Owens Runs 'Race of his Life' to Win 3 Peaks Race

Matt Ward (Salomon Trail Team) / 05.05.2011

After an almost perfect start to the 2011 season, which has seen wins at the Carnethy 5 race and round one of the 2011 British Fell Running Championships in Northern Ireland, Tom Owens of the Salomon Trail Running team took what must be considered amongst his greatest victories at the 57th Three Peaks Race in Yorkshire.

In what will be fondly remembered as a sunny but breezy day in the Yorkshire Dales, Tom carved his name in fell running history as a winner of one of the most iconic races on the fell calendar, in an excellent 2.53.34 for the 23.3 mile route.

Speaking after his win Tom described his mammoth effort in tough conditions as “the race of my life”, strong words from a guy who has such races as the Trans Alpine Run (twice!) amongst his list of wins. His second place at the 3 Peaks in 2008 had not only set his appetite to win this race one day, but also given him the tool of course knowledge to set up today’s win.

Owens triumphed after a tussle up to Ingleborough with Shettleston team mate Jethro Lennox, but was able to pull away in the closing miles to register what he considers his biggest win yet. Scottish teenager Robbie Simpson ran an amazing debut on the 3 Peaks route to finish second, with Ambleside’s Ben Abdelnoor running an equally amazing race to finish third.

In the women’s race former STT member Anna Frost also returned to the 3 Peaks to tie up what she described as ‘unfinished business’ with this route, after finishing fourth on he previous visit in 2008. After a good battle with Calder Valley’s Jo Buckley, Frosty took over after Whernside and ran strongly onto Ingleborough and into the finish in Horton-in-Ribblesdale, to put her name alongside the likes of Sarah Rowell and Angela Mudge on the role call of winners of this race.

Following his outstanding performance Owens commented: <i>"O, that's just amazing. It was a tough race for sure, and coming back from Ingleborough I was battling the wind and almost at a standstill! It wasn't a day for heroics out there, the wind was gale force in areas and I didn't want to go early and spend a lot of time out front. So I bided my time, ran well with Jethro (Lennox) til Ingleborough and then took it on going up there. From then on it was about just pushing as hard as I could to the finish. This means so much to me, especially after coming here in 2008 and finishing runner-up to Jethro."</i>