Six members of the A&T fell crew arrived at the Brown Cow pub to
register for Knowl Hill fell race, which is day 3 of the Rochdale
Harrier 3 day event, so there was a good atmosphere for the start.
Especially as everyone was given a medallion to wear for the race. Well,
a plastic token on a bit of string to hand in at the highest point, but
still, it was bling to me! There was also promise of a hands-on-knees
bit during this race, so we all decided to start slow and build into it.
Probably a good choice anyway given the heat, as I was pouring with
sweat after less than a mile and must have lost a few pints during the
race. A couple of miles in and I found myself on all fours as I
negotiated a hill, but it was only a short one and I was still thinking
that it was all a fuss about nothing when I rounded a bend and saw the
real hill, which I realised afterwards on Strava is a segment called
“What! Up THAT!!!”. You can imagine, and it wasn’t made any easier by
the horse flies swarming around on this hill in particular. What I don’t
understand is what these horse flies live on in these empty hills when
there aren’t fell runners to attack. Answers on a postcard please.
Anyway, I made it up the hill, 5 points of contact at all times, and
then basically staggered around the remaining part of the race to the
end, including the top of Knowl hill where I had to relinquish my
medallion into a bucket to prove that I’d not taken a short cut. On
another day this would be a lovely course, but the close weather and
close attention of horse flies made it a bit of a chore. The best bits
were sitting in a nice cold stream at the end having drunk about 10 cups
of water, and then the chip butty in the pub afterwards.
It was a tough one today, so well done to Nick Goaley who won 1st prize for youngsters.
Great results all round and I’ll share them when I see them posted
online. In the meantime, I’ve updated the fell champs on the A&T
website.
Next club race is Kinder Trog (BL) on 24th June which is at 16 miles is not one for the uninitiated, but please ask if you have any questions.
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