CHOCOLATE must have been the only lure for athletes young and old who crossed the Yorkshire border to brave the blizzards in Tuesday night’s Bunny Run opener.

A record field of 302 started the fast, yet exceptionally cold three-mile ‘fell’ race on Penistone Hill, near Haworth.

It was the first of three individual races, the others taking place on April 10 and 17, followed by the Bunny Relays on April 24 when the relay batons are eggs.

With freakishly poor weather hitting the region throughout the day, the event was not anticipated to attract the traditional 250-plus field that organisers Dave and Eileen Woodhead have now come to expect.

But with chocolate treats guaranteed for every finisher – and even more goodies for the winners – huge numbers turned up well wrapped up for their sweet treats.

“The weather was absolutely appalling for everybody. It was quite wild,” said Dave Woodhead.

“There was a lot of sleet coming down, it was icy cold and the wind was quite strong. It wasn’t the most enjoyable of conditions, considering we’ve had a lot of sunny days recently. Not many people hung around at the finishing line!

“I have no idea how we attracted a record field. It astounds me that it attracted so many runners, and people came from quite a long way.

“We were thinking it would be more about the 100 mark. It must be that they all came for the chocolate!”

The Bunny Runs are particularly well supported by junior runners on their Easter school break and Blackburn Harrier long-distance star Elizabeth Greenwood was among our leading lights.

Greenwood, the English Fell Champion from Read, crossed the line as the second overall female and first U14 girl in just 18 minutes and 55 seconds.

There was little stopping England international Katie Walshaw from finishing first for a seventh successive year, the Holmfirth ace taking the honours in 17.40.

Ilkley’s Tom Adams won the overall race in a time of 15:20.

Pendle’s Darius Broadman was the quickest of our East Lancashire entrants, coming 11th overall and was the second best U16 boy in 17:06.

Evergreen Phil Hall of Clayton picked up the men’s over 50 cate-gory prize in 17.49, which placed him 21st in the final standings.

Among the other male finishers were Pendle’s Matt Dutton (31st, 18:13) and Matt Barnes (38th, 18.45), the latter finishing third in the U14 boy’s category.

Joseph Howe of Blackburn Harriers was 43rd in 18.53, Rossendale Harriers’ Marcus Preedy 50th in 19.11, Clayton’s Richard Briscoe 89th in 20.31 and Tiarnan Crorken of Pendle 94th in 20.39.

In the female race, Blackburn’s Phoebe Howe was in 101st place in 20.51, while club-mate Rhiannon Wickham came 115th with 21.30.