A fairly enjoyable day at Kentmere

I managed to avoid the Ironman police and slip through the net to get to the M61 saving me a considerable detour and arrived at the start/finish/parking field with a good hour to spare. Having collected my dibber, I was able to spend the hour getting ready, chatting to fellow Horwich RMI runners - a long way off the 29 listed in the entries and liberally applying suntan cream as the weather seemed to be heading that way although there was a big cloud roughly north of our location.
We were eventually away and I took it steady up the road and then settled in my place on the first climb to Ill Bell, but you know what it is like for me, if there is a hill I have to attack it, and eventually I could hold back no more.
CP1 made in 57:45 and as the many started flying past me on the descent one commented that we had just made the cut-off. This came as a bit of a shock as I'd only really considered the cut-off at CP3 which at 3 hours I thought highly generous : even I should make that.
I suspect they were lenient as later many passed me who would have had no chance in reach CP1 inside the hour.
Enjoyed the climb, when it eventually came to me, up to High Street, reclaiming many of the lost places, reaching it in 1:33:40. I was very happy with this as, even with my poor descending, the halfway point had been reached and I ought to complete the second half in less time. I was pathetic on the grassy slope to Nan Bield costing me probably three minutes in the space of hardly any distance - maybe the longer main path would have been better but then I enjoyed the climb on the other side.
The first hour or so had been red hot, but it was now raining steadily but not enough to don waterproofs, easing off as we headed for CP3 at Kentmere Pike, reached in 2:12:29 then more losing places on the descent. After Hallow Bank the heavens really opened and the final few minutes were spent in torrential rain which continued well after I finished in 2:53:00, less than double the winning time which is somewhat of a victory for me in a Lakeland race. I was also able to put in an effort  over the final mile and finished quite fresh which must mean the additional mileage is starting to pay off.
As mentioned the race had a very wet ending and this was causing much difficulty in extracting vehicles from the field. I decided not to rush but when I joined the queue did notice that a few cars if they worked it right were able to get out through "the entrance" so I managed to use my limited skills in this area to get out in one clean go : I had seen many multiple unsuccessful attempts.
So another part of the plan ticked of my list. Now I need to get some real distance in over the next three weeks before tapering.

One reason for the depletion in Horwich runners is that four did rather well at Snowdon the previous day. As a team they would have had the beating of many national teams, with men finishing 7th, 8th and 22nd (shame he lost 15 places on the descent) and Lindsey 4th woman, fast closing down the Italian in 3rd and only 9 seconds behind second. It is on the sc4 website and hopefully there will be an English version on Channel 4 soon.