Winter Hill - Tuesday 15th September

In the absence of SN, EtU and Nic’O JtE and I had an early doors run over Winter Hill this afternoon and very pleasant it was in the sunshine – not many pics taken but here if you wish : )

Here’s a couple from the Downhill Race last week for the record

Three Loiter in Langdale

Well, if you knew what time I did, you'd say I was loitering!

TF and the Bros travelled up to the New Dungeon Ghyll on Saturday, YJ to do the Marathon, me to do the Half and TF just to roam the fells until we reappeared.

The races were scheduled to start at 11:00 but both were delayed until 11:30. To some extent this was because folk were still queueing to collect numbers, but also, possibly to let the worst of the rain clouds blow over. This latter aspect worked quite well, but it was still raining when to gun went and many of us found ourselves over-dressed when the rain did clear about 30 minutes later.

The full distance involved two laps of the Half Marathon course and as I plodded my way round to an all time PW I began to worry that I would be lapped by the front end of the 'big' race. However, despite my concern I managed to finish a full 30 minutes ahead of the first marathoner, Shaun Livesey of Blackburn Harriers who clocked 3:09. First lady was the unattached Janet Dickson, 9th overall in a time of 3:36.

YJ beat the first M65 by two minutes. There was no M70 finisher and our man picked up the M75 prize, clocking a time of 4:33, placing 48th out of a field of 85, on what is reckoned to be the toughest road marathon in the UK.

An interesting feature of the Jon Schofield results is the inclusion of a comparison of each completer's time with the world record for their age. With the results sorted into that order YJ ranked 8th overall with a score of 65.61% - that's the world record, divided by the individual's time, expressed as a percentage. Seems like somewhere there's a 75 year old who's run a sub 3:00! You'll have to do more miles, John!

TF also seemed to have enjoyed her day, and despite snoring all the way home, insisted she was just resting her eyes.

Holiday Pictures

Here are a few holiday pictures taken with my new toy as Pauline calls it. As you will see, I am still learning.

Gannets.

Little Owl

York Minster

Some people up there

This one’s showing off

Harvest time

Bolton Parkrun 5th September

Found this a fun experience, in fact the mood was so good that I think everyone should have a Parkrun on their bucket list.

However, despite this, Parkruns won't replace my Saturday UTUPs more than once a month.

Wyatt Earp is missing

It might not have actually been Wyatt Earp but one of the marshals at the Bradley fell race was missing at a critical moment and so my comeback race ended in pure farce. I hadn't raced since April for a variety of reasons and so yesterday's race just the other side of Skipton seemed ideal, 4 miles and 1000ft of climbing. All was going well until the last half mile when coming down a hill facing into the sun, I came to a junction. There was no-one in sight just in front of me and the marshal wasn't there, and so I missed the turning. After about 400m I realised I was wrong and after asking directions managed to find my way back to the finish.


There was no point in getting annoyed about it. Marshals are volunteers and without them there would be no races. it was just my bad luck that he/she chose that particular moment to answer a call of nature/ talk on a mobile phone/ pop out for a beer or whatever. SWINW is not too pleased either. The beard I promised I would shave off when I had completed a fell race is still there.