On Saturday night the weatherman on the news said we were going to get battered by hurricane Bertha. I awoke Sunday morning looked out the curtains and it looked grim but not horrendous. So 90 minutes later I find myself in the quaint little village hall of picturesque Timble, a small village on the outskirts of Otley.
I've never done Round Hill and was expecting it to be a runnable course due to it's category CM. I much prefer the rough stuff but love trying out new races. I was hoping the flat sections would at least be wet soggy moorland and fortunately my luck was in. There's also sections of fast tracks but at least there was some cracking puddles to run through, I think I'm still a big kid at heart.
The start is fast on track and I was struggling to hang onto the front pack and was relieved when we hit the woods and soon the moors. I settled into a group off the pace of the front pack and started to enjoy the more familiar terrain of the moors. The climbs were all runnable and the descents were not technical but care was needed over the slippy surface. It was a fast track finish of maybe a mile and it had me blowing big time, happy with 12th.
The weather was wet but thankfully hardly any wind and it was a good mild running temperature, Bertha was kind.
Thanks to all involved and hats off to all the drenched marshals( see you soon Shane, take care).