It's been a while since I last had time to do this, and I've raced a couple of times in that time. So here's the reports, of both of them.
The Montane Rivington Ultra Trail 26.
Hell of a mouthful that name, also slightly misleading. It's more like 27.5 - not an issue, except for when you're completely knackered and looking forward to mile 26, and you know you're nowhere near the finish line...
Headed up for this one a couple of weeks after the Fell Relays. Feeling loads better, but still not 100%, and 3/4 weeks disrupted training behind me it was always going to be hard. had a great drive up, 1.5 hours from home and arrived in plenty of time to get thoroughly chilled. Kept looking out for people I might know, but only found the usual suspects from Epic Events/The Endurance Store. After an entertaining warm-up, we were off. I figured the only way to do this was keep somewhere near the pointy end, and hang on until the others started dropping off.
Immediately into a long steady climb, followed by a long steady descent, I was in 3rd/4th running along with another bloke. Apologies for not talking, but I was well out of breath. After the long steady descent, another long steady climb, and then a shorter descent (smile for the photographer) and another quick pull up to the top of the moor. Once up, there was a long drag along a road Managed to drop the other guy and claim 3rd) to the other side of the moor, then down a great descent down towards Belmont. It was here that I gained the lead, the front 2 getting more lost than me (Marshal: Down the road, 1st left over cattle grid. Me: yep, run straight past until I see the front 2 coming towards me. Oops.) which I kept for at least a mile. Kept with them, for a bit, until the long slog into a massive headwind along Witton Weavers Way. Near the end of this, (was still in 2nd) the guy who had been drafting behind me trotted past, along with the eventual winner, moving far too quickly.
Up onto Darwen Moor, went through a bad patch here, lost ground massively to the front 3 and was getting slightly paranoid about Richard Bardon, who I knew couldn't be too far behind. Fiddled around the moor, then down into the 2nd CP, all flat(ish) running from here, and I started to perk up a bit. I perked up even more when I saw 3rd place just in front, looking like he was flagging. From there, just kept going and going, some really nice running, some really muddy footpaths, and a really strange bloke with no shoes on. Weird.
Cranked through 26.2 in 3:36 (Hanging for the finish) and finished in 3:46 in 3rd place. Tougher than I expected, with every weather condition (except for snow). Well organised, will be at the Grizedale in Feb (although I hear a rumour it has...loops...ew.)
Hope Moors and Tors.
Back to a fell race, possibly the 2nd or 3rd this year. Too much focus on the Lakeland 100 meant I only got in the Old County Tops, and Helvellyn and the Dodds fell races this year - nothing like usual. I was quietly confident going into this, not recognising any of the names on the list. Then I saw Forest Bethell. Damn, was going to have to run hard for this. I also didn't recognise Kristian Jones or Konrad Rawlik. Silly me - Kris is a stupidly fast fell-runner (3 or 4 seconds slower than Simon Bailey at the relays) and Konrad is a top level ultra runner.
So, only knowing Forest, and him with protestations of ill health, poor training, etc etc I thought I should probably start hard, try and drop them and then hopefully pull off a win. Heh.
The fast start worked well, was in the lead for the first 2 miles or so, until Kris cruised by, up Cave Dale. Then Forest trotted past (an awesome climber), along with Konrad. From there it was between me, Konrad and Forest, Kris taking off into the distance. Pushed hard to the first CP, grabbed some water then off, swapping position regularly, up round the back of Mam Tor, then a lovely long descent to Hollins Cross. I managed to get the jump on Konrad and Forest by hurdling a fence, which gained me all of about 10 metres, which meant I could relax a bit on the down and save my quads.
Konrad caught me up by Edale, and got to the compulsory compass/whistle check first, and gained about 20 metres on me from there. On the long drag up Grindsbrook, both he and Forest left me behind , both being so much stronger on the climb. Along the edge of the Kinder Plateau was very boring, what with only being able to see about 10m in every direction. Managed to keep on the path (mostly - there were some pretty interesting accounts of people being literally everywhere on the plateau) and then down to Hope Cross. I spotted Konrad and Forest heading up the other side of Jaggers Clough, which gave me a boost, and set out to catch them.
At the Edale YHA CP I was told the guy in 3rd (Konrad) was flagging, and I caught him on the road down to the Backtor farm driveway. he had taken a bi of a tumble early, and was hurting a bit. Caught sight of Forest heading up towards Hollins Cross, but gave up catching him as a bad job, as he was actually running the climb - something I was never going to be able to do. I forgot about him, and focused on getting in under 3 hours. It's a long drag up to Hollins Cross, and then another long drag to Lose Hill, but i got there, still in 3rd, then the great descent off down into Hope. Not quite so keen on the roadrun afterwards, but I managed to get through it, onto the next field, then take the wrong turn! Fiddled my way through a housing estate, back on the path then into the finish. Slightly over at 3:02, but managed to knock 4 minutes off last year, even if I was one place worse!
Great run by Kris (2:48) and Forest (2:55). Next year....
As ever, thanks to TORQ for fuelling my races - definitely kept me going near the end of both races!
No comments:
Post a Comment