Victory in A class at the Original Mountain Marathon

Here's Neil and I looking very manly after our recent adventure in Scotland competing in the Original Mountain Marathon. GG has talked about it in his blog and I've written a report for planetfear which will soon be up (which saves me writing it again on here).

Results are here

Things I'm particularly proud of include being the only team on any course with a day2 run-in time of 00:01. Clearly having the 2nd place team breathing 94 minutes down our necks spurred us on. Also I feel good enough today to go for a jog. Special thanks go out to Potnoodle for supplying our energy for day 2, McDonalds for providing cutlery and Morland brewery for providing courage.

So now that's out of the way I can get my hair cut.

2 out of 3 ain't bad...

Meatloaf was on the money with this succinct summary of my last 3 races. Alas, it was the 1 which I most wanted to do well in, that I screwed up...

British Fell Running Relay Championships - 14th October

There was a lot of hype surrounding the Dark Peak team - winners for the past 2 years, 2 international orienteers on the navigation leg (that was Oli and myself btw). Rather embarrasingly, we lost a couple of minutes on a particularly tricky "wall" (beside a path), some more time on a route choice (seemingly paths are quicker to run on than marshes), some more time in rhodedendrum (sp?) bushes in full view of the spectators, and some more time because I thought I was going to have a heart attack. No really. Having a cold last week meant I felt a little dodgy, but I thought I'd be able to run through it.

Phil had got us off to a good start on leg 1 coming back 8th, Rob and Tim probably didn't do as well as they could have and came back behind the Dark Peak veterans team in 11th, Oli and I passed the veterans at the map pick-up point, then passed them again on the way to the finish (hmm) but somehow pulled up 6 places, and Lloyd had a good run at the end to bring us back 4th. I was in a boo.

Results

Compass Sport Cup Final - 15th October

So I was still not in the best of moods before this race, particularly as I had to get up at 5.30am for it and it was miles away. Also, I still felt a bit under the weather and I didn't want to get that heart attacky feeling back again. So I made sure that everyone knew that I was feeling crap and in a boo before I started so that it wouldn't look so bad when I didn't do very well...

So it was somewhat embarrasing that once I started running I felt awesome and I managed to do the 10.2km in 47.15 and take the victory. Maybe if it had been hilly or tough I'd have died, but I had no problems with my speed. Losing a minute right near the finish was frustrating but the rest was fine...

Except that I have a big scar on my face and now everyone's looking at me. It was on 8-9, I was running along and... thud...ow...what was that?...my face hurts...(look behind me)...barbed wire!...(feel face)...blood...lots of blood...(look behind again)...2 alsations running towards me...put map away and run for life...cool there's Oli... It certainly got the adrenaline flowing and I was lucky not to lose an eye or slit my throat. But I was unlucky that I now look like a prick.

GG's map (I didn't do much radically different - it was 22 and 23 I messed up)
Results

Walton Chasers ended up 6th out of the 10 clubs competing, which I guess is a little disappointing, but it was good to be back in the final again after some time away.

Hope Moors and Tors Fell Race - 8th October

20miles, 3500' climb and before I got a cold. And probably why I got a cold too. I thought it may be good OMM training, but I was only out for 2 hours 33 mins and it was mainly pretty runnable, so it was probably nothing like the OMM at all. Still, I don't think I've ever run such a long race so well and I got the record by 11mins and I managed to make Neil scared of doing the OMM all in one go.

Results