Darwen Gala Fell Race

Julie, Prince (the current demander of food and walks) and missen made our way over to Darwen this afternoon. Julie and Prince availed themselves to the pleasures of the gala and ancilliary stalls whilst I made acquaintance with NicO, Mark S, Tony V and few more before the race was underway with a stiff climb out of the park. I held back - well my excuse, I was actually just slow - whilst Mark and NicO surged away although I did pass NicO and Jan Atkins between points A and G (see map below). Up to the tower and then the decent and the turn where Mr Sammon decided to walk so I duly passed him. He was obviously just having a recovery phase as he then proceeded to go past me on the long steady ascent to E where I was at the back of the group with a fair gap behind me. By point G, the gap was in front of me and Jan was breathing down my neck so I suggested my target was keep up with her on the rest of the descent. Everyone knows how rubbish my descending is but of course the descent from G to the finish is almost like a road race, the surface underfoot being so easy so I belted my way down well in front of my 40 minute estimate.

Looking at past results though there's not that many who take longer than 40 minutes so don't know whether I had a good run. NicO had a rare off day. Jan is usually in front of me. If I'm within 50% of James's winning time I shall be happy. From the numbers it looks like the race was much better supported than previous years and Horwich came away with good results for the juniors (it was in the Junior Championships) and James Kevan won the senior race (Suzanne may have been first lady but not seen results yet).

And most importantly my left adductor came out unscathed.

And Julie and Prince had found a bargain - torosaurus (I think) for Prince to look after.

Quarterly dooo - I'm a bit busy weekend of 18/19th so following would be better for me - probably not for the rest of you.

If the map lessens your viewing pleasure, I could replace it with a link to it on Darwen's site.

UPDATE - just looked on FRA forum and results are now available - yes many more runners - 122 finishers - usually less than 50. Suzanne was beaten by three fast U18s. James managed sub 23, and was the only over 18 in the first ten!

Also seen that I finished 8th man in the Darwen Summer series and ..... wait for it ........ there were more than 8 men completing series (11 to be precise). Suzanne won the ladies and NicO was third. As I didn't go to the presentation I shall be miffed if there were prizes for the first ten! In fact I was less than two minutes behind 6th and did beat the 6th and 7th place men today. Aggies was my downfall.