“He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”
Ever since The Met Office launched the scheme in 2015 to name storms, the storms seem to have become more extreme...or maybe I’m just imagining it?
I certainly wasn’t imagining storm Brian’s arrival at the start of the 2nd half during yesterday’s football match between Chorley vs FC United. In no time the pitch started to resemble a cross-country course and it was anything but free flowing football. Chorley won the game but Brian was the real force to be reckoned with, among his contributions that hindered the running community where the abandonments of Screes fell race and Langdale marathon....like the Monty Python guys say, “he’s a very naughty boy!”
Sunday morning and it’s an early start for the drive down to Wirksworth in Derbyshire. I’d chosen to go via the Cat and Fiddle road and was pleasantly surprised to see a runner doing hill-reps. I was impressed enough to lower my car window and shout, “good skills fella”. His response wasn’t what I’d expected....the cheeky sod flipped me the middle finger....”bloody charming” was my initial thought and then it got me thinking. He’d mistaken my genuine shouts of encouragement for shouts of ridicule. How many times have you been on the receiving end of taunting whilst out running? When I had a big bushy beard a few years ago it was impossible to run past a group of teenagers without one of them shouting, “run Forrest run”.....my personal favourite from those beard days was, “the soup kitchens that way”.
Just outside the small market town of Wirksworth is a disused quarry which over recent years has been transformed by the locals into a pleasant wooded area named Stoney Woods. This is where race registration is held and once signed in I have a interesting warm up looking at the various sculptures that are scattered throughout the woods. The highlight being a man made stone circle that surrounds a paved platform which has the constellations marked out replicating the night sky.
The race starts/finishes in the woods and is mainly ran over fields and tracks, with a short road section also encountered. Last years winner Harry Holmes marked the route out yesterday and he did an excellent job....it was extremely well flagged, for the record Harry also won today’s race.
Many thanks to all involved....thankfully storm Brian had lost most of his power, after all he’s not the messiah.
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