Jack Bloor fell race
Posted in RunningThe Jack Bloor fell race is an annual race to raise money for the Jack Bloor fund. This is a fund to help people without the means to pursue their dreams in the outdoors. A great cause and a worthy cause. It also happens to be a great race over Ilkley Moor! One of the few short fell races where navigation and recce’s really do make a difference (as I found out to my cost)
It is also another race in the Valley Striders Fell Championship and as it was a short race I though I would use it as a bit of a test of the foot and my runnnig fitness.
On turning up, Ilkley moor looked stunning! Blue skys and people dotted all over the side of the moor as the juniors were running their races. There was a bit of a breeze but an ideal evening for a race. After a quick registration and a few questions about sneaky route choices we were off.
I set off at what was my standard race pace (first mistake) and was soon at the first checkpoint, I was also first strider at this point. A slightly wrong line from the checkpoint and down to second strider. This I felt a bit better about as my lack of any serious training for the last 6 months meant I should be a lot further back, but I thought its only a short race. I will live.
A great descent to the next checkpoint and although the breathing was a tad erratic the legs were loving the stretch. Holding position and seeing other struggle on the hill, off I went towards checkpoint 3. I got to the top of a short ascent and then a stitch came on very fast. It felt like i had been stabbed and I couldn’t get any air. I just couldn’t breath in at all and was slowing with every step. This wasn’t meant to happen? I was forced to stop and stand still with my hands on my head just trying to get myself sorted. People streaming past me, including another two striders who just nodded and carried on (cheers for helping guys, don’t worry it wasn’t a heart attack). Soon the pain subsided and off I went again. I now think I was at my proper position in the field as I was able to hold position but not really manage to catch anyone until the final descent. I didn’t take the best line but I took better lines than a few others so gained a spot, lost a spot and sprinted up the final funnel to a painful 52nd out of 228 runners in a time of 49m 12 seconds.
A reasonable result considering the lack of actual running I have done, but still disappointing considering people I have raced with and been around on the final results over winter and autum of last year were top 25 and a good three or four minutes faster. This has been a better test of fitness, and it has given me a bit of motivation to get moving with things. The foot is no better, but also no worse so I am just going to start picking thing and see what happens.
Leave a Reply