Easter Pikes?

FSS (NLN's other half) asks if the Easter Pikes outing is on. I was wondering when to introduce this, and the answer is definitely "yes".

YJ and I conceived this in 1996 when we were training for his BG. He had decided that the Pike Race alone wouldn't provide enough miles (miles is everything in John's book), so on the morning of the Pike race we bobbed up to the Old Dungeon Ghyll and bagged Scafell Pike, then drove back to do our local race. We've done it every year since except for the 2001 F&M. YJ and I have been the core team and every other year or so we have some company for the Lakeland end, but I think Ian is the only one to have done Scafell Pike with us and followed up with the race.

The upside is that it's a great way to spend Easter Saturday, and you get a real buzz out of beating anyone in the race (yes, anyone), in the knowledge that you've done a longer warm up than is really wise. The downside is that you don't tend to beat very many. In fact last year, having made inadequate allowance for our downhill spiral, we hadn't allowed enough time for the northern part of the exercise and missed the start of the race. I managed to catch two three of the tail enders, but YJ didn't catch anybody and was last.

So it's game on for 2008; the more the merrier.

EtU

Great Winter Hill Race

Is there any interest in the re-enactment of this race? I had suggested Saturday 26th Jan ~ see earlier post on 2nd December .

EtU