Descending Hedgehope |
The Cheviot Horseshoe was a 9.5 mile route up the Cheviot, Cairn Hill around Comb Fell then up and down Hedgehope. After a glorious week of fine weather, it was typical that race day took a turn for the worse! It's not often I start a race with waterproof jacket but on this occasion I did and didn't take it off until the finish. The race began in the rain and wind and half way up Cheviot the rain turned into snow. Heavy snow. It was a winter wonderland and a long drag up to the summit. The flags at the top were very slippy and took a lot of concentration to keep upright especially with the snow smacking the red raw skin of the face. My gloves were doing nothing to protect my hands, they were probably making them more cold and numb being wet through.
The trudge along Comb fell towards Hedgehope was a bog fest, ending up waist deep at one point. Thanks to Gary Robson for helping me out. At the ascent of Hedghehope I began to catch the runners in front and was up to 7th spot, an extra mile and I would have closed up to 5th or 6th. Great running from everyone in atrocious conditions and huge thanks to Glen and Jack McWilliams for putting on the event. £300 was raised for Mountain Rescue, fabulous!
Link to the event page http://www.northumberlandfellrunners.co.uk/?p=1916
Anniversary Waltz race, 18th April 2015
The Cheviot race gave me some idea of how my climbing legs were and was a good preparation race for the Anniversary Waltz. I was humming and harring up until Friday afternoon whether to do the race or not having had a hard training week and heavy week with work. I convinced myself to do it and to just enjoy it. The weather was much improved from the week before, beautiful sunshine and 11-12 degrees when we reached Stair in the Newlands Valley.
Top weather |
The final descent from Cat Bells was so fast that it could quite easily have resulted in a fall or injury but thankfully I survived. I was in fourth at this point chasing the Keswick guy with two or three runners closing in behind. I thought that if I was up there at the final road section then I would have a good chance of a podium finish. I dug deep and stepped up the pace and crossed the line in 3rd. Way above my expectations.
Final descent from Catbells |
Event page (results not yet available): http://www.anniversarywaltz.co.uk/?page_id=162
Great running JB - bit of a contrast from the Cheviot conditions?!
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