Running Hard

[wheezing donkey]

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

In the era that I'm referring to, Downham was held on a Saturday afternoon in early to mid-August (2 weeks before Pendleton) and finished over Worsaw Hill - walking the plank and jumping off the wall into a bed of nettles. The start was just above the Asherton Arms; they wheeled out Lord Clitheroe from his adjacent home, propped him against a telegraph pole and he started the race with his 'service revolver', my dear Watson.