My first time at this race. Having studied the map and previous results, and looked at the fairly decent weather and underfoot conditions, decided this was a race where all out effort was required from the off, and set a target of 52 mins and top 30.

Turned out to be quite windy. Didn't get a full warmup, as when I made my way down the valley, the finish area got completely obliterated by the wind, so spent most of the time chasing the finish sign up the Fell, and helping some of the Mercia guys retrieve the finish tent from out of the stream, a good couple of hundred yards away from its intended location.

The race briefing was quite entertaining... along the lines of "the route may be marked if the markers haven't been blown away, in which case you're on your own...". And it was reassuring to hear that one or two had been turned away due to no kit requirements. It was certainly challenging in the second half of the race, and anyone becoming immobile without kit would have been very cold in a short space of time.

So went right at it from the off and was around the top 12-15 going up the first stiff climb. Once the race settled down I found myself around 16th, dropping a further place to be 17th at halfway. Then started to think about my rivals who I see every time in Shropshire races..... Mel Price, as always just out of reach, every time I crested a rise she was well down the following section. Mr Jeggo of Springfield Striders gave me another ding-dong battle, flogging each other to death on the second half, me getting the better of the climbs, but he pulled out an unassailable gap in the final descent.

That's the problem with being relatively high up the field (by no means challenging for honours, but in the top 15% or so)...... you can absolutely wreck yourself trying to build up a cushion, but then turn round and there's 10 runners chasing you down... hard.

As it was I reached the final half mile down the stony and uneven valley track with 3 runners within 10 seconds behind, but I hadn't worked hard all race to lose those positions without a fight, and I threw all my cross-country training into it and went hard for the finish. Managed to hold on for a very satisfying 18th in 50:29

Another fantastic Shropshire race. Stiff climbs and decents, apart from the steepness there was nothing overly technical... but there's no easy races in this part of the country, and I watched a few people collapse over the line after pushing very hard.

Hi PeteS and AnthonyKay, I didn't see you today but did notice you in the results.

Pete