Inov-8 High Cup Nick Fell Race

I decided that if I was out of the hairdressers by 11ish there was a chance I could make this race.
So to cut down on the amount of 'faffing about' at journeys end, arrived at hairdressers at 9am ready to 'race'. They know I run, so might think I'd been already!

This turned out to be the least of my worries, my usual hairdresser had herself done a 'runner' . Big gulp, £££'s for someone new doing my hair and wanting to be out by 11am! Not wishing to bore you with all the gory details and 'cutting' a long story short, I was out by 11.10am and my woolly hat will be useful until August.

I arrived in Dufton village with an hour to spare and spent a while watching the weather trying to decide, jacket on or off? Rest of runners no help, some had, some hadn't. Just before the off the wind picked up a bit, so jacket on. The route for this race leads you from the village to the start of an impressive valley, the head of which is High Cup Nick. A perfect example of a 'U' - shaped glacial valley with almost vertical sides. (Some good photos here High Cup Nick.) Never did I think all those years ago doing geography lessons would I get to run up, along, round and down one!

Helped by the wind being behind us on the way out, the vertical scramble out of the valley didn't turn out to be too bad. And although glad to be wearing my jacket as we neared the top, I found it wasn't quite long enough to stop my lower half from getting an icy blast off the stream just to help push me over the last boulder. The route back down followed the top edge of the valley along the Pennine Way. A few strategically pieces of tape stopped us straying to close to the edge, visibility was poor so not a good view of where we'd come from.

One of the faster runners managed to take a few pics as he ran round, won't be long before someone takes a camcorder! If you'd like a flavour of the route have a look High Cup Nick Fell Race Photos . Fantastic tasting soup and bread (included in price of race), and a good array of cakes were waiting for us in the village hall at the finish.

Race Stats: Winning time 1.01.55 Jim Davies (Borrowdale), me 1.49.05 (winner + 76.2%, not bad, I've clocked up the odd 100% plus. Ed) 127/143, last finisher was a good 30mins behind me (not recorded on results). The hairdo didn't last the course - do you think I should ask for my money back? (trouble is Jules, when you get to our age, you can't be sure that your hair will last the course, can you John. Ed).

TF