As the lighter nights are now upon us the big races are starting to appear. Flower Scar, in Todmorden, was the 1st race in the English Championship this year. Just being down the valley from myself, I had reccied it a few times and felt confident on the course. Being the first race a stellar field had assembled which meant a quick start was needed in order to get a good position on the first climb. The gun went and I went far too quickly around the first 400m. I got a ridiculously good start. So much so that by the time I had reached the climb I was in about 7th place. What happened next I hear you ask... I blew up at the top of the climb trying to keep my position and then slowly ran the next 3 miles on 'burnt out' legs. I won't bore you with the details but I eventually trailed in about 80th perhaps. I was extremely annoyed as that has put pain to my championship (I'm missing the other short race due to being on holiday). As I have blown my championship position I will now just focus on running well aboard.
Last weekend I ran in Wales at Llanytsilio. The rain cleared up before the start and we were blessed with mild sunshine as we headed out on the 6 miles course. With 2200ft of climbing it's a pretty tough race. Individually the climbs aren't particularly hard, but one after the other and you soon become tired! We set off and was happy just to tuck in behind a couple of local runners. We hit the first climb and I started to work abit harder as I went to the front and opened up a gap. At the top I lost 10/20 seconds as I couldn't find any flags. 2nd place caught me up and we ran on together for a good couple of miles. By this time we had opened up a big gap on 3rd place so I was happy to push on up the climbs to increase the advantage. About 3/4 of the way round we summited on either the 4/5 climb out of 6. The decent was reasonably technical and I lost time, or rather, the other runner put time into me. I worked hard on the flat sections and the remaining climbs but I was starting to tire. He kept pushing on the downhill sections and I wasn't able to match that. That's the way it stayed until the finish. I haven't seen any results yet but I finished 2nd. I was a bit disappointed as I've been training really well lately. I been running some fast times but at the moment I can't turn this into race wins. It feels like I have a different set of legs for racing.
Finally I raced Rivington Pike on Saturday. A classic fell race. 3 miles from the centre of Horwich. Not usually my cup of tea, as the course tends to favour the fast road runners but I thought I'd head over and have a go. The race set off a lot slower than I was expecting. I settled in about 15th or so. By the time we started the climb upto the pike I had picked up the pace. I passed a few runners and caught up with Math Roberts and Ian Conroy in 3rd and 4th place. Math then pick it up as we hit the grassy part of the ascent. I wasn't able to stay with him. I remained at a steady pace for the rest of the climb, with Danny Hope and Craig Roberts coming past me as we turned to descend. It was then a fast run back where we had just run. The places remained constant with Craig outkicking Danny on the road run back to the finish. I finished 7th with Rob Hope winning the race. Overall the race went ok. Again, bad tactics may have prevented me from running any better. In terms of looking forward, I am going to run a multi terrain 5k tomorrow (Wednesday the 8th) to see if I can turn this training form into race form and see exactly how sharp I am.
Last weekend I ran in Wales at Llanytsilio. The rain cleared up before the start and we were blessed with mild sunshine as we headed out on the 6 miles course. With 2200ft of climbing it's a pretty tough race. Individually the climbs aren't particularly hard, but one after the other and you soon become tired! We set off and was happy just to tuck in behind a couple of local runners. We hit the first climb and I started to work abit harder as I went to the front and opened up a gap. At the top I lost 10/20 seconds as I couldn't find any flags. 2nd place caught me up and we ran on together for a good couple of miles. By this time we had opened up a big gap on 3rd place so I was happy to push on up the climbs to increase the advantage. About 3/4 of the way round we summited on either the 4/5 climb out of 6. The decent was reasonably technical and I lost time, or rather, the other runner put time into me. I worked hard on the flat sections and the remaining climbs but I was starting to tire. He kept pushing on the downhill sections and I wasn't able to match that. That's the way it stayed until the finish. I haven't seen any results yet but I finished 2nd. I was a bit disappointed as I've been training really well lately. I been running some fast times but at the moment I can't turn this into race wins. It feels like I have a different set of legs for racing.
Finally I raced Rivington Pike on Saturday. A classic fell race. 3 miles from the centre of Horwich. Not usually my cup of tea, as the course tends to favour the fast road runners but I thought I'd head over and have a go. The race set off a lot slower than I was expecting. I settled in about 15th or so. By the time we started the climb upto the pike I had picked up the pace. I passed a few runners and caught up with Math Roberts and Ian Conroy in 3rd and 4th place. Math then pick it up as we hit the grassy part of the ascent. I wasn't able to stay with him. I remained at a steady pace for the rest of the climb, with Danny Hope and Craig Roberts coming past me as we turned to descend. It was then a fast run back where we had just run. The places remained constant with Craig outkicking Danny on the road run back to the finish. I finished 7th with Rob Hope winning the race. Overall the race went ok. Again, bad tactics may have prevented me from running any better. In terms of looking forward, I am going to run a multi terrain 5k tomorrow (Wednesday the 8th) to see if I can turn this training form into race form and see exactly how sharp I am.