Yesterday I travelled up to Grasmere to race in the senior guides race. This race is regarded as the classic fell race. Straight up, along the ridge and straight back down. The field was stacked and with the prize money on offer it's not hard to see why. Rob Jebb, Rob Hope, Tom Addison, Rhys Findlay Robinson, the list went on and on. The start was not as fast as I expected we hit the climb and a group of five established at the front. I sat in 7th behind Martin Mikleson Barron. We continued to climb but I just felt worse and worse. I tired to hang on but I just didn't have it in my legs. I started to go backward and was about 8th/9th? at the summit. The descent was even worse with 4/5 runners coming past. I haven't seen any results but I believe I have finished around 14th /15th. I was very disappointed as I thought the climb would have suited me. I put myself in the right places but I just didn't have the legs. Nevertheless I will be back next year in hope that I can make amends for my performance.
I was due to fly out to Italy last week. I had entered a race called the Vertikal 2000. The race started in Morgex and climbed 6000ft over 4 miles. I was really looking forward to running as I felt as though I was coming back to some sort of form after a difficult summer. However, the night before I had a terrible nights sleep and woke the next morning not being able to get out of bed. I was unable to travel and was absolutely gutted! I had got tonsillitis. After resting all week, I started running again last week.
Yesterday I travelled up to Grasmere to race in the senior guides race. This race is regarded as the classic fell race. Straight up, along the ridge and straight back down. The field was stacked and with the prize money on offer it's not hard to see why. Rob Jebb, Rob Hope, Tom Addison, Rhys Findlay Robinson, the list went on and on. The start was not as fast as I expected we hit the climb and a group of five established at the front. I sat in 7th behind Martin Mikleson Barron. We continued to climb but I just felt worse and worse. I tired to hang on but I just didn't have it in my legs. I started to go backward and was about 8th/9th? at the summit. The descent was even worse with 4/5 runners coming past. I haven't seen any results but I believe I have finished around 14th /15th. I was very disappointed as I thought the climb would have suited me. I put myself in the right places but I just didn't have the legs. Nevertheless I will be back next year in hope that I can make amends for my performance.
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On a warm sunny evening, my dad and I went to Mytholmroyd to do this 5mile/1100ft race. I hadn't planned on doing it as I had trained twice the day previous, but as it was local I thought I'd give it ago. The race starts in Redacre woods and immediately you are climbing. You run across two fields until you hit a track which carries on climbing. Instead of going up again (the Whicken Hill route) you stay low and follow an undulating track for 600m. You then take a right and climb a steep field. A moment of respite as we turn right and run along a road before we climb again through the golf course onto the moor. It's then a quick mile over to crow hill before turning at the summit and retracing your steps back to the finish. The race set off at quite a quick pace. I was happy to settle into 3rd position just behind Alex Whittem. I follow Alex until we hit the first track where I then pulled along side him. We ran side by side for 400m or so before on the undulating track I pulled ahead. I knew I would need a lead at the summit as Alex is a better descended than me. I pushed up the steep climb and started to slowly pull out a gap. I was just focused on maintaining a hard pace all the way to crow hill. Once we climbed up through the golf course and reached the moor I started to stride out and the gap seemed to open slightly. Upon reaching crow hill I turned and was able to see Alex. The gap was around 20-25 seconds. The route back was very fast. Down hill pretty much all the way. The only problem was meeting oncoming runners and having to jump on and off the path. This was frustrating but would have been the same for Alex. I reached the golf course and pushed on down this part as I could see Alex was closing all the time. Down the steep field I was just concentrating on missing the holes in the field where it had become rutted. I stayed on my feet but again Alex had closed the gap to within 10-15 seconds. We reached the undulating track and I knew I had to work hard as I thought I could at least match Alex's pace on this part. We turned into the woods and the path twisted and turned making it difficult to judge the gap. After reaching the bottom of the woods we had a flat 100m run in before the finish. After hitting the last 100m I maybe had 5 seconds. I started to wind it up knowing there we were nearly home. A quick glance back and I had a good gap. I managed to win in 29.53 which also happened to mean I had taken Alex's course record of 30.18. Alex finished in 30.00. Over all I was happy with how the race went. I climbed well which was the main thing as the follow week I'm going out to Italy to race in the Vertikal 2000. Descending wise, I still have a lot to learn |
* Joe Crossfield Archives
August 2015
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