Coombs Tor Fell Race/Roseberry Topping

There are at least two 'Coombs's in the Peak District. This new race, run by Goyt Valley Striders in Aid of New Mills Primary School (one of the many New Mills schools I didn't attend), started from Little Mill next to Rowarth, where I used to work at the shooting range for a few months before Uni, only 3km north of my house.
The field looked fairly close - James Wood from Congleton and Lewis Banton from Clowne, both of whom are normally just ahead of me, were in attendance, along with my Pennine Team-mate Noel. On the fairly long drag up towards Combs Tor a bloke from Leeds City AC went off the front with James and Lewis getting ahead of me. We then dropped down before a steep ascent to the edge of Coombs Tor. I was suffering a bit here, dropping more ground than I'd have liked to, and with Noel gaining on me. Once on the top there were no more significant climbs, just undulating paths and some road for the last 6-7km of the race. Normally these are the bits I do really well on, but today I just wasn't quite feeling it. Noel caught me up and sat right on my shoulder, pushing me all the way. I finally managed to put a bit of a gap to him on a slight rise north of Lantern Pike, but after 1km+ of track I was only 8 seconds ahead! The Leeds guy won in about 44mins. I was 4th (again!) in 48 mins, Lewis 40 secs ahead and James 1.40 ahead, results I'm quite pleased with seeing as I wasn't feeling overly great (too many road miles in the previous 10 days having a slightly adverse affect I reckon). Still, it was good to have a really close race with Noel, who seems to be hitting some really good form ahead of the relays!

Hurdling a stile under the watch of Noel. Geoff Brigg's photo makes me look a lot more pro at stile-hopping than I actually am!

Despite the prevalence of track this was a really good, fast race, although I can't decide on whether running it anticlockwise would improve it or not.
Kudos to Tim and the other Glossopdale guys (+ a few others) who ran this race then ran to Padfield before taking on that race! His write-up is here.

Roseberry Topping.

Last night I managed to get away from the tarmacadam prison of Stockton and headed towards the North York Moors. I parked up at Newton-under-Roseberry and ran up Roseberry topping which afforded some spectacular views which more than made up for the tired legs and panting! I then did a bit of a loop around the back, taking in Codhill heights, some terrain and rough bearings practise before finishing in the gathering gloom on the topping, a golden penny moonrise over the North Sea to the East my reward. A fantastic evening.

The Trig on the Topping. C me

Panorama North East of the Topping.

A highlight of any week, let alone one which started pretty shittily.