Originally Posted by
Tindersticks
In my quest to try out different fell races it was a pleasure to spend the afternoon at Hollinsclough village fete and it's accompanying fell race, Chrome hill. Whilst driving down into the village you notice the landscape is dominated by the impressive looking Chrome Hill and it's neighbour Parkhouse Hill.
The fete is small but full of charm with live music, not particularly my type of music but heavy metal may have spoilt the ambiance and spooked the chickens. Like most fetes the cakes were great, it's always a good sign when an elderly lady is behind the cake stall selling cakes made to perfection after years of memorised ingredients. If I hadn't eaten so many cakes the barbecue would of been sampled but I'd made myself feel sick by this point....thankfully this was post race.
The race was tough mainly due to the humidity, it completely drained away what little energy I had after a busy week racing, 4th race in 4 days. Once across the rutted fields the spine of Chrome hill soon comes into view looking like a dragon's back. The run along the tops is pretty hairy across slippery limestone and I'm sure we ran passed a cave near the summit. When dropping off the ridge a road is reached and Parkhouse hill looms in front taking the appearance of a mini Matterhorn, unfortunately we don't climb it, such a pity it looks brilliant. The final section is fast running across fields and up the road back to the village fete and bizarrely one of them drone thingys hovering above the finish line.
Thanks to all involved....especially cake lady.