Blizzard!

It was an early start as we headed to the start of the North York Moors round of the Open 5 race series. Rosemary's hip hasn't been functioning too well of late and her race partner Lucy wasn't in tip-top form either. Even being sub-par they were still favourites.

As usual they set off at the last possible moment doing the running stage first. I got myself a map too and headed out to do my best to navigate round much of the run course. It started off with a big road climb, steep in places but not overly challenging. Reaching the top, I turned left onto Cleveland Way bridleway, glad now to be running off-road. That was until, when two competitors were passing me, I lost my footing in mud and crashed to the ground.

No harm done. That was until I went to take a photo 5 minutes later and my camera came up with an error message! Got a "dropped" error message even though I hadn't landed on it! Heart in mouth moment but after a re-setting, everything was fine.

Turning off the Cleveland Way was tough as I was exposed to a hurricane like freezing wind! Hood up with only eyes showing! Thankfully I was in the middle of nowhere so I wouldn't be mistaken for a burkha wearing terrorist by the paranoid security services. Jon, one of Rosemary's ITERA race partners passed me at speed and I tried to keep up! I did well until we headed up a steep, wooded, muddy bank and he was gone!

It then went very dark, with the valley being enveloped by snow clouds and I was soon caught in a blizzard. I went slightly off route and found myself in a field of boistrous cows, obviously blocking my way. Gingerly, I walked through them and soon found myself on the route back to the village hall and warmth! Quite an epic, circa 10km run!

Yayyy.....Rosemary and Lucy won the race. Then it was back to Garforth and Rosemary's mum's. I was faced with the choice of getting a train to Stalybridge and then an 8km run up a big hill and home. Rather, I chose to stay at R's mum's and get an early train to work in the morning.