Penistone Footpath Runners

Club Championship

No pain, no gain

The 2026/27 Club Championship

The format of the Championship has been similar for many years. All the events are listed in the Calendar with links for further information – Club Championship races are identified with (C). There is also a list of events in each section at the bottom of this page with links for further information.

The competition involves races across three main sections (Road, Trail and Fell). The Championship comprises 21 events (7 in each section) – see below for more details.

Contact

The organisers of the 2026/27 competition are Matthew Coldwell, Richard Cottam and Myfanwy Cross.

Results

Standings for 2026/27 will be posted after the first race.

Results for previous years: 2004 2005 2006 2007 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 onwards

Past Club Champions

Qualification

To qualify for each section you need to compete in at least 3 of the 7 races. Your best 3 scores will be summed to give your total for the section.

To qualify for the overall Championship you have to compete in 8 races, with at least 2 of these from each section. Your 8 best race scores, including the minimum of 2 from each section, will be added together to form an overall Championship total.

One of the 'races' for 2026-27 is the Trunce race series – there are 8 races from April to September included in the championship: to count you can run any one of them, and if you run more than one your fastest time will count. The first race of the series is not included as it is March – a different club membership year.

All first claim members are included in the Championship. Juniors running in senior races (where permitted) will be included in the Under 20 category. Members joining (or re-joining) during the year will only have results counted from the date their subscription has been paid.

Scoring

Each runner's points are calculated based on their time relative to the overall race winner (male and female respectively). This is exactly the same as the Fell League. If a PFR runner is first male or first female, he or she will get 100 points. If your time is exactly double the winner’s time, you get 50 points: the points are calculated on a scale so the faster you run the more points you get. For the Trunce, the points are based on your fastest time of the 2026 series (excluding race 1) relative to the fastest race winning time across all the events with a first claim Penistone finisher.

The main advantages of this method are: 1) it means that every second you run faster will gain you points (not a lot, but something – unless you are the race winner). Beating another Penistone runner (of the same sex) in a race will always mean you get more points than them – but the bigger the gap you get the more points you gain. 2) you don’t get points as a result of other PFR runners not turning up – you get points for your own performance.

The disadvantage of this method is that your points do depend on how fast the winner is – if Mo Farah or Eilish McColgan turn up to the Silkstone Shuffle, the points will go down – generally, less popular races will yield more points. This may help boost less popular races, which is no bad thing.

The Challenge Championship is based on the total points from all events completed. The more races you complete, the more points you will get.

Prizes

Your age group for the Championship in any year is determined by your age on April 1st. Prizes will be awarded for each age group for both male and female categories for each section winners, eg Fell Lady Vet 40.

  • The groups are as follows: Male U20, M Senior, MV35, MV40, MV45, MV50, MV55, MV60, MV65, MV70, MV75, MV80, MV85, Female U20, F Senior, LV35, LV40, LV45, LV50, LV55, LV60, LV65, LV70, LV75, LV80, LV85.
  • The Sections are Road, Trail and Fell.
  • The Overall Champions will be the Male and Female with the best scores from the 8 races needed to qualify.
  • The title of Challenge Champion will be given to the runner who acquires the most points from all qualifying events.
  • Run as many or as few races as you want but you must compete in the correct number of races to win an award.

2026/27 events

All the events are listed in the Calendar with links for further information – Club Championship races are identified with (C).

Road Section                                  
Dronfield 10K Sun 19 Apr
Rother Valley Relays (contact Richard Mackie) Wed 20 May
Barnsley 10K Sun 28 Jun
Donfaster 5K Fri 2 Oct
Worksop Half Marathon Sun 25 Oct
Travellers 6 Sun 13 Dec
Wombwell 5 Sun 14 Feb
Trail/Cross Country Section
Colne Valley 10K Sun 31 May
Mid Summer Mad Dash Thu 25 Jun
Cawthorne Canter Thu 16 Jul
Flat Cap 5 Sat 1 Aug
Ken Bingley Memorial Sun 16 Aug
Hopton 10K Sun 27 Sep
Canal Race Sun 1 Nov
Fell Section                                        
Trunce 2-8 8 dates Apr-Sep
Ian Charlesworth Hartcliff Hill Tue 28 Apr
Bamford Sheepdog Trials Mon 25 May
Peak Forest Fell Race Sun 12 July
Padfield Sun 22 Nov
Hoppits Hill TBC Feb
Ian Roberts TBC March