Last Saturday Afternoon!

Just me and the missus up to Hutton Roof for the 7+ miler over the crags and the climb up the great lump opposite junction 36 on the M6.  Not the missus of course just me, she went looking round the rather quaint village fair they put on around this event - very British.
240 eager entrants all preparing their excuses for not performing well on the forthcoming trial lined up in the field.  The field I hear you say?  They added an extra 300m to the start of the race in a field next to the concrete road, the idea being to string the runners out to avoid the early argy-bargy on the road and stop start queues on the initial climbs.
I like this race, I normally like the terrain and I especially like the views all around.  However the hot dry weather had dried the ground rock hard, making me pleased that I wore my trail shoes and not fell shoes.  On the way round we encountered many windless pockets of still hot air, which almost took your breath away.  It was hot and hard going and dehydration was taking its toll.  I so wished I had knocked back that iso' drink earlier.
As usual many people passed me on the downhills but I got passed 15 people on the steep climb at the halfway stage.  Thankfully they had put a water stall on at the second road crossing.  After that, head down , don't let anyone pass and get in front of the irritating stop/start geezer in front of me - difficult to do on single track paths.
I even managed a bit of a sprint finish down the concrete road to finish 144th out of 235+ starters.  15 minutes slower than 2004 so in the letters of TY'M a PW but better than nothing.  I kept telling myself the great Eric Riddles saying that got me into fell racing as I was going round the course:
"There are 3 challenges to every race: 1) entering it, 2) finishing it & 3) not coming last - everything else is a bonus!"
I have never known my feet throb so heavily after a race and the luxury at the end of pouring cups of cold water over my bare feet was sheer bliss.
We finished the day by taking the meandering route back through some very pretty Lancashire villages such as Wellington making for a perfect afternoon out.
Pity you missed it.

KLM