Fat Legs Takes to the Fells

The idea of running off road never appealed to me much, mainly because I am terribly uncoordinated, (just watch me dance - I make Kate Garroway look good), and imagined I’d end up breaking some bones. However, I dabbled in it a bit last year and came away unscathed each time. Harrock Hill became my favourite race – suddenly running up hills didn’t seem half as bad. Plus it gave me an excuse to buy new kit, (a bit of a weakness of mine), and a pair of Trailfoxes and Walshes was swiftly added to my collection.

Earlier this year, George K told me that I’d make a good off-road runner because I had the legs for it. ‘What does he mean by that?’ I thought. Several months later it all became clear when he told me I would never be a fast runner because my legs were too fat! What a charmer, eh? It’s a good job I’m not easily offended. Anyway, when it came to June this year I thought I’d put George’s theory, (fat legs = good for off road running), to the test and signed up for the Tour of Horwich which includes trail, fell and cross country races. I was glad I did – it was a very memorable week and it’s well worth doing if you can. I think that everyone who completed the series, (the Cruses, Michaela, George, Martin, Graham V, Pauline and Pete Waywell) will agree. I didn’t know what to do with myself the week after – I’d got used to travelling over to Horwich straight from work, fuelling up on Wobbly Worms, (‘Not just any jelly sweets, Marks and Spencer’s jelly sweets’), and Red Bull en route.

It was after this I learned about the Wesham Fell Championship. I’d missed the first race but decided to have a go at the others. The first was my old favourite, Harrock Hill, which got a fantastic WRR turnout. Despite a close encounter of a bovine kind, I finished not that far behind Michaela and Carmel who are normally much faster than me on the road, so it was then I started to realise that maybe George could be on to something. Next was Ingleborough, my first ‘proper’ fell race, which also got a pretty good WRR turnout. I was devastated to find out that I would have to buy more gear, so I reluctantly took the trip up to Pete Bland to get myself kitted out with a bum bag, waterproofs, compass and whistle, (not that I’ve used them yet). I travelled up with Michaela and Joanna and can remember thinking ‘Oh my gawd’ when we got our first glimpse of Ingleborough in the distance. The climb up wasn’t so bad even though there were about three occasions when I thought we’d got to the top but hadn’t. Going down was great. Whilst there were people taking the initial decent on their backsides, I decided not to pussyfoot around and just go for it. It worked – I overtook loads of people including Michaela, Martin and Mark Midgeley, (though he ended up pipping me to the post). I laughed most of the way down; it was like being a kid again.

In between this and the next championship race was the Lowther Run, (part of the Lowther Show), which has a real ‘feel good’ factor to it. It’s just short of a half marathon and includes a fair bit on the fell. After finishing only a couple of seconds behind Carmel, I received a text from George asking whether this was true. “Yes, it’s what my fat legs are good for!” I responded. Later that month I travelled to the Chipping Fell Race with George. As we were getting ready, he looked at me quizzically and asked, “Why do you think you legs are fat?” After reminding him, he spent half an hour apologising profusely, which was really funny because I wasn’t the slightest bit bothered. However, George allowed me to get him back by letting me finish six minutes ahead of him, even though myself, David Dyson of BWAF and a guy from Lancaster decided that the race wasn’t quite long enough and added another ¼ mile on to it towards the end.

As the year’s gone on, there’s been less and less of a WRR turnout at the Club Championship Fell Races. Only myself, Michaela and Kath went along to the ‘Race You to the Summit’ race in October. So come on the rest of you guys and gals, get your studs on and get muddy because, for a road running club, we sure can hold our own off the beaten track,

Written by: Sarah Sherratt

Submitted: 15^th November 2007

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor