The first of the English Champs races of the year and what an eye opener as to how good the real top dogs of fell running are. The who’s who of British fell running were in attendance, along with myself, Dom, Greg and Phil. That made for a very fast start which had me very quickly absorbed and running with the back third of the pack. In hindsight a fast start was very much the way to go as after half a mile the route narrowed down to a single track up through the woods which made for a very frustrating walk up the first ascent.
Once out of the woods the route opened up which allowed me to gain a few places as I received a motivating call from a photographing Laura perched up on the wall. A very runnable and relatively mud free fell course then ensued and I quickly realised the enormity of the class of field. By no means would I ever expect to be anywhere near the front of the field (or the midfield) but cresting a small summit just before the descent and uphill to Flower Scar allowed me to acknowledge just how far ahead the rest of the racers were despite only having run 2.5 miles. The ascent up to Flower Scar turned tough just before the summit but no time to catch your breath before descending straight back down again. This is where the real nutters earn their stripes and from what I was able to observe on the ascent Flower Scar was no different with most runners disengaging all sense and just putting one foot in front of the other as fast as possible and hoping gravity didn’t quite win over!!
The descent seemed to last a very long time and I spent most of it hoping that I wouldn’t have to go back up again. No smiles for the photographer at this point, a face of concentration coming off the bridge (even with the tongue out), although it would appear Dom thought this was the finish and he’d won something!! The final kick in the teeth was a lengthy climb back up with a mile to go but once at the top the woods were back in sight and knowledge that the finish was not much further. By the point I reached the descent through the woods several hundred runners had churned up the mud which made it very difficult to identify where mud finished and steps began. A final motivating call from Laura and I was on my way to the finish determined to pick up at least one more place.
As fell runs go this was a great experience and I would greatly recommend taking part in a champs race when able. Phil had a great race (despite a mid-week bout of man flu) and bagged himself a top 100 position with Dom and Greg well placed in 118th and 129th respectively. I’m hoping 207th won’t become an established finishing position!!
1 Simon Bailey 38.39
2 Robert Hope 39.17
3 Morgan Donnelly 39.36
4 Rhys Findlay-Robinson 39.39
5 Ben Mounsey 40.02
6 Tom Addison 40.20
7 Mark Addison 40.30
8 Matthew Roberts 40.46
9 Gavin Mulholland 40.49
10 Rob Jebb 41.01
98 Phil Livermore 47.12
118 Dominic Nurse 48.09
129 Greg Weatherhead 48.38
207 Martin Shaw 53.41
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