I competed in the FRA Fell Relay championships today, for the Ilkley vets team.
A great day, with excellent facilities and organisation by Cumberland Fell Runners - many thanks to them.
The weather forecast had been for dry weather and good visibility all week - but on the drive up the clouds started to thicken.
I was on leg 1, so navigation was less of a problem as there was a constant stream of runners ahead of me. I went out fast, hoping to keep going for as long as possible at that speed. But it was a very classy feld, and most teams put their best runners first (not us though!) so that they can get in a good position early on.
It was a tough old leg, but got round with a strong run, although I finished in 72nd place out of 149 teams (slightly disappointed). With some strong running and navigation after me, we eventually came in 48th, which was pretty good going. For the later legs, the clagg had come in so visibility was very poor, with many runners getting lost and waylaid.
The first three teams all got DQ'd for missing a checkpoint!
Our results:
48 Ilkley Harriers AC M40 4:38:34
Paul O'Looney 50:19
Geoff Howard, Nick Pearce 1:17:30
Eddie Winslow, Morgan Williams 1:36:52
Roy Ruddle 53:53
At these classy events it is amazing to see all the big names out - The Brownlee brothers were leading the charge for Binlgley, also Ian Holmes, Rob Jebb - basically the best fell runners of our generation.
From a previous generation, Joss Naylor was spectating and signing copies of his book.
All in all, despite the weather, a great day, aided by a few pints of Cumberland Ale afterwards.
I did manage to twist my right ankle - nothing too bad, but some heavy swelling tonight means I'll have a few days rest now. My groin injury was not worsened, so happy to get through relatively unscathed.
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