Kinder Trial Sat 26th Jan (?k/?m)

Following on from the success in the 'Festive Disorientation' I'd requested an early start again.

Up early to walk to the main road to check driving conditions. Not looking too bad given that the M6 and M61 had been shut overnight. Back to the house to uncover the car and clear a reversing path. Snowfall very localised as driving through Hazel Grove you wouldn't even know it was winter except for the 4degrees showing on the dashboard.

Arriving in Hayfield the promise of 'full-on' winter conditions for racing materialised. Andy (RO) had used some longer stakes for the controls this year, so hopefully we weren't going to have to dig them out.

The planned early start didn't work in my favour. It was hard work fighting through the heather and snow to the first 2 controls. By the third one, more runners were catching up and by the fourth it was a long orderly queue to clip at the control.

The majority of the field had opted for the clockwise route which gave us a drop off from the Sandy Heys area of the Kinder plateau. By the time I got there the run off had become a toboggan run and the fastest way down was on my backside!

Exhilarating fun, but totally knackering. A touch of bad post race cramp would suggest I didn't take on enough fluid on the way round. The winner made it round in 1:34, I managed it in 3:09. A bit of an under-par performance.

Sundays leg stretcher was a trot round That's Lyth. Well more walking than trotting, but pleased to finish. Plenty of cups of tea ensured no repeats of the cramp or it could have been the exceedingly slow pace maintained all the way round. Will need to up the game for the Wadsworth Trog in a fortnight.

TF