The last time I did Hathersage I was full of steak and was pretty slow. This time I set off fairly steady but was still ahead of some people I'm normally behind. Once onto Burbage I felt a bit slow, but was putting a gap on those behind and catching Noel and the DP guy ahead. I overtook the latter on the scramble up Higgar, and the former on the descent after crossing the road. I was gaining on Carl Edgill of Hallamshire but he's too good a road-runner and the remaining descent wasn't rough enough to catch him.
It was a bit of a scorcher and my heels were suffering on the dry, flat-surfaced descents. To rest the heels I got up on the balls of my feet, but this just resulted in epic calf pain for the next 3 days!
I finised 7th overall, 20secs behind DazH, with Bond winning in 29:03 to my 32:26.
The Cat and Fiddle down and up Relay, Noel's new event, was excellent, even if the weather wasn't as glorious as previous nights. Teamed up with Little Rob there was some pressure on!
The first 200m were all-out banter start along the track, and Wil and I settled into 3rd and 4th place. Once we hit the first grassy descent we both overtook the 2 ahead and set off, braking hard into corners we couldn't see because rain-drops got in our eyes, the sped we were going! I got ahead of Wil about 1/3rd of the way down and pulled a lead out on Muir behind. At the bottom I managed to take a wrong turning, but thankfully dragged those behind me with me.
I was 1st down by 6 seconds (would have been more without the detour!) and Rob put in the business on the uphill leg to win by 54 seconds from Muir/Adam - my first race victory and record, and some lovely cake (not yet tried the marmalade!).
I spent the weekend in the lakes, marshalling Saturday's Wasdale Fell Race. Unfortunately I managed to leave my camera memory card at home so have no pictures of wrecked runners on Scafell Pike, or the lovely views we were afforded once the clag cleared!
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