Rydal Round

Thurs 28/07/05

Rydal Round fell race - 9 miles / 980m
14th place - 1hr 38mins 15secs

RHB (section 34C) - Fairfield (yes twice in two days!)

Desparate conditions, but won a Pete Bland voucher, yippee!
Sideways rain and gale force winds, apparently there was a tornado in Brum.
First time I've ever put on my pertex leggings during a race.
Stopping to dress cost me a few places, as my fingers had stopped working, but today was all about survival.
The Ambleside sports were a bit of a damp squib due to the weather, I stopped to watch the wrestling, cycling and guides races.
Pics below of a heavyweight bout and the start of the senior guides race.
I heard the winner of the BOFRA senior race got £100, with £75 for second. Should've done that instead.
Results

St Sunday / Fairfield

Weds 27/07/05

Training run up St Sunday Crag and Fairfield from Patterdale, return via Grisedale Beck.
?? miles / 885m 1hr 45 mins

RHBs (section 34C) -

St Sunday Crag 841mtrs
Fairfield 873mtrs

Carried on south from Fairfield to Great Rigg and contoured back around to Grisedale Tarn.
Just to see a bit of tomorrow's Rydal round course.

The Mell Fells

Mon 25/07/05

Training run up the wee Mell Fells near Penrith
?? miles / 630m - 1hr 20mins

RHBs (section 34C) -

Little Mell Fell 505mtrs
Great Mell Fell 537mtrs

The nearest Marilyns to home and probably two of the easiest.
Good potential for steep hill reps and grassy descending practice.

Sedbergh Reccy / The Calf

Thurs 21/07/05

Reccied the Sedbergh Hills race today
14ish miles / 1495 mtrs - 3hrs 50mins

RHB (section 35A) - The Calf 676mtrs

Did the most part but had a wobble where the maps join at the top of Carlin Gill.
Realised that I was a bit too far south and missed CP4 in Bowerdale Beck.
1:25,000 Howgills map needed for this one.
Had a go with the camera and managed a self timer from the top of The Calf.
The other picture is the view from Winder down to Sedbergh.

Pike o'Blisco

Weds 20/07/05

Blisco Dash fell race - 5miles / 595mtrs
9th place - 46mins 08secs

RHB (section 34B) - Pike of Blisco 705mtrs

Billed in the calendar as Probably "World's best fell race"!
Selwyn's alternative prizegiving was very entertaining.
1 can of beer for 1st, 2 cans for 2nd, down to 8 cans for 8th.
Then he announces 'number 9 gets nowt, the rest goes to last place!'
Oh well, I'm not a big fan of skol anyway.
Made a deal with Sue Wood tonight that we'll get round Borrowdale in under 4 hours...time will tell.
Last year's results

Kentmere

Sun 17/07/05

Kentmere Horseshoe fell race - 11.9miles / 975mtrs
50th place - 1hr 55mins 39secs

Probably shouldn't have done this race - working nights and did Kinniside the day before.
I'd hoped to be at least 5, maybe 10 minutes quicker.
Anyway, gripes aside, it was a grand day for it, I got to work on the sunburn again.
The course is very runnable, more suited to the fast lads and road runners.
Some casualties, Kendal MRT came flying up the road to a gashed knee and I heard quite a few others suffered heatstroke.
Results

Kinniside

Sat 16/07/05

Kinniside Two Tops fell race - 3miles / 280mtrs
(CFR champs race)

14th place - 27mins 28secs

Part of Cleator Moor sports at Wath Brow.
Alan Bowness was finally defeated after ten wins in a row by Ricky Lightfoot.
Comedy commentary on the way out - "That's young Lightfoot in the lead, he's a good looking lad, eh girls!"
I beat the ladies record, think that's a first for any race, Jackie must have been coasting when she set it.
Results
Whitehaven News article

High Street

Tues 12/07/05

Training run up High Street from Askham
?? miles / 1070mtrs - 3 1/2 hrs

RHB (section 34C) - High Street 828mtrs

Warm conditions, nice breeze on top.
There's no water at all up there.

Wasdale

Sat 09/07/05

Wasdale fell race - 21.7miles / 2575mtrs
(British, English, Lakeland Classics and CFR champs race)

50th place - 5hrs 5mins 57secs

RHBs (all in section 34B) -

Illgill head 609mtrs (did we summit this?)
Seatallan 692mtrs
Pillar 892mtrs
Great Gable 899mtrs
Scafell Pike 978mtrs

We started off in searing heat and I started off too quickly (again).
Thankfully there are plenty of becks all the way round, unlike the second half of Ennerdale.
Wilted coming off Gable and followed some numpties who took the tourist track off instead of the faster stuff to our right (who's the numpty then?)
Got a minor boost on top of the Pike and passed the guys I climbed it with but still lost two places further down Lingmell.
First ever British champs points, just wish I'd persevered at Ennerdale to count for the Lakeland Classics.
Results
Ronnie Gallacher's report
Whitehaven News article
Westmorland Gazette article

Fellside / Knott

Weds 06/07/05

Fellside fell race - 7miles / 550mtrs
5th place - 1hr 1min 34secs

RHB (section 34A) - Knott 710mtrs

Best ever result in a race - won a box of celebrations and a very camp pink flamingo.
Left the celebrations with Mark and Steve at Wasdale for commiserations and Anna got the flamingo.
Richard crocked himself when he was trying to catch me off the final descent, writing himself off for Wasdale.
Just hope I didn't knacker myself for the big one.

Skiddaw

Sun 02/07/05

Skiddaw fell race - 9 miles / 865mtrs
26th place - 1hr 21mins 17secs

RHB (Section 34A) - Skiddaw 931mtrs

Nice conditions for it today.
Had a good climb, managing to run all the way up, which I knew I could do after training runs up there.
Some consternation at the finish after someone had been spotted ditching their bum bag, despite the full kit check at the start.
Results
Westmorland Gazette article

Photos by Darian from Borrowdale FR's website

The Beginning

07/05

Decided to keep a web log of races and days on the hill.
Will try to keep up a list Britain's relative hills "Marilyns" bagged and Scottish Islands visited (if I ever get there again).
Started from July 2005, I'm not minded to trawl through diaries to work out what I did pre blog.

Books which may inspire or demoralise...

The Relative Hills of Britain by Alan Dawson (Cicerone) Read it here
The Islands of Scotland including Skye by Fabian, Little and Williams (SMC) SMC site