Narr.
PB are for road runners.
Underfoot, weather & wind, number in field and competition around you can all play a part in a fell race result.
Enjoyment of the event and crack afterwards are the most important attributes.
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Narr.
PB are for road runners.
Underfoot, weather & wind, number in field and competition around you can all play a part in a fell race result.
Enjoyment of the event and crack afterwards are the most important attributes.
Funnily enough, I won a prize in my first fell race. It was the Junior (under-21) race at the old Carnethy Hill Race (predecessor of the Carnethy 5). I was well down the field (14th out of 23), but was third counter in a St Andrews University team that got prizes as second team.
But I don't think this influenced me in continuing with the sport (in fact I didn't run any more fell races until the Carnethy Junior race the following year). It was the enjoyment of running and racing, without much prospect of winning in most events, that kept me going.
In a triumph of cunning route choice over outright running ability I once managed to win the vets LDMT. That was particularly satisfying as I'd placed quite highly in a couple and had come second the previous year by a minute or so to someone 20 years younger (the first year the vets trial became open to anyone). That was great, it was very nice but it's one of yvery few occasions when I've picked up a prize and if I was running for prizes I'd have given up long ago..
All i know is the minute i pin a number on, it's race-mode... and that doesn't matter whether i'm going to be half way down the field (champs race) or possibly having a shot at the top 10 (the odd Shropshire/Welsh race)
I tried taking it easy at the Roaches 2018. I'd done XC the day before and decided to start right at the back of the field and just use it as training... that lasted precisely the initial road section out of the village, before instinct kicked in, and ended up with a pb (and absolutely knackered legs from the weekend's efforts).
Only joined Godiva to improve my fell running (or should it be racing!), and wasn't initially too fussed about competing, but now i'm beating myself up when i have a bad XC (i.e most XC races!), and even running the dreaded steeplechase and other track-based horrors...
Just can't resist the competition element...
Mark I am (was) the same, love(d) racing for its own sake, although for me the age categories were at least two apart. Now in my 50s, when I last raced I was getting beaten by V70s.
Travs I was always the same as you, ultra competitive and a compulsive racer. At my peak I sometimes squeaked into the top half in fell race results, as long as it wasn't a champs race. More recently, bottom 10% has been more the norm. I was with you on that 2018 Roaches race. Well, I say 'with' you: you overtook me on the first road section when I had trespassed near the front at the start and you were still taking it easy with that previous day's XC weighing heavy in your legs. I've slowed down since then. I can still walk though, which is nice. ;)
I have a theory that the winners of many of the longer races aren't actually the winners really - they are just the stragglers from last year's race finally reaching the finish. Nobody can run as fast as some of them are alleged to....