British Fell Relays

Race: British fell relay championships, Middleton, Cumbria (Leg 2, 15k, 1000m)
Peaks: Castle Knott, Calf Top
Time/Position: 1.39.02 (79th from 220)
The Middleton Fells are a small range of quiet hills south of the Howgills proper, and made an interesting and attractive venue for this year's British fell race relays. This was Buckley's fourth time at the event, and I like it more every time - just a great day out. An early start saw us arrive at the race HQ in a field above Middleton by 9am. Paul D set off on the first leg under threatening skies, and handed over to Steve and I an hour or so later. This is the third time I've done the long pairs leg, and we set to work making up a few places (although we took a bad line initially, having to cross a deep rocky gorge to regain the wall!).  From here, the route steepened up to a checkpoint on Eskdale Pike, after which we passed dozens of teams up Thorn Moor to the summit of Castle Knott. A tailwind was very pleasant up this steepish but nicely runnable ridge. Then an uneccessary descent took us right down to near the road at Barton Beck, then very steeply back out - a real slog - right up to the highpoint at Calf Top. Steve had done the XC race yesterday so unsurprisingly this was a lot more comfortable for me. The weather was rather grim by now: misty, some rain and driving wind. I thought it prudent to get the map out, and took a rough bearing down to Wrestle Gill. We opted to contour high up with the valley as a 'handrail'. Glad we did, as a good number of teams must have gone too far left down the broad ridge - missing out checkpoint 6 hidden near a stream junction at the bottom of Wrestle Gill, numerous DNFs as a result. I scoped out several sheep trods and used them to good effect. Later, a long haul round Cartsaddle Hill gave way to a very fast finish. Steve suddenly found an extra gear, and his track pedigree started to show as we finished quickly. I've placed around 40th in all three previous relays, so this was obviously quite a bit slower, but we still gained around 100 places over the leg. We handed over to Huw and Andy, then retired to the marquee for sausages and local Kirby Lonsdale ale.