We’ve all seen them at the start, the finish line and dotted along the course – standing around for what can be hours, clapping, cheering and if you’re lucky handing out refreshments. Nearly all are volunteers, often members of the host running club who could have been out there competing – and without them we’d never get the chance to race. I’m talking about the Marshals, of course.

So when Dave Thompson sent a mail out last year saying that the iconic Lyke Wake Walk Race was in danger of going under due to a lack of marshals, I felt it was the right thing to do to offer my services. Luckily so did 6 other people from the area – including our own Mark & Wendy Colling, plus the ‘missing in action’ ex-Quaker elite runner Stuu Lynn. We were due at Jugger Howe lay-by (the penultimate checkpoint) at 11.30 am to drop Mark & Wendy off and then Stuu and myself headed off to help at the finish which is on the field at the Raven Hall Hotel in Ravenscar.  The competitors set off (according to their estimated running time) at various times between 4am and 10am – with the idea that they would then finish around 4pm.

The race has a 12 hour limit strictly applied. Stuu had the job of handing each finisher a memento of a Lyke Wake badged compass and a t-shirt to those who had ordered one. I got the job of writing the certificates and handing them out. (This is not as easy as it sounds when lots of exhausted, dehydrated, people arrive in quick succession.) 

Our own long distance trio of Dave Thompson, Annette Clarke and Charles Bogg all managed to complete in under 8 hours – beating the target they set themselves. Well done to them !  The fastest overall crossing on the day was 6 hours 9 minutes. It was an amazing atmosphere, the finishers were mostly very excited, pleased to finish, thankful of the organisation/marshals and often checking pb’s against previous years.

At least two over 70’s completed the event easily inside the time limit. Mark & Wendy did have the excitement of ambulances and even the air-ambulance near their checkpoint as a runner collapsed of suspected dehydration. If you’re not doing anything on Saturday 9 July 2011, you could get a real sense of satisfaction by being a marshal on this event and helping it to survive.

The only problem with the day, apart from maybe the heat and cornflies that suddenly appeared towards the end, was the feeling that with plenty of training, it would be feasible to partake in the actual race itself next year . . . . . .  (It must have been heatstroke !)