The first race of the year was at Honley, hosted by Holmfirth Harriers.

It was a sunny morning as we left Leeds but by the time we had assembled on the start line in Honley it was raining lightly and the sky was looking very stormy.

This is the longest, and in my opinion, the toughest race of the series, it almost constitutes a fell race really, so it was good to get it out of the way ‘early doors.’

First there were two laps of the playing fields and then the start of a very long climb that took us up to the hilltop village of Thurstonland. A bit of respite then and along farmland fields to the hamlet of Farnley Tyas. We were rewarded with some fine views down into the Colne Valley for our efforts. Fortunately the thunder and lightning never came and the rain was quite refreshing .

A good blast downhill, though it was very muddy in places, and through a field of llamas, or were they alpacas? I don’t really know my llama from my alpaca, they’re just miniature camels really. Fortunately they didn’t get the hump with us running through their field and just stared curiously.

Sharon was 4th in her age group, whilst I need to find another gear from somewhere for the next race at Roundhay Park on 8th May. NLFR are affiliated to this series if anyone else fancies doing them.

Dave Beston