Race 29 of 60 @ 60: Duddon Dash

 Tagged on to the back end of Charmian’s excellent junior race event from behind the Newfield in the Duddon Valley, this race flies under the radar somewhat, only attracting a fairly small group of senior runners. It deserves more as it’s an absolutely cracking route and serves up everything you could expect from a Lakeland Fell Race. Some tough terrain, hard climbs, tricky descents and not a single step on tarmac. I found the ascent of Caw quite hard but that’s no surprise with so much climb in such a short distance. I finished in a respectable position although as always seems to happen, there was a very decent V60 runner there to keep me in my place.

Results: 15th/38 V60: 2nd/4 Time: 1:14:05
Distance: 9.4km Climb: 703m

Race 28 of 60 @ 60: Loughrigg

Back to the Lake District and the oh so serious business of full kit check and the major undertaking of a four mile out and back, flagged and with the first and last mile on an unmissable track. It was a grey drizzly evening and I didn’t really fancy it before we started so I told Nick that he could have the win, I wouldn’t be bothering him. I didn’t get involved in the dash for the bridge at the start but once we got on to the steep roady bit I started to overtake people and close Nick down, passing before we got to the wet bit.

Strange how you can turn up for a run not feeling like it at all but then really get going once you set off. I use the same mental trick on myself for training runs sometimes too, telling myself that I’ll just go out for a mile or two then end up doing five or six. Sorry about that Nick.

Results: 91st/169 V60: 4th/13 Time: 41:23
Distance: 6.4km Climb: 330m

Race 27 of 60 @ 60: Pendle

The first race that I ever did and the only one I did as a teenager, forty odd years ago, was Pendle. I was introduced to the sport by my old physics teacher, Mr Holmes who also taught me how to orienteer and was probably responsible for me subsequently studying physics at university. Class teacher, in every sense.

My first long race was on The Isle of Jura in 1995, the year that Rob Jebb famously went the wrong way and a local bloke won. In the small world of Darwen Dashers I arrived as a fell runner by dint of my victory over Mark Nutter of Clayton le Moors in that event and it’s Mark who now organises the classic Pendle Fell Race. It’s not dissimilar to the Black Come Race in that it ascends the hill twice, firstly by a sensible and well-trodden route and secondly by a stupidly steep grassy slope directly up Big End. It all went to script for me – hard work on the climbs but passed a few on the fast bits. Missed out on a podium position by a minute or so.

Results: 61st/187 V60: 4th/24 Time: 46:43
Distance: 7.3km Climb: 457m

Race 26 of 60 @ 60: The Pete Hartley Memorial Liver Hill

Back to Marl Pits for the first evening race of the season, meeting up with some old Darwen Dasher pals packing head torches just in case. It’s an out and back course over muddy fields and moorland and although it does bag a hill top and has some technical bits it isn’t fell racing as a Cumbrian would understand it. What it does have is that low key, EOD only, cag recommended vibe that defines the best events for me.

Particularly slimy this year my time was down on 10 years ago but my position at the finish was somewhat better. Beat Dave Naughton – result! But not Rossendale’s own MV65 Mervyn Keys – he’s always been properly good. I was well beaten too by Darwen Dashers’ Gareth Taylor in much the same way as I always failed to catch his dad during 20 years as a Dasher myself. That’s only to be expected I suppose.

Results: 32nd/117 V60-69: 2nd/23 Time: 47:23
Distance: 7km Climb: 250m

Race 25 of 60 @ 60 : Rivington Pike

Just as Wordsworth travelled to Monmouthshire to prove, in his lines about Tintern Abbey, that he could be boring outside the Lake District too, we went to Horwich to confirm that classic fell races can also be found outside the National Park. In fact, with the Rivington Pike Race first being held in 1882, this is thought to be the oldest fell race still going. The 2024 edition was the centenary celebration of Horwich RMI Harriers (that’s the Railway Mechanics’ Institute) who’ve been organising the race since just after the second world war.

It’s a pretty simple race route, up and down to the tower on the fringe of Winter Hill, scene of the biggest and best mass trespass for access which set off from Bolton in 1896, decades before the copycat Kinder Scout kerfuffle of 1932. The Kinder Scout trespass is probably more famous because of it’s success in securing access whereas the Winter Hill one ended up with 12,000 Boltonians drinking the pubs dry in the village of Belmont and Colonel Ainsworth’s lackeys and gamekeepers securing the moor for the toffs. It’s a matter of priorities I suppose. Anyway, since I started with poetry, here’s a short one by Allen Clarke, published in 1920:

Will yo’ come o’ Sunday mornin’

For a walk o’er Winter Hill?

Ten thousand went last Sunday

But there’s room for thousand still!

Oh there moors are rare and bonny

And the heather’s sweet and fine

And the roads across the hilltops –

Are the people’s – yours and mine!

 

Ahead of a fair few

For us, the event was a bit of a family get together with Luke leading us home, Tim not appearing on the results although he was standing chatting to Luke when I got there ( I guess I’ll have to admit that he beat me), then Katie, just a few seconds in front of Mary.

Results: 123rd/396 V60-69: 8th/38 Time: 26:09

Luke 67th in 23:38;  Tim (estimated): 109th in 25:30;

Katie: 253rd in 30:43; Mary: 258th in 30:54

Distance: 5.2km Climb: 213m

We Need to Talk About Chevin: Race 24 of 60 @ 60

I chose this race over Causey Pike or Boulsworth Bog because it allowed me time to get over the M62 to the Toughsheet Stadium in time for the match at 3 o'clock. The game was postponed with the implausible explanation being that Bolton have too many current international players in the squad. As I'd already entered I took on the interminable drive down the A65 and in the end, I really enjoyed the race.

It's nearly all in the woods, although it does pop out on to the moor briefly, and it consists of a series of ups and downs on paths between the road and the moor. Not a fell race in the Lake District sense but still a properly hard race, evidenced by the DNF rate of 7 from 88 starters. I'm doing more in Yorkshire than anywhere else at the moment - how long can I let that go on?

Bloody Campervans!

Results: 29th/81  V60: 2nd/9  Time: 1:31:04
Distance: 14km  Climb: 650m

Race 23 of 60 @ 60: Muncaster Luck

Misty on Muncaster Fell I was running with a group which drifted a bit too far left between checkpoints one and two. Spotting a wall on our right I pulled up thinking that we'd missed Silver Knott. Big mistake - wrong wall. Several others stopped, having no more clue than me where they were. I headed back quite some way before trying again and finally, using map and compass, I firmly relocated on a wall corner. Meanwhile, phones appeared out of bumbags and consequently I arrived last at the checkpoint.

The ironic thing is that in my opinion the FRA prohibition on the use of GPS is simply daft. It's completely unenforceable and more importantly, all organisers want runners to arrive at the finish safely and not in a neighbouring valley. I use my phone when I'm uncertain in the mist on my own and when I'm away I download routes to my watch. After nearly 500 fell races over more than 30 years I get it with the ethos thing, I really do but seriously, things move on, like it or not.

But anyway, the bottom line is that I should have had my map out from the start and not lost touch with it in the first place. Ended up doing over 20km on a race listed as 15km. Shocker!

Results: 25th/26 finishers, 29 started  V60: 2nd/2 (The only MV60 to finish)   Time: 3:01:35

Official Distance: 15km  Climb: 620m

(My distance: 20km  My climb: 810m)