Paul and George Nicholls, Jan Peake and myself were the striders represented at this race. Paul picked us all up just after 8.30 and we made our way to Saddleworth Moor's and the village of Diggle which took us just over an hour. We made our way into the local village hall for race entry, for me it was a case of submitting my entry form and handing over my lemon drizzle cake, what a bargain. The hall soon filled up with ultra fit fell runners young and old, and the whole place had a nice relaxed welcoming feeling, this was a race I was looking forward to.
Shortly after 11.00am we made are way to the start line for the start, and were sent of on our way. There was no gentle introduction to this race, nearly a two mile slog to the top of the moors was a quick baptism of fire to fell running, and my hopes of averaging eight minute miling were immediately dismissed, with nearly a ten minute first mile, a slightly quicker second mile and we were on the top of the moors. Running on narrow footpaths, on what appeared to be large paving slabs on the open moors was quite exhilarating, and novelty, I was enjoying it. After another mile we ran along a narrow gauge, crossed through a river, try as might, I got my feet wet, then followed a downward path to a reservoir. This was now the easy part of the race, a long downhill two mile sprint around the reservoir, where I was able to make up some time. One thing about going downhill for a long time, you know your in for a rude awakening and a nasty uphill climb, and this was exactly the case. A long climb up some never ending steps (horrible), followed by another mile uphill slog where I was reduced to walking in parts. We were now back on top of the moors, and we were left with a two mile downhill sprint to the finish. Fell running certainly concentrates the mind, hurtling down the moors at 6 min mile pace, its easy to take to take a tumble, so focusing the mind is paramount.
I crossed the line in just over 1 hour 20 mins, with Jan not far behind, followed by George and Paul. There was no problem consuming copious amounts of tea and cake afterwards, which was very enjoyable. The slick organising team also had the full list of results clearly displayed on a board. George took the first under 23 prize, well deserved, and more so by the fact he helped a fellow runner who had fallen over. This was a fantastic run, very well organised and a great introduction to fell running, I certainly plan to do it again.
For more information visit the race website.
Tony