Middle Pack

Another race where I have come away with some booze! A few last minute emails during the week and we had a team of three for the BOFRA Badgerstone Relays. A short route up Ilkley Moor to the Badgerstone then a great steep grassy descent down to the bottom of the Moor.

After turning up a bit early and finding no-one at the start we popped off for some coffee and came back in time to see the junior race and register as the first team. A quick recce of some of the route and back down to the start in time for our race. Unfortunatly the turn out for the relays was poor due to the inter county champs and Jura being on the same weekend and there were only 4 teams. A bit of rounding up and a few ad-hoc teams and the turn out was up to 8 teams of 3.

I got the 1st leg and we were soon off up the hill. I tucked in behind a guy from Settle but he was soon pulling away from me up the hill. In my mind I was thinking he will tire soon. I will get him on the flat section across the moor. As soon as we got to the flat section I realise that he wasn’t going to tire so the main aim was to try and keep the gap to a minimum and ensure that the rest of the team can keep 2nd position. A fast descent and a better route choice meant I caught up with him a bit but he still had a healthy lead on the change over. I had also got us a good lead over third by around a minute on a 20 minute course.

Our second runner was soon off up the hill and I went off to take a few snaps. He ran well and we were still comfortably in 2nd but the top team had a healthy lead. Our 3rd runner arguably our fastest was soon off but had a huge gap to close and an awkward postion to run in. Too far away to catch up with 1st but so far ahead of 3rd that he didn’t have to push hard to keep position. He still had a good run and we came home 2nd team out of 8.

We won booze as the prize and all in all a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. A recommended relay and I will try to get a few more club teams to come down next year for the fun.

The 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.