What a Reporter

Well done to TF for producing her report of The Tour of Pendle so quickly. Had it been left to me it would have been nearer Christmas, and not necessarily this one.

I had, for me, an uneventful run as opposed to the last time I did the Tour. Did I ever tell you about that? Anyway this time, I did not lose my;

glasses; checkpoint tags; or hat; all of these retrieved, but only the hat by me. Nor did I lose my drinks bottle without even having a drink, or my way about four times.

I did get off the correct path on the way to checkpoint 2 which cost me a few minutes and I should have dropped off to checkpoint 9 earlier than I did but I didn't lose too much there. I also took a dive that a professional footballer would have been proud of, and left my car unlocked for the duration of the race. It didn't work. The car was still there when I got back. It reminds me of the time when I left the house alarm off. A burglar broke in and left us a television.

Congratulations to TF for completing what is a challenging course, just a fortnight after doing the Snowdonia marathon. That was quite an achievement. The Snowdonia marathon was obviously the reason that YJ was narrowly timed out at checkpoint 4. Us oldies don't recover as quickly as you youngies, as you'll find out one day(hopefully).

Checkpoint 4 is the same as the last checkpoint(11), so it wouldn't have taken YJ long to get back to the Start/finish. He must have had a long wait for myself and TF to come in and she expresses my sentiments exactly when she says it was much appreciated.

As you curse your way up the last two climbs, both very steep, you wonder why you do these things, but as you drop off Pendle Hill to the last checkpoint you get your answer. All in all, a great day out.

Regarding the photos on the link that TF provided, there are photos of us and of Ian at the beginning of the race. Ian, 16-26 and various combinations of us 41-48.

By the way, I never did catch that young lady you see me chasing at the stream. Whenever I got close to her she seemed to find a talent for sprinting that I'm sure she never realised she had until Saturday. I have this effect on people. Very inspiritional.

Here's a photo of us before the start.