Kirkby Malzeard is a village in the lower Yorkshire Dales. The first mention of Kirkby Malzeard appears in the Doomsday Book of 1086 when it was known as Churchei, which means 'church in the clearing'. The name has evolved to Kirkby Malzeard which means 'church in the bad or stony clearing'.
The village has a population of about 800 people, with a further 200 or so living in the nearby farming areas of Laverton and Dallowgill.

The Race Headquarters are the Mechanics Institute, which is the first large building on the left of the above photograph of Kirkby main street.

The race route is undulating, a small lap of Kirkby then leads to a minor road which takes the runners to Laverton. The route continues on minor roads in the Laverton area before returning to Kirkby on a back road to finish on the cricket field.

RACE REPORT

A hot afternoon greeted the runners at Kirkby Malzeard, this did not seem to deter Gary Dunn who set a challenging pace from the off. By mile 1 Gary had pulled out a lead off 100m from a group of 6 runners, 3 from Harrogate Harriers, Richard Watson, Julian Mawson and Phillip Elliott-Dick, over the next 5 miles Gary extended his lead to win by nearly a minute, Richard Watson chased hard for 2nd place and only just held off Julian Mawson by 1 sec, but could never close the gap on Gary. Phil Elliott-Dick was a further 13 secs back in 4th place.
Tony Lambert, Scott Macvicar and Lee Dalton ran well for 6th, 7th and 8th place.

In the ladies race Robyn Oldham had nearly 2 mins to spare over the 2nd lady, this was Robyn's first race in this years Race Series. Erika Johnson battled hard for 3rd place and to hold off 4th lady Sarah Nettleton by 20 secs. Lorraine Hiles was 5th a further 55 secs back.

A really competitive race in tough conditions, Gary Dunn thinks Kirkby is the toughest race in his racing schedule, so if you thought it was hard your in good company.