Sandstone Trail race, Penmachno mountain biking

A rather strenuous weekend, culminating in the 28k/17+ mile Sandstone Trail race yesterday. This is a tremendous event, brilliantly organised, covering new territory for me. It started from the woods on Bickerton Hill in magical conditions of light mist and sunshine. The race then covers fell-running territory over the main ridge of the Peckforton Hills, beautiful and exhilerating in the early sunshine. It then traverses Beeston Tor to switch to flatter terrain over farmland, with the ground rearing up again to a difficult finish past Kelsall and up through the tracks in Delamere forest. I had nowhere near enough mileage in my legs and inevitably suffered over the final five miles, losing lots of places to finish in 2:21 for 32nd place. Still, I had no plans to really race this event so am pretty satisfied with an enjoyable and unusually varied outing. Travelled to the start with Dave and his Penny Lane club mates, which was nice: also good to see Dave B from Buckley at 13 miles. I'd had a terrible night's sleep on Saturday which didn't help, particularly as it followed an excellent mountain bike trip around the 22km Penmachno circuit with Rich in perfect weather on the Saturday. Great riding, particularly the initial triple singletrack descent and the final rocky descent towards the head of Cwm Penmachno. Seems to be taking off as a venue, which will be great (I hope) for the village, my paternal ancestral home...