Wansfell Fell Race 2.5m/1500ft

A bit of a crisp morning, bright sunshine, a lovely day for a race. Warm up was an hour trundle round the shops in Ambleside trying to keep exactly that - warm. Not something I do a lot of, shopping without money/credit card, so an extremely surreal experience. Didn't spot any bargains that would do as a prize for finishing.

The start for this one is at the bottom of Stock Ghyll Road behind the Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop, so there's a disproportionate amount of tarmac for such a short race. But I ran all of it, so that earns a tick in my book. Turning onto the fell I realised that the waterproof socks were going to be redundant for the day, nice and firm underfoot. There were lots of encouraging spectators out and thankfully I made better progress up the hill, minus the chatter.

I hadn't enquired about the route before-hand having been given a synopsis by EtU the previous week. Mmm, obviously hadn't listened carefully enough as I expected a straight out'n'back. So on the way up the fell, much mental effort was given to plotting my return 'lines'. How time flies when you're having fun, a glance at the watch revealed 20 mins had elapsed and still no sign of the leaders.

Could only mean one thing - there was a better way down, yippee! A fast grassy descent followed by a brief sojourn onto the tarmac, before turning into the finish on the car park at the old Grammar School (now part of the University Campus).

I think I shaved it under 40 mins, won by Rob Hope (P&B) in probably half the time.

My prize, a new computer. Yes I know it's a very extravagant prize for such a short race but the Barclaycard was getting very bad withdrawal symptoms. It's stop shaking now.

TF