STEPHEN Boddy, Tom Lynch, Gary Johnson and John Armitstead lined up for this year’s edition of the Three Peaks Fell Race and finished 29th in the team standings over the hilly 23.4 mile course.

The run features climbs up Penyghent, Whernside and Ingleborough in that order and Lynch and Johnson managed to complete the course in under four hours.

Lynch came home first of the four runners, with the long, technical descents towards the back end of the race suiting his running style to a tee.

Johnson was not far behind in three hours and 56 minutes, having run particularly well over the flat ground early on. It was a fine overall effort by him given the severe cramping that he suffered in the latter half of the race.

Armitstead admitted that he was not overly prepared for the race, but he showed typical family endurance, just like his daughter, Olympic cyclist Lizzie Deignan, and crossed the line in just over four hours.

Boddy was keeping pace with Lynch and Johnson throughout the early stages in Penyghent and Ribblehead but he had a nasty fall in a stream on the treacherous climb up Whernside. However, he was still content after hitting his pre-race target.

Johnson's cramping saw Lynch overtake him at the foot of Ingleborough and the latter carried on to the finish in what was another measured and well-judged performance, reminiscent of his evenly-paced London Marathon effort in 2017.

After the tricky ascent and descent of Ingleborough, the seemingly simple task of five downhill miles back into Horton sounds straight forward, but it is where cramp often really begins to take hold.

Some of the country's elite runners had no such problem though. Tom Owens managed to stay on track to take his second title in a fine time of 2.49.08.

To nobody's surprise, the ladies winner was the indomitable Victoria Wilkinson, who won the race for the fourth time in a time of 3.22.17.