Sunday 4 October 2009

Ian Hodgson Relay

Well I'm glad that's over with!
On Tuesday I recced leg 4 again, to try and find a better line coming off Hart Crag. This time parking my car at Brotherswater to get the 3 mile road run out of the way with. All was fine till I came of the road and onto the fell, my ankle was in pain. I carried on when really I should of walked back to my car, but foolishly carried on at a very slow pace.
Once on St Sunday I was in the cloud and mist and really wasn't enjoying myself at all.I finally got to Hart Crag and took a line down onto Hartsop Above How dropping down to the main footpath after Black Crag. This steep descent was going to be way me and Steve would run on race day. The path back to Brothers water was torture on my ankle. At this point I didn't think I would make it on Sunday.
After a session with Ray Pescod(stretched ligaments)on Thursday and no running at all , my ankle begins to feel a bit better.
I also gave up my entry for the Langdale Horseshoe next week. I feel like I have had enough of racing at the moment and want get some long slow miles in instead, the focus being on the Bob Graham for next May.

Fast forward Sunday and I'm stood in Patterdale sports field(ankle well taped up) talking to some other Eden Runners, waiting for Anth and Derek to come in from leg 3, in about 10 Min's time , when all of a sudden they appeared, so with a mad dash to the pass over point to exchange dibbers  we were off, still tying our bumbags on.

Derek and Anth

The initial climb was tough but we both worked hard with me tailing Steve all the way. Ankle was feeling fine and we managed to catch and over take 3 more teams before reaching St Sunday. The descent off St Sunday would be a real test for my ankle but it held up well and to be fair it never held me back at all. We caught another 2 teams up before Hart Crag. The descent of Hart Crag was OK and we were soon running along the ridge. After Black Crag we took the steep descent (half of it on my backside, which was faster then my running speed) to the path for the run to the finish.
 All the way we ran together or with Steve slightly ahead and it worked well, the only time I really got ahead was the last 20 yards to the finish line, taking the glory!

Keep up Steve!

Our time was 1.26 and our goal was to be under 1.30. Looking back we could see where we might of made some time up, but overall happy enough with that. Another good day out on  the hills.

Well almost a good day, me and Steve had to run another 3 miles on the road back to the car at Patterdale!

Christine and Penny (mixed team)

3 comments:

kate said...

hi stuart, just came across your blog. sounds like a good weekends running. hope your bg training is going well, look forward to reading more :)

kate

Stu Stod said...

Howdy Kate,
Thanks for showing an interest, I'm hoping to recce a bit of leg 3 on Saturday, once I get past Steel Fell I'll be lost!

Alan M said...

Great stuff Stu, sounds like you all had a good day on Sunday. I was sorry to miss the whole thing (23 mile road run got in the way) but hope to catch up with you soon (although not literally, obviously!)

Hope your ankle is on the mend.

See you shortly
Alan