Time/Position: 50.11 (21st from 131 [1st V50])
As with the Cressbrook Crawl last month, I am not reading too much into my first V50 placing here. For one thing there were two V55s ahead of me, and there was a fairly small local field competing, comparable to a Clwydian race. It is actually a famous event though, with quite a long and illustrious history (dating all the way back to 1971) and it is in the heart of traditional fell running country on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border. Weets is actually a small summit above the town of Barnoldswick (all of this is traditional Yorkshire, modern Lancashire) and the race used to dash through the streets on a direct route to the top, rather like Rivington Pike or Cilcain. It takes a very different route now, and Morgan and I arrived just a few minutes before the start (all this was only because it was vaguely en route to pick up Eve in York). Now it starts from a minor road just outside the town. Up this to a little path through heather which heads up a grassy hill before a descent down Folly Lane: this slightly arbitrary section is a little unfortunate, as the runners then double back at the bottom, climbing back into the open hill that marks the start of the real climb up Weets. From the summit trig, the route then takes another slightly arbitrary mini-loop to the north through awkward boggy and tussocky terrain before climbing back to the top then reversing the outward leg. Some nice bracing views down to Barnoldswick and over the Pendle hills. Given my continuing 'rest', I had a reasonable if slightly plodding race, but at least held my position from the summit down, only because I upped the pace on the final descent as a big group of chasers caught me up. A pleasant interlude, then it was back to the van to continue the drive to York for a very late lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment