Wass Forest

Thank you to Nev for his hospitality last night which meant that we were just 35 minutes away from the Northern Championships at Wass Forest today.  We had a leisurely breakfast and then drove through the villages of Strensall, Sheriff Hutton, Hovingham and Scampton under blue skies along quiet lanes, up and over the Hambledon Hills to the A170 before turning off on the forest track to the parking for the event, some miles from anywhere.

We had some time to kill before our runs so we walked down to the assembly area and bought drinks at O-Nosh, chatted to several folks and then changed in to our running gear.  The weather closed in as we walked the 2k to the start and it was breezy and chilly before the off.  My course was just 3.8k but with 220m of climb and, boy, did I feel every metre of that climb!  Wass, by reputation, is a challenging forest both physically and technically, and today's courses lived up to that.

I didn't make any huge errors but I was slow moving through the brashings on the forest floor so I took 78 minutes for that 3.8k.  I was sixth out of six (!) when I finished and I think I'm likely to remain down there when the results are published.  It was still an enjoyable outing and good to catch up with so many folks when the sun came out again after our runs.

My blip is of the woodland next to assembly which looks remarkably clearer to run through than what we encountered on our courses!