Wrekin Wrecker fell race

With the national FRA awards having been made the evening before in Telford, hosted by Mercia, it was inevitable that some of the stars (and also rans) of the national stage would stay on and compete today on the Wrekin. And indeed, 20 over 60s appeared, trebling the usual turnout, but again only one MV70. The start, once we’d thinned out a bit, is fairly fast on an undulating track, before the first zig-zagging climb up to the top. Soon it was a slippery slither down over leaves and rocks, followed by a long haul along a track the far side of the Wrekin, before we started the scramble up to the trig point. From there several hundred yards down the rough concrete track and into the woods for a slippery slalom between the trees and then a last climb up to the trig point, and a rocky track down to the undulating path we’d started on, except there was still about a mile to go. The winner was Lloyd Taggart from the Isle of Man, some way clear of the first Mercia runner. Sam M had a fantastic race, coming in 18th (out of 189 runners) in 1.07.05. Gary G was typically just in front of me at the summit each time, but pulled away on the descent to beat me by over 2 minutes. He was 91st, just a few paces behind the Mercia MV60 champion, finishing in 1.23.48,9 (chips allowed very precise timing!), with me 100th (1.26.00,3). Tom (151st) still had 38 people behind him when he finished in 1.37.45,6. At the end of the presentation the presenter asked if there were any over 70s (although it was all there in black and white on his result sheet), so Tom and Gary pushed me forward and I had to provide my own name and time. Ageism!