8th – 10th June 2007
Whilst a lot of Wesham, Lytham and Blackpool
runners were becoming knights of the realm travelling from castle to castle in
Venue Brown
Cow Inn, Norden,
Conditions Hot
Health Suffering
with cold
Times Rubbish
Enjoyment Actually quite a
lot
Value for money Very good @ £12 for all 3
races
Do it again Yes
You do not need to enter all 3
races but you only get a tee shirt if you enter and complete all 3
Friday 8th
June - 6.2 Road Race
After work, at 5 p.m., I travelled down to Norden, north of
The course was quite hard – started off
with approximately 1¾ miles up hill. Then there was a slight down hill, a
slight up hill, and then a long down hill section. It then became undulating
with a flat finish.
The major problem, for me who had no idea
of the area, was there were no mile markers and, therefore, I had no idea of
how far we had gone at any point. There were also no water stations, although
at the top of the slight hill, (just before the long downhill section, there
was a lad with a bike offering water.
My time and
position – 50-00 minutes dead and 53rd out of 74.
After the race my back was killing me and I
had to walk back the 2 miles thinking that I might not make the Saturday race, never mind Sunday.
Saturday 9th
June - 6 mile trail race
My back had eased by Saturday morning and fortunately I was able to take my place on the
start line.
I quite like trail races but I haven’t
quite learnt the art of them yet as I always seem to struggle. Saturday was no exception.
The course was a three lapper, in the main,
with a mile start and ½ mile finish thrown in. Having seen the profile there
was 600 ft of climbing ON EACH LAP.
It was very nice running through the woods
and fields and it was quite a hard course which took in a lot of steep steps
and narrow paths. I wasn’t the only one who found it hard – everybody I spoke
to said they dreaded the Saturday morning race.
It was also made harder, for those doing
all three races, by the lack of recovery time from the night before. Also the
heat!
No water stations or mile markers!
My time and
position 1-01-24
and 3rd last (PW for position)
Overall time and
position 1-51-24 and 5th
last
At the end I thought, fleetingly, did I
want to drive back to
Sunday 10th
June - 6 mile Fell race
Well, of course, I did go back, for my
first ever fell race. After a full day’s recovery, give or take an hour, I felt
OK.
Therefore I took my place on the start line
for the Knowle Hill Fell race – 1200 ft
of climb, (slightly higher than the
Having never done a fell race before I
didn’t really know what to expect – although I had run up fells and certainly I
had done a bit of walking so I had some idea, but racing is a different kettle
of fish, (who on earth came up with that saying!)
It started off on a steep cobbled path –
just to get to the fell – and carried on climbing, (again I have no idea how
far), until we turned left along a path that had a slight descent.
We then went down by a wall, which was a
very steep descent. This is where I lose a lot of time, (same applies in trail
races), as I have no confidence and people fly down as if they haven’t got a
care in the world. Obviously, it is a psychological thing which I think goes
back to when I was about 6 – yes I can remember that far back – and I started
running down a hill and my mum had to shout to me to fall down or I would never
have stopped. However, I persevere.
We crossed a bit of a stream and then
clambered up the other side, (and boy do I mean clambered). When you got to the
top, which probably wasn’t that far, and looked down you could tell how steep
it was. Of course this is where the race bit comes in, as, although you are
walking, you take the most direct route – and therefore the hardest- instead of
zig-zagging.
From there-on-in it was mostly down hill
although, about half way, there was a bit of a climb and a wall stile to
negotiate but it was a nice finish.
Of course the scenery was brilliant and
does make the effort worth while.
My time and
position - 1-17-58 9th last
Overall time and
position 3-09-22 4th last
Would I do another fell race? – Yes I think
I would
I would definitely recommend having a go at
the event as a whole, because, although each race is hard and, obviously, put
them all together and they get progressively harder, each race is only 6 miles
long. The only down side is the lack of mile markers, especially on the road
race. Water was provided at the end of each race.
Anybody wishing to find out more can look
on
Written by: Peter
Cooke
Submitted: 11th
June 2007
Edited by: Brenda J
Earnshaw WRR Editor