August
Burnsall Sports 10 mile Road Race - 22nd August
There's alot of history behind Burnsall Sports. Some kind of sporting event at this settlement can be traced back to the first Elizabethan times.
The fell race is one of the oldest in Britain and you can read about it in FITC.
In the buid-up to his bronze medal, at the Los Angels Olympics, Charlie Spedding won the road race in 51 something, I think. And it's not a flat race.
This year six-time fell race winner Ian Holmes, from Keighley, decided to try the tarmac for a change. He won it in 56 dead and then finished 6th in the fell race a couple of hours later. He's 50 years old. No wonder people call him the greatest fell runner this country has ever seen. Askwith included.
My target was more modest. Take part. Finish in under 70 minutes. Then actually walk the next day. I managed the first two. The third was open to some interpretation.
I had wanted to do well here. But a block of one month without running put paid to that. Never mind. You can either watch from the sidelines or just lower the bar and get on with it.
It turned into a glorious day. My lad likes this event because there's spending money to be made on the green before the main races: sprints, sack races, wheel barrow races and the like. I like this event because the setting is sublime.
Amateur sporting heaven.
Sack Race
Top 3 in Road Race
Start of Fell Race
Chinese Relay - 27th August
A friendly club event from Haworth Cricket club. On registering you're assigned a partner and both run different routes to the Bronte waterfall. When you meet: turn around and run back. Cumulative times give a result.
This event is aimed at getting different people in a club to run together and have a pint afterwards. Another beautiful evening. Another lung-buster. Another brace of ales.
Tour of Norland Moor - 30th August
There's something very satisfying about weaving a race into a day of other social commitments. Particularly when somebody has promised to feed you.
The race was based at Copley Cricket Club and wound up a steep track to the moor where we ran on a sandy, rocky track before plunging back down again.
If I didn't have 10 miles of racing in my legs I knew I could push hard for 6. I don't have a sprint finish anymore so had to watch more spritely legs rush past me at the end. But 11th overall was respectable.
September
The Ilkley Incline - 2nd September
Over the hill in Wharfedale for this mid-week treat. A mile up a very steep hill. Not everybody's cup of tea it has to be said. But I seem to relish this type of effort. Even if it does leave your lungs feeling as though they're not really up to the job.
There was the usual mix of rain and midges on the start line and a feeling of slight dread as this one ramps-up hardest at the off. The easiest section is the last 1/4 mile. But by that stage my breathing was in such deficit that the legs weren't allowed any free reign.
The vegetable prizes have gone; as has the v45 category. But I'll always look forward to this one. Although it's difficult to say exactly why. 11th place again.
Bradley Show Fell Race - 6th September
A busy day with Junior G competing in the County Cyclocross meeting at Skipton in the morning. Then into the race van and down to this neighbouring village for the fete and a fast, runnable 3.5 mile fell race to cap things off.
I was feeling ..... shabby I think is the word. A bad night's sleep. Unshaven. A boozy Friday night. Work socks, ripped shorts and knackered fell shoes. Feeling abit old and on the heavy side. But as soon as the legs got turning I managed to push hard for the duration and fell into some kind of rythm. All be it punctuated by unhealthy sounding moans and groans. I was really on the limit just to keep my place on the way down having done the usual 'race to the top'.
Rewarded by sneaking into the top 10. Woo-hooooo.
These may be pie-and-peas type races; but I'm very much a pie-and-peas type of guy.
Northern 6-stage Road Relays - 19th September
Held in Stanley Park, Blackpool this year. The Six Stage is a proper grown-up race with the best track and road athletes battling it out over a 6.6k / 4.1 mile course. The top 3 teams overtook our leg 5 runner on their way to the finish line. For us it was important just to have a team competing. At 47 I was the oldest in the team and, if the sport were as healthy as it should be, I shouldn't really be making the cut anymore.
I ran the final leg which is notorious for being a battle with yourself; the top teams have finished and the rest are strewn around the park so the gaps are big. Luckily for me a Liverpool AC runner came past me early on. I called his bluff and went with him and battled it out until the finish on the track. It was the perfect scenario; giving me something to think about and drawing out a fast time. 24:10 was better than I'd hoped for. And probably 30 seconds faster than if I'd been running in a hole.
Cross country next. Or, the conveyor belt of mud and pain, as I like to describe it.
