TEBAY FELL RACE 8M/3000’ Wednesday, 14^th June 2006

MARTIN’S RACE RATINGS

Do it again: Yes

Scenery: 10

Atmosphere: 10

Organisation: 10

Value: 10 (£5 to enter includes free pint)

Met Richard Davies at 5:40 pm at The Fairfield, (should have been 5:30 but I got delayed). I worked on Richard all the way down to try to talk him into accepting the North Fylde Handicap into our Competitive Mileage Competition, but he wasn’t having it. I think Peter Cruse must have got to him first! We got there in under an hour, but the midges were out in force. Must remember my repellent next year! Michaela set off for a walk up Blease Fell.

The race seemed to start rather suddenly and took everyone by surprise. I’ve not done it for over 5 years and there are a few route choices. (There are 4 checkpoints to hit: Rispa Pike, Uldale Head, Linghaw and Blease Fell). I seemed to find myself following an Ambleside vest, instead of following the majority running down the track to Rispa Pike. I talked about this part of the race before we started to Richard and I decided I’d stay on the track, but somehow, in the heat of the race, I found myself leaving the track, and then wondering if I had made the right choice. After 10 minutes or so, we rejoined the track and I could only see one runner and I thought I’d cocked up good style but there were a few more behind that I couldn’t see. In between Rispa and Uldale, we had to run past a dead sheep. The path from Uldale Head was very narrow with a steep drop down and I tried taking it easy, but, as soon as I heard footsteps behind, I tried to pick it up because it was virtually impossible to overtake. I seem to do fairly well on the uphill, but struggled on the downhill sections. I remember my first Tebay coming off Linghaw. I thought I’d broken its back and hadn’t allowed for what seemed like a decent to sea level (?) then back up 473 killer metres to Blease Fell summit. It’s now maybe a 2 mile run in to the finish. Just overtook one runner on this bit as I was suffering from cramp and finished 83^rd (out of 100), in 1:52:11. I don’t feel under any pressure in a Fell Race – I only knew a handful of people and I was just pleased I didn’t finish last!

It was won in 1:17:36 by Nick Sharp. Richard did 1:33.

Dave Whitehead (Kendal) gave Michaela his beer voucher, so we all got a free pint at the presentation.

Written by: Martin Bates

Submitted: 15^th June 2006

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Website/Magazine Editor