Report sent in by Guy Whitmarsh.
This year’s edition of this usually pleasant fell race was less well attended (64 finishers) than last year’s (102 finishers), which goes to show the difference the weather can make! When I turned off the car engine on arrival I heard the drumming of the rain on the car roof, and my ‘warm up’ was limited to a mile down the lane, saving the river crossing to the start and the soggy fields till the last moment. The temperature gauge indicating 5 degrees served to further dampen my morale. Anyway we set off as the rain eased, climbing ever more steeply, with Gary and Flora both within close range most of the way up. Once on the ridge, the slope became less and the job was now to avoid the boggiest bits. Flora was 20m in front, but drawing away and Gary had slipped back. At the first check point I lost 20 seconds since one of the dibber readers wasn’t working, and Flora was now probably 100m ahead. From here we followed the Offa’s Dyke path (along the course of the Hatterall Hammer) to the trig point when I knew we should be looking for a way down to CP2. Unfortunately Flora and the runner she was following were now out of view, so I trusted to my judgement (not always a good thing) and the runner behind trusted me (not always a good thing!) and we soon ‘stumbled’ across the marked route down. Then it was three fields, 1 km of lane and a final descent down a field to the finish.
Flora was 35th (63.16), I was 37th (65.13) and Gary, not helped by the limited signage, 52nd (78.13).