A nice day out on the Pennine Bridleway

Had the pleasure of representing Horwich Vets in this year's Pennine Bridleway Relay which took place yesterday. Obviously, if I'm in the team it's not likely to be of FRA Relay winning standard, however, partner Mark and myself were honoured to take over the dibber from a couple of fairly recent FRA Champions in Steve Jackson and Graham Schofield. The fastest vets were of course in the senior team who duly won the event, beating Salford into second place. At the start we were almost immediately overtaken by a couple of ladies from Todmorden Harriers. No problem, we just set off steady and, within half a mile or so, passed them and three other pairs. I was feeling fine and Mark said the pace was fine for him. We just got nicely into our running, a quick pair came past but otherwise everything seemed to be going great. Got past the halfway point and onto the biggest climb of the leg and all of sudden Mark's excellent speedwork suddenly meant he'd run out of fuel and from being very comfortable, found the going a bit tough - it was after all his first attempt at this type of event. Anyway we got through to the finish to be greeted by by TF and Horwich runners, Mary and Margaret, alas not the ones we were hoping for, who did turn up after a bit of shouting by yours truly! We then had a nice jog back to the start. It makes a change from being too slow. From the results I see that TF had just complete the same leg, arriving a place in front of us (yet another time that you've beaten me!), but didn't see you at the start.