Carding Mill Canter

[Travs]

Another cracking race in the Cardingmill valley today. Despite the best efforts of a rain/sleet storm just before the off, it was vest weather today... cool (perhaps even cold) and bright.

A minute slower than last year, but looking at times of those around me it does seem that quite a few were 1-2 mins down... funny that as i don't remember conditions last year being easier... perhaps i'm not quite as fit as this time last year... although did beat some notable 'close rivals' today.

Coventry Godiva brought our first ever full team to a (non relay) fell race, and was a very satisfactory day... Matt Battley won the race (as i suspected he would).... the video-er of the presentation was a little inaccurate in his suggestion that Matt "usually runs on the road".... he's represented New Zealand in the Mountain World Cup/Trophy, done a few fell races, and the OMM Elite several times, and is a top athlete as well as accomplished climber/mountain leader.

Next up myself and the lad who won the under-23 prize... we had a fantastic battle throughout, with me pulling away on the ups and then he redressed the balance elsewhere... hit the final valley track level pegging, and he pipped me by two seconds over that final half mile, both collapsing over the line...

3 of us in the top 20, but still only 4th team... shows the strength of the dedicated fellrunning clubs like Eryri and Mercia...

Great organisation as always, and a great day...

Pete

[PeteS]

Nice one, Pete. Glad to hear you team and team all did well. Very impressive run from the young Godiva lad. He was well ahead of the field going up calf ridge which of course was the last I saw of him!

I was hoping to get under an hour as a managed 1.01 last time out in very windy conditions. I don't think it was as bad this year but still bad enough to make forward progress difficult after the golf course and the wind also made my eyes water so the final descent and run in were taken a bit easier than my usual gung-ho style as I really couldn't see where I was putting my feet at times. Didn't quite break the hour but good to knock 30 seconds or so off last year.
A weekend off from running next week - cycling instead - and then hopefully back to finish the Shropshire winter series with the Wrekin the week after.

[Dave_Mole]

slowest ever time and worst placing both overall and in my age category for me!
My watch says I wasn't moving for 3 mins, so that's probably why

Ho, hum, let's see if I can improve on Pen Cerrig Chalch in a couple of week's time.....

[Travs]

Dave, I came across your blog a couple of weeks ago... nice to read through it and relive some of our battles!!

Noticed your comments about pacing at various times of yesterday's race... both the overall winner and the u-23 winner commented on the way home how slow the pace was from the start, along to the bottom of first climb... much different from the usual hell-for-leather pace of the cross-country starts!

I did suggest that is it really worth upping the heart rate too much in the first 400 metres just to gain 15 seconds, when much more can be gained/lost in the next 10 minutes up that first climb, when the hard work really begins.

[Dave_Mole]

looking at the results for the last few years (and ignoring last year as anomalous), the times at the front of the race aren't that far off. Your club-mates win is one of the fastest for quite a while.

My "blog" is just somewhere to record runs. It's quite dull! If you can find my Fell Running Year, it's a bit more entertaining

[Dave_Mole]

rather nice film of the race here:
https://vimeo.com/396595590?fbclid=I...vUk2L9ws2rpmv0

[PeteS]

rather nice film of the race here:
https://vimeo.com/396595590?fbclid=I...vUk2L9ws2rpmv0

Nice one - Travs in action!

(I think there's a brief glimpse of my arse on the first climb, too!)

Any video of LMVs surfaced yet?

[Travs]

Nice one - Travs in action!

(I think there's a brief glimpse of my arse on the first climb, too!)

Any video of LMVs surfaced yet?

There are a couple on facebook… but not quite as interesting... mainly runners going through checkpoint on top of Mynd, and people disappearing down the first descent, but no real "action shots". Must admit I didn't spot you on them Pete...

I heard on the grapevine there'll be a video of the final descent, but I've not seen it yet.

[Dave_Mole]

There are now four videos of the Long Mynd Valleys on Youtube, as well as a race report. The chap managed to catch most people in videos 3 and 4, I think....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtB2Uc0cvH8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8w4NTc6Pf4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InamOgsocsU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgwQf0TRFpA&t=501s

Race report:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAxUOZjgmvQ

[PeteS]

There are a couple on facebook… but not quite as interesting... mainly runners going through checkpoint on top of Mynd, and people disappearing down the first descent, but no real "action shots". Must admit I didn't spot you on them Pete...

They were probably already at home with their feet up by the time I went through!