Today I ran the Hutton Roof fell race, Its always a great day out, the weather was kind to us again but there was quite a bit of mud around to make conditions slippy in places!
There was a bigger turnout of fast runners this year as it was a inter county championship race.
As I still don't feel fully recovered from my Marathon I decided to enjoy the race and run within myself, having said that I'm not sure I could have run much faster anyway!
The race starts in a field and it was a bit hectic as we swung round and headed through a narrow gap in a stone wall! Quickly we made our way up a very steep climb over rocks and boulders, once at the top I tried to get my breath back as we ran over the tops, I managed to pass quite a few runners over the easier sections without going into my red zone!
Next was a very fast downhill, stepping on one of the many jagged rocks or loose stones was the big hazard, a lot of concentration was required to keep upright!
The biggest challenge soon came into sight as we turned a corner and headed up the mountain, zig zagging at first then straight up the scree
this was tough, crawling on my hands and knees at a painfully slow pace, we were all lined out following one another, breathless and with quads full of lactic. I finally make it over the steepest section, I try to start running again but my legs feel like a drunken sailors!
Downhill through craggy outbreaks of rocks, I start to recover, I overtake a couple of runners, next a jump down a rock ledge before a steady downhill to the road, across the road and the start of the final section, a steady climb through trees eventfully coming out on the top of a hill, some technical downhill then very fast down a grassy bank, following a tall lad and a girl we take a sharp corner onto a single track, the girl infront gets a stitch, I shout encouragement " not far to go," a tall Scottish girl comes flying past, back through the narrow hole in the wall, a slight rise then the final 200m on tarmac, I sprint on the inside taking it out, pulling away from the group I've been running with!
Not my fastest ever time but I really enjoyed the race and scenery!
We spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing and gouging on home made cakes and watching the race presentation !
= 1.02.22
Sun 24th
Run with Jon, sandhill 6, plus run down and back inc 8 short sprints = 1.30
2 comments:
That looks harder than the hill on the ACT mountain champs course! At least you've got grass - ours is just rocks and dirt.
Glad you enjoyed the race and the scenery. Do you get time to look at the scenery?!
Yes! but running up the mountain all I saw was the tread on the runners shoes in front of me!
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