Running Hard

[Graham Breeze]

... I ran in the now defunct Downham fell race on Pendle, when much to the RO's (Alistair Patten?) amazement, John Wild rocked up out of the blue and blitzed the course record with an amazing display of front running. His time probably still stands ( if the race were to be resurrected ). Maybe some C-le-M diehard could confirm that?

Ian

The RO (Simon Moyle) reported John as saying that the record could lose 2 minutes from his time of 40.53 and in fact Sean Livesey dropped it to 40.04 in 1989. The race was last run (I think) in 1997 - when I ran it - but it was 6.5 miles by then and with more climb, although Sean also held the record for the longer course with 53.49 from 1994.

I remember my 1997 race well because dusk had fallen and it then occurred to me that I needed to speed up considerably to avoid being on top of Pendle in the dark without map, compass or any of that safety stuff: such that I actually finished well up in the first half of the field and a lot better placed than in 1996. The Fear Factor: its affect on PBs in evening fell races?

Graham