Three Peaks Fell Race 23.3m/5280ft Sat 30th April

4:49:31. Looks good, so I'll have to type it again 4:49:31

All the preparation, stress, worry and on the day a near fautless performance, that is aside from forgetting to apply the spF50. Glowing now for a number of reasons, inside and out!

A little nervy setting off, not helped by witnessing a spectacular tumble by one of the faster runners coming down the top path from Pen-y-Ghent. Medical knowledge allowed me to ascertain he was still breathing as I step over him, so knew he'd be alright. First checkpoint gained in 47:33 mins, so on target and could relax a little. But not too much as I'd beat Tony V to the first summit and there was just a little nagging doubt about it being a bit too quick, but all the stats I'd studied suggested that it should be just slightly quicker (approx 1min or so) than current 10k time, and mine seemed to be about bang on.

The gusty wind gave some assistance on sections to Ribblehead, arriving as I'd hoped with a good 10 mins to spare in 1:57:24. Credit to the announcer for pronouncing my name right, not everyone does at first attempt. So on to the unknown, my first assault on Whernside by the direct route. I can honestly say I loved all 45 mins of it, I gained over 50 places on this section alone, although that might be with a few calling it quits and getting the minibus back. Being a bit of a titch really does come into it's own when the the wind's blowing you up the hill. Different story on the top though, it was a real struggle going down the hill the right way up. But I knew I had a good 45mins to play with and could take time to be careful(ish). In the end got down in 28mins arriving at Hill Inn in 3:11:19.

Not much time to celebrate as I grabbed my bottle of juice and jumped the queue for the temporary 'little girls room', although I do wonder what gave it away to the woman at the front of the queue when she asked 'are you doing the race?'. Very grateful to her for letting me push in.

Onwards and upwards. Another near miss on the steep zig-zag climb on the way up to Ingleborough when a dislodge rock missed me by about a foot, but hit the runner behind on the ankle at a guess, due to the amount of expletives it brought forth. Beginning to feel I was leading a bit of a charmed life. As I turned to retrace my steps on the summit of Ingleborough just over 4hrs had elapsed, on my one recce of this section it'd taken me over an hour to get back to Horton so I thought a 5hr15 finish could be on the cards. So well impressed with a return in under 50mins given the strong headwind. Equally stunned by this performance as I was with my performance at Edale, it just seemed to come good on the day, can't ask for more than that.

Not wanting to rest on my laurels, the Wasdale entry is in the post. Anyone else willing to give it a go with me and watch me bite off more than I can chew?

TF