Three in Four

Thought I'd start with a short steep one as a loosener, which is how EtU and I squared up at the start of Aggies Staircase. He'd brought his minder with him, a young lad called Stephen out for his first fell race.

All uneventful, (well except for EtU passing me on the first climb to the Tower and me passing him on the way down) until we approached the bottom of Aggies Staircase. Heard a loudish thud behind me (akin to dropping sack of spuds) but no screaching/wailing so eyes firmly fixed ahead.  How heartless you might say, but it was wet and very slippy and stopping to look round could have ended up with 2 possible casualties and to be fair it hadn't sounded too serious and neither did I think it was EtU (would have been more vocal).

Knew MR would be at the bottom of the hill so was going to mention the possible casualty but was beaten to it by EtU yelling 'can we have some help up here we've got a man down'. Ooops. Started to feel a little guilty, only to discover that I was being blamed for said incident.

After all the finger pointing EtU still had time to reach the top of Aggies just behind me and then pass me on the top path. Caught up again on the wide downhill path only to be passed yet again on the narrow one. Neither of us impressed with our 50mins finishing time. The 'downed' man got a lift back with MR and Stephen finished a few minutes behind us. With some grippier trainers am sure it'll be a few minutes in front next time.

Race 2 - Reservoir Bogs. This has a new route each year and given the title and the amount of rain of Friday thought it might have taken us along Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge High Streets. Set off on the early start just to increase the challenge, and was first runner to the first two check points. Lead runner from the main race passed me just before the 3rd CP, as did three of the runners in the early start - they now had some faster runners to follow. Just a shade over 2hrs, leader managed 59mins but local turf for him.

Race 3 - Kinder Trog. Was hoping for a bit of clear weather over the Kinder Edge, but not to be. On my own again on the path along the edge but did find 2 out of the 3 short cuts I'd recced a month ago, so a bit of work still required. Not really impressed (again) with my time of 3.28, but onwards and upwards.

Hoping to race myself fit in time for Borrowdale

TF