Time/Position: 38.05 (47th from 190)
Refreshingly normal, in the sense that 200+ runners gathered at the start in the tiny hamlet of Lydgate and ran this short, intense event as a normal race. No waves, no distancing. After last night's track race, and a little leg loosener around Manchester this morning, it was nice to finally be in warm sunshine as M and I drove all the way round the edge of Manchester to the race, on the edge of the Pennines above Littleborough. I came here in May last year, just after English lockdown lifted: it always feels like alien territory, but I like racing here with fond memories of things like the Haworth Hobble and Heptonstall fell race (both not far away over the Yorkshire border). It is always hard, though, and this was no exception - a comfortable initial path leads to a horrible descent through the 'bog of eternal stench' before a killer climb up to the trig point at the top of Blackstone Edge. Gritstone boulders are never easy to negotiate, which slowed progress along the top, before deep tussocks further slowed the continuation descent. Then it was back up through the bog before finally being able to open things out on the paths back to Lydgate.
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