see the picture on page 46 of the Summer 2015 Fellrunner has Bill (9) just to the right of Harry (5) at the start of the 1972 Wasdale race!).
Last edited by Graham Breeze; 01-02-2016 at 10:37 AM.
I'm considering running the route in next couple of weeks. Not done so before. It appears most is run on bridleways and paths? What's the shoe choice - fell shoes or if it's pathy are trail better?
At this time of year I'd go for fell shoes, especially if you take the race route or the equally steep old walkers path up whernside.
I'm in and looking forward to it greatly... Anybody like to throw in an estimate how my finish time is likely to compare to Marsden-Edale Trigger...?
Miles faster by the looks of things. The 3P is a far too fast long distance race with about 5,300 of ascent. The typical winning time is 2:50 hours for a 23 mile route
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