Ilkley Moor Fell Race

Having felt drained of energy this week, I approached the fell race with a mind to simply run around and enjoy the atmosphere. It turned out to be a beautiful morning, a little chilly in the wind but very pleasant (actually too warm) when sheltered and in the sun. I did as intended and had a steady run around without being stressed. Amazingly, despite the mud and bog, I succeeded in not falling over once and was only a few seconds slower than when I felt I was running much harder back in September. Forrest said he wasn't surprised. I'm fitter than I realise. It can be difficult to be objective when your training partner is 36 years your junior and improving rapidly. He knocked a couple of minutes off his autumn time, finishing 29th out of 309 in 45.35. For the record, I was 134th in 58.09 and 2nd V60. I'll take that. 

Forrest had me digging out some old results sheets a little while back, wanting to know what times he had to try to beat. He was quite intimidated but totally up for the challenge. I was pretty nippy in my day, without ever truly appreciating it at the time. My best for this race was 40.44 in 1993. He's still got another five minutes to find! It doesn't seem possible today that I was ever able to run that quick. Go on m'lad. You can do it. I'd be so incredibly proud of him if he succeeded.

With thanks to Roam for taking the picture, one of quite a few cracking shots he took of me descending, and while he was holding on to Whiskey too!