With all my long distance trogging this year and 'running' in the Lakes (which basically requires walking/crawling up many of the super steep hills) it makes me wonder whether I can still actually run at speed if I want to. Usually fell races are a good test of speed but I haven't been doing many of them this year either - they're often too short a distance to suit my long distance training I guess (hehe crap excuse) but mainly I've been side-stepping them to avoid crocking myself while pelting down hills like a nutcase, which is something thats always likely to happen when I go into red mist race mode.
Anyway on the spur of the moment tonight, at the start of our run over Plover Hill, Pen y Ghent and Whitber Hill, me and Harry thought we'd give ourselves a really good blow out and try for a PB (aka a personal best). Of course the very first thing Harry did, having agreed to our PB attempt, while we were still running along the road in Horton with his lead on, was to stop and have a sniff about and a wee or two! Valuable seconds lost straight off the bat...
I seemed to remember running this route last June in what was then a Stolly world record time of something like 1 hour 33 minutes, for a run thats 9 and a bit miles long with just over 2,000 feet of aggregate climb, so that was our time to beat this evening. Last year's run was done in much dryer conditions mind and without Harry (who also likes to play silly buggers at stiles and gates and wants me to chuck sticks and stones for him to chase whilst we are at it) so, with the ground being very wet and muddy in places, including every single square inch of Plover Hill, and with Harry along 'to help' the odds were stacked against us.
All the same we really pushed on all the way around the figure of eight shaped route and eventually whizzed back into Horton 1 hour 31 minutes and 36 seconds later. Harry had been fantastically good all the way round with minimal delays, other than a quick one second stop for me to put his lead back on just before the road at the end.
Smashed it we thought........ until I got back home and checked last years run which was exactly one second faster at 1:31:35 hours. Doh!!!!
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| Ze route - is it me or does that look a bit like Mr Burns from the Simpsons? |
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| At the finish with Hazzer having his post run river bath |
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| Beautiful boy |
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