Caption Competition

Select from:- a. Fellas in the Mist - b. Three (Un)wise Men - c.Yes, he does look a bit like Charlie Chaplin - d. None of these.

There is no prize.

Saturday 29th April '17

I'll not be UTUPing this coming Saturday, as I'll be competing in the Cake Race at Diggle; a counter in the North West Area Fell Race Grand Prix. Further details here:- http://www.felljunior.org.uk/GP/ ('felljunior' is a red herring). 

Let's do something part 2

Anyone fancy a trip to the Dales next Wednesday (26th)? A Three Peaks traverse, needing two cars, about 16 miles and 3500ft of climbing.

Diane's Pike Race plus upcoming races

Diane (Brown) had a brilliant run. Despite running in road shoes as she thought there was too much road for trail shoes, she improved her time on last year by nearly nine minutes to finish 308th in 33:01 (9th of 18 LV40). I think my days of beating her may be numbered as she also did do a gentle two hour session on the bike on Saturday morning, if there is such a thing as a gentle session around here. She is back for the Horwich Triathlon on April 30th so will have raced to the Pike twice in 15 days. Mary W is also entered in the triathlon as is Dr Hamer.
Anyone got plans for upcoming races? Unlike last year I am relatively free on Wednesday evenings so may do the Chorley Trail Race in Astley Park on May 3rd, although I may be busy in Horwich with other things (as some of you may be aware). See how things go. May Day Monday is usually Wray Caton Fell Race for me with a family day out for the Scarecrow Festival then the following weekend is my final weekend to recce the 100 route - just got the stage from Goathland to Snape of the second day to recce then will look at a couple of earlier stages of the route.

I suppose I ought to do some long runs this weekend - possible UTUP?

Pike Race 15th April 2017

It must be a long time since we had a good turnout for a race, indeed for anything, but there we were, four of us lined up on Lever Park Avenue waiting for the gun at 3:00 on Saturday afternoon.

Once we were under way I lost track of most of our squad but I did keep sight of Mat for most of the ascent. It was a cold day with a fair amount of breeze, but we escaped all but a few drops of the afternoon's shower.

The race was won in 17:27 by Horwich's Chris Farrell and the first lady home was Louisa Powell-Smith V45 of Ribble Valley in 21:02. Horwich also took the team prize with Bolton taking the ladies'

First for wfdbwgua was t'Y V60 (7/17) in 29:47 then Mat V75 (1/3) 33:31, Nic'O LV60 (2/3) 34:13 with yours truly, last of our squad V70(6/8) 36:18. Also in the mix was t'Y's daughter Diane, but not knowing her married name I couldn't pick her out of the results.

As ever, a good local race, with lots of support - well done everybody.

Don't forget, it's the OAPs' reunion in the RMI this coming (18th) Tuesday evening.

Let's Do Something!

At the moment we have no upcoming 'expedition'.

Interest has recently been shown in the following:-

The Howgill 2,000 footers

The Yorkshire Three Peaks 

Ingleborough

The Chipping Trigs

and there may be others.

Would anyone like to set the ball rolling with any of these, proposing a date or dates and canvassing interest?

An Interesting Morning

Friday was the Equinox do in the Black Horse, and as SWINW and I were visiting her sister we came along and had a very pleasant evening, with good food, good beer and good company (from which you may infer that t'Y wasn't there!).


The next morning just EtU and I turned up at UTUP to go running, (although YJ and the TF were off for a walk whilst recovering from illness and injuries). Now EtU and I are 135 between us and despite our blistering pace we were soon overtaken by two very nice young ladies who wanted to know how to get to the Pike. Being ever the gentleman, I volunteered to guide them and was rewarded by being cuddled and photographed on the summit. They were delighted to have run up it for the first time, so if you bump into Michelle and Charlotte on a Saturday morning, please say hello from me.


We then went to Two Lads and the Trespass Stone and started up the path to the mast. However, as we reached the shooting huts, EtU noticed that all was not as it should be - they had been knocked down! Now the shooting huts had been there as long as I could remember (mid 70s) and probably a lot longer than that. So the question is why? The threatened rain had now arrived and it was a bedraggled and slightly dispirited duo that ran up to the trig point and then down to George's Lane. A run along the lane was enlivened by seeing a raven perched on a pole but there will be no photographic evidence as it was too wet to take a picture. On to Ammunition Corner and back to the Barn. 8.65 miles and 1500ft of climbing - an interesting and enjoyable morning out