Intent to Dent

I went to Dent,
With energy unspent,
On the scent of a gent,
Whose superiority,
I went to dent.

Saturday was the last in the English Championship races for us wrinklies. Fred Gibbs of Bingley Harriers has been the M70's winner of the previous three by a country 1.6093 kms. He's streets, or in our case, hills ahead of the rest of us, and always shows us a dirty pair of heels. In the two races I've entered, both medium distance, Peter Norman of Wrexham has been second, myself third. On the first occasion he beat me by over 9 mins, but on the second by only 1min 13 secs, so at Dent it was "Race on".

It was Dent Gala day and the race started from a field near Church Bridge before going through the farm at Shoolbred. Billy the Bull is known to frequent these parts but I reasoned that by the time I got there he'd be bored of tupping people in red vests. From the farm it's a steep climb with two false peaks before turning east at the top to go about 600yds to Aye Gill Pike. Then the same route back.

I panted my way up the hill(one day I'll try climbing) and settled in behind a guy in a yellow vest, intending to get him on the way down. At the top, for some reason, probably to trip up 70 year olds, there was a tape across the bottom of an opening in the wall. It worked, and having picked both myself and my glasses up I proceeded a full 5 yards before falling flat in the bog, thus enabling Yellowvest to open up a gap. After another encounter with the bog on the return, I was asked to re-form the Black & White Minstrels! On the steep descent I'd hoped to pick up a few places, but there was too great a gap and I only passed a chap in a strange vest and one in a Stripey vest, but Yellowvest kept his distance and who can blame him.

After I'd stumbled to the finish, Stripeyvest came in 50 secs. later and immediately came over to shake my hand. It soon became apparent that he was none other than Peter Norman. Later I met Fred Gibbs and George Arnold a veteran of Championship races, for the first time. So, 2nd place apart, meeting these other ancients made it a good day out, though they may say "Well it was until ....".