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All pictures reproduced by kind permission of Debi Nicholson
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| The start of the 2014 race. Photo courtesy of Debi Nicholson. (You can just spot me in my green Fellandale vest) |
Cantering to Baildon
Saturday the 12th of July is a pretty busy day around the West Yorkshire region with carnivals and fêtes popping up everywhere. It was a tough choice but I decided to take the short drive to Baildon where a fell race was due to be run from the rugby and cricket club right next to Baildon's small and quintessentially English carnival. A predictably understated affair, the carnival consisted of a tea tent, some bungee trampolines, a couple of burger vans and a few stalls. Oh, and a lovely family atmosphere.
I arrived in plenty of time and watched the junior runners coming in from their 1 mile "fun run" then paid the £3 entry fee and eyed up the bananas we'd be eating afterwards. Getting there early gave me plenty of time to contemplate the last few running months and wonder what this race would bring......
A Quick Catch-Up
Very briefly, so as not to bore the under-armour off the 3 people who read this: In October last year I fell badly on my right arm during a mountain relay race in the lake district. The fall rammed my shoulder upwards and twanged all the nerves in my arm and they continued to give me pain for months. In the immediate aftermath I was unable to run at all for a couple of weeks. The injury affected my gait and I subsequently developed a problem with my right knee and ankle. Anyway, to cut a long story short, after physio and lots of strengthening exercises, I am just about ok now and am back up to tentatively running about 60 miles a month (I was doing 150 with no problems in September) but my fitness has suffered badly. Stupidly I didn't cross train enough whilst injured and was able to only do very limited running.
So it brought me to this race. A few weeks ago I ran the Chevin fell race at about 80% and went around 2 minutes slower than I had in 2013. Both races are a similar length but with less elevation at Baildon and now I felt that I was finally in a fit state to give a race some welly at least. Not that I currently possess much welly, but I could at least give it some flip flop.
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| A popular detail of fell races is to make the route look like a noose. This is on purpose, I'm sure |
Your Starter For 10
There really weren't that many more of us than 10 but at least the 46 runners were nearly twice as many as last year, apparently.
A tiny megaphone wielded by a tiny lady set us off and we cantered around the sports field. I heard a couple of people mention that there were some narrow bits early on that you could get stuck at so I decided to go reasonably hard at the beginning to ensure I didn't get stuck.
Shortly we came to a road that marshals were holding the traffic back from and we got our first look upwards to the trig point on Hope Hill at 282m. Whilst it didn't appear to be any sort of a walk in the park, it wasn't intimidatingly high and I formulated my master plan: Take it easy(ish) and try to make it to the top still running. Masterful eh?
In front of me I could see the long steady climb across Baildon moor and I forced myself to be sensible as I was passed by a lady in a Pudsey vest and not chase her. The race bimbled along on a gentle incline and I continued to preserve energy for the climb.
As the path turned from gradual incline to something a little more energy-sapping I began to reel in a few runners and the Pudsey runner soon disappeared behind me. For no real reason I suddenly became determined to make it to the top without walking. I tried to adjust my pace accordingly for this new target and when the path flattened out again I dared to dream I would achieve my goal. The path took us around to the back of the peak of the hill and we looked up to the summit, it really wasn't very far, but it was pretty steep.
As I made my way up it my legs began to feel the burn and I slowed to a fast hike. Damn it. At least my hike was as fast as the people around me that were still running.
At the top of Hope hill a small party of marshals had gathered for their summer solstice festival and I assume that after the race had passed within half an hour they would be naked and sacrificing a hi-viz vest to the Gods of the fells, but don't quote me on that.
Elevation graphs always look much less impressive that the actual climb was
Being Beaten by a Girl
I had reached the top of the climb in a reasonable shape and now I could enjoy (Sort of) the descent. I generally descend more quickly that the people around me running a similar pace so I had reasonable hope of a good finish. After all, these were mainly road runners, surely I could get down a hill quicker than them, right?
Well, yes and no. I did mange to catch a few runners, especially the ones descending with no real confidence, those ones I flew past, but all the while I could hear a runner behind me, catching me up. I felt ok, but I knew that I didn't really have enough in me for a big finish so was pretty much resigned to the fact I would be over taken by who ever it was.
As it turned out it was the second placed lady, Emma Stoney from Baildon runners and she was catching me at a rate of knots. I decided I would try a tactic on her that has worked once or twice- wait until there are a couple of hundred metres left, suddenly sprint and see if she would give up.
Yeah, it didn't really happen. As we entered the final field to complete the race by running two sides of it, she put on her sprint first, I tried to respond knowing I wouldn't be able to keep up that sprint for the 150 or so metres left, she'd have to give for me to beat her. In the end, just as we turned the final corner and looked towards the finish, she came flying past me travelling at about twice my speed, I couldn't help but laugh out loud and I immediately gave up and slowed down- the only way I would have beaten her is if I'd tripped her up. My giving up had a very strange impact on the crowd though- they gave me a big boo!! Which just made me laugh all the more.
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| Photo by Debi Nicholson |
Above is Emma already a fair way in front of me despite having only just passed me. Her sprint finish was truly impressive.
So in I trotted in 14th place out of 46 runners. Looking at the winning time I felt a little pang of regret knowing that in September last year I would have been pretty close to that time. Ah well, there is always next year.
The results haven't made it on to the FRA site yet so I can't actually recall who won it, but I do remember that Hannah Oldroyd won the women's race, which is impressive as she had led the women home at Skipton park run that same morning!
Next up is the Washburn valley relay on Friday evening then the Ingleborough fell race on Saturday afternoon. Wish me luck!
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