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Has anyone had chance to read this yet?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Running-Har...sap_bc?ie=UTF8
Am wondering if it's worth a punt. There's a couple of reviews there that give a positive spin, but they do seem a bit contrived. I'd prefer to get a proper recommendation before I part with me brass :) It's certainly a story that would be worth telling.
Hi Martyn,
I can't give you a review; but it is certainly a book that I would like to read, as 1983 was my first year of running on the fells and I competed at the final championship round of the season, Thieveley Pike, albeit finishing some 12 minutes or so behind Kenny Stuart.
Up to that point, Kenny and John Wild had been on equal points in the championship ..... not that I ran in any other of the rounds; Thieveley just happened to be a handy, relatively local race.
After the presentation, it seemed quite innocuous seeing our new champion driving away in his 'bog standard' old, beige 850 Mini ...... proper grass roots.
A month or so before Thieveley I ran in the now defunct Downham fell race on Pendle, when much to the RO's (Alistair Patten?) amazement, John Wild rocked up out of the blue and blitzed the course record with an amazing display of front running. His time probably still stands ( if the race were to be resurrected ). Maybe some C-le-M diehard could confirm that?
Ian Roberts.
P.S. Not knocking the author, but I did find his "It's A Hill, Get Over It" somewhat difficult to 'get into' and did not complete it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martyn P
I've just had a copy from the library. I enjoyed it and found it interesting, particularly some of the references to the amount/type of training that Kenny and John were putting in. Running 20 miles on the road in a couple of hours is and always has been beyond me! I thought 6-8 hours quite serious and structured training a week, plus races was working hard, I now realise that I've been doing nothing compared to them. I did find some of the detail of race placings etc less interesting - eg xxx was first at such and such but a week later he was second and yyy was third but zzz outran them both and then the order was reversed two weeks later but someone else was fifth etc. I appreciate that's a valuable record of some of the things they were doing and the book would also appeal to a wider audience than pure fell runners but for me at least it was less interesting than the purely fell bits.
Re: Its A Hill...
I think its a good book, but so much of it already covered by Feet In The Clouds and Studmarks On The Summits.
Looking forward to Running Hard which has so far eluded me, but up in the lakes soon so should get a copy then.
Indeed, I was probably suffering from a sense of having read most of it before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Thanks Ian. I also found "It's a Hill" a bit of a grind. I managed to get about halfway through "The Round" before I had to put it down, so you'll understand why I hesitated without some learned recommendations :)Quote:
Originally Posted by wheezing donkey
IanQuote:
Originally Posted by wheezing donkey
The RO (Simon Moyle) reported John as saying that the record could lose 2 minutes from his time of 40.53 and in fact Sean Livesey dropped it to 40.04 in 1989. The race was last run (I think) in 1997 - when I ran it - but it was 6.5 miles by then and with more climb, although Sean also held the record for the longer course with 53.49 from 1994.
I remember my 1997 race well because dusk had fallen and it then occurred to me that I needed to speed up considerably to avoid being on top of Pendle in the dark without map, compass or any of that safety stuff: such that I actually finished well up in the first half of the field and a lot better placed than in 1996. The Fear Factor: its affect on PBs in evening fell races?
Graham
"It's a grind . . . get through it"
In the era that I'm referring to, Downham was held on a Saturday afternoon in early to mid-August (2 weeks before Pendleton) and finished over Worsaw Hill - walking the plank and jumping off the wall into a bed of nettles. The start was just above the Asherton Arms; they wheeled out Lord Clitheroe from his adjacent home, propped him against a telegraph pole and he started the race with his 'service revolver', my dear Watson.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
I am rather unusual in that I didn't get around to reading Feet in the Clouds until after I had read It's a Hill. It is fairly obvious that one was written by a journalist, and the other by an academic. That is not a criticism or an endorsement of either; I enjoyed both of them, but in different ways.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martyn P
The Fear Factor......Yes, I would look forward to reading a fell running book with this title, when do you start Graham? ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by wheezing donkey
I also ran Downham in 1983 (and finished well ahead of I Roberts :) ; although they have put my club down in the results as Cumberland FR, which must have been a misinterpretation of CUFRC). And yes, I do remember the Wall, and the sting in the tail over Worsaw Hill.
Nettles?Quote:
Originally Posted by wheezing donkey
Bill doesn't mention any nettles for the inaugural race but I believe you so they must have grown since he finished the text of SMOTS in 1981 :D.
I also ran the Downham 5.5 mile race from 1984 through to 1991 and was latterly organised by Colin Taylor of Clayton Harriers.Quote:
Originally Posted by wheezing donkey
There was poor visibility in 1991 and some runners ended up in Barley. Colin got a lot of stick that year from runners for not 'flagging the route' so he threw in the towel and there was no race in 1992.
In 1993 he resurrected the race, but the route was extended to 6.5 miles with an extra climb in the middle. It was last run in 1997.
I too can recall running the plank, over the wall / barbed wire, and the nettles too! Great times were had before Mr Health & Safety got involved :eek:
The only race that starts from Downham now is the Pendle Cloughs race ~ this year it's on Sunday 4th June at 11.00am. It will be good to see some old and new faces there.
http://www.fellrunner.org.uk/races.php?id=5306
Aye-up Mark, I've just followed the link and seen that you are now the RO for Pendle Cloughs.
Well done lad, all the best and I hope that everything goes well ...... I will be embroiled in cycling Lancaster to John o' Groats; having ridden Lancaster to Land's End in 2007.
Ian.
Yes ~ hence the mild plug for the race!Quote:
Originally Posted by wheezing donkey
I'm hoping to get a good turnout for the revised date, but not too many as it's my first go at being on the organisational side of things. I know that CVFR have it as one of their championship races. I'm looking forward to it.
Hope the cycling goes well and you get some decent weather.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mapper
I suggest to exclude hoi polloi entry will have to be by your personal invitation only.
Simple criteria; related to a Dukedom, bank at Coutts & Co., live in a House surrounded by 500,00 acres; oh! and have never run round a park and thought that made you a fell runner.http://forum.fellrunner.org.uk/images/smilies/wink.png
You are more than welcome to have a run round Mr B. In fact, bring some with you from 'over the border'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
For such a brilliant race, it was disappointing that Andy never got the number of runners that the race deserved. Good luck Mark; hope you get enough but not too many runners.Quote:
Originally Posted by mapper