Was nervously watching the temerature gauge rise on the journey over today, to a beautiful and very secluded part of Shropshire.... in fact i think registration was in England, but the start/finish line was in Wales!
Last time i did this race there were around 120 on the start line... but today, despite being a North Wales champs counter, the starting number was only in the thirties. So at least i was on for a pb position as long as i finished.
Made a steady but not manic start and was rather surprised to be in the lead most of the way up the first climb... as it got a little steeper i dropped to a walk perhaps sooner than i should, reaching the summit in 2nd.
Next came a long but quite technically easy descent, followed by a winding section of tracks and road with high vegetation cover to both sides... i'd dropped to 3rd at some point along here, but couldn't see how much time i'd slipped... was rather happy on reaching the open fell again that i was still within 30 seconds or so of the lead.
The second descent proved to be the crux of the race for most... i think most of the field went wrong at some point... the "flagged" descent was minimal to say the least... and there was also talk that one of the arrow markers at the bottom of the descent had been placed in the wrong direction... i don't know if true, but things got interesting..... our little front three group found ourselves at the top of what appeared to be a long crag covered in bracken, with no viable way down... we all hared off in varying directions...
After what seemed like an eternity i found a way down through the bracken, and headed in the direction of the next road junction... i asked the marshal what position i was in, expecting to have dropped well down the field, to be told to my utter amazement that i was in the lead.... with the guy in 2nd bearing down on me (the other guy who had been leading the race gave it up as a dnf).
I knew the next climb was very long and drawn out up first a steep road, then a track, before hitting the open fell, and i had to finish the guy in 2nd off here as i wouldn't be able to do it on the descent.... i pushed hard and he was making some awful noises, but i couldn't drop him, and i hit the final summit in 1st but with only about 5 seconds lead.
It was only 4 or 5 minutes descent to the finish but he nipped in front of me about a third of the way down and pulled out another 20 seconds on me by the finish.
I should point out that about half way down the first descent i realised i'd made a grave mistake with my shoe choice, opting for full fell shoes in bone-dry ground, and could feel the skin on my heels disintegrating... on reaching the finish i realised that i'd basically lost the skin on my left heel... i was in a lot of pain all the way round...
I can't blame that on dropping to 2nd though, as during the race you just get on with it, and i don't think i could've held the guy off regardless... perhaps i'd have been a bit closer hitting the long final field and then mustered a sprint finish, but who knows.
2nd isn't really something i'm going to dine out on though... it was a small field, and a lot of the top Mercia runners etc were absent.
However it was still arguably my best run of the year... convincingly beating a couple of guys who usually edge me out... and giving the winning guy (who usually beats me hollow) a real test.
Only disappointment was the winner was also a Vet so no 1st v40 today!
Hello to Llani Boy again, great to see you, and well done on a richly deserved age prize, and given the small field and your position will no doubt give your overall Champs position a shot in the arm.
Pete
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Originally Posted by Llani Boy
