Saturday 2 January 2010

Nine Standards Fell Race

Didn't make Leg 2 on Wednesday - sky full of snow and winds put me off! Instead I parked the car at Pooley Bridge Post Office and ran up to Arthur's Pike.
This made me realize that I made the right decision in not doing leg 2, as the conditions on this lower fell were horrible.
New Years day was The Nine Standards Fell Race- a 8 mile route which includes about 2 mile road , a mile bridal path and a mile fell. With Steve B unable to make it the pressure was off me to try and keep up with him.
About 70 runners had entered with about 10 from Eden, a good turn out for a fell race and hopefully they enjoyed themselves enough to do more in the season ahead.
With the icy road section at the start a rolling start took place which meant a gentle run instead of a mad dash. Once out of the town  it was race on tho.
I found myself having a good climb trying to keep tabs on a club mate just ahead me whilst trying to keep ahead of Gary Johnson just behind me.
The fell section was deep snow and I reached the summit in 6th position.
On the descent I managed to overtake another runner and then got myself involved in a race with my club mate (Anth Labrum). We over took each other couple of times before the icy road section where I took a tumble but  bounced back up, its worth noting here that even so Anth was ahead of me he shouted to make sure I was OK.
I managed to overtake him on the road section where we crossed the line only 5 seconds apart, 3 mins slower than last year but running in a foot of snow on the fell this year.
Eden took home both team prizes too.
I think running in the snow this Xmas has helped me a lot but still I need to get some longer runs in and recce the bg route a lot more.

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