Report by Guy Whitmarsh
All the omens were good for the revived Mortimer Trail Race – a mild just slightly windy day, the trees felled by Storm Darragh cleared and the mud from the previous weekend largely dried up, at least on the short course!
With my recyclable number pinned on, I waited with the 30 runners for the start. I know the course pretty well, “like the back of my hand,” but was hoping there’d be enough runners to keep me engaged, and that proved to be the case. A short run up the forest track onto the “contour” path with then occassional detours round muddy bits, before a steep drop down to Sunny Gutter and a long mile and a half haul up to the Parkrun route. As I’d suspected, those I overtook on the steep downhill were now going past and pulling away, including fellow Croftie Jamie, whose sky blue top disappeared from sight from time to time.
At the top, we turned left and I could see a couple of runners who’d decided to join up and chat as they climbed! I managed to overhaul them from the top, knowing where the better path lay on the wet grassy track through the small trees. Then it was onto a pleasant run down Climbing Jack, onto the gravelled path before negotiating the rooted, gullied twisting path back to the “contour” path. I could no longer hear the breathing of the runner who’d dogged my footsteps from the top of Sunny Gutter, but I could see Jamie ahead as he began to tire. Young gazelle that he is, he revived and pulled away again, beating me to the finish by 46 seconds. My running shadow, who finished just behind me, turned out to be Kim Braznell, a fellow Shropshire fell runner from years back.
A vert varied course, and quite demanding enough for me! The race was won by Andy Woodvine in 38:55, with his wife 1st Lady in 41:44. Jamie took 48:20 and me, 49:06.
