16th June Lolloping with Les


Readers of this blog over the past couple of years will perhaps remember that I have had a series of running nemesis'. These are people that I knew ran at roughly the same speed as I did (slow) and whom I attempted to finish ahead of whenever we found ourselves in the same race. First it was 'Joseph', more recently it has been 'Elizabeth', and now it is 'Les' 

Last night was what I suspect might be the first of several encounters over the summer months when we ran in the Gridleford fell race on a glorious evening.  With 330 starters of varying size and speed my aim was two fold, to not finish in the bottom 50 and also if possible to beat 'Les'

A quick run around the perimeter of the cricket square, by which time the greyhounds in the field were out of sight, and the race within the race was on. I had seen the Youtube video of last year's event so I knew that the first 2 miles would be up, up and up again, what I perhaps didn't realise was that the power walking would start after only 5 mins, finding myself stuck in a line of people snaking up the ever increasing gradient, with noone wanting / able to overtake the people in front. 

Thankfully the up had to end sometime but by this time although I knew 'Les' was somewhere infront of me I wasn't able to see his blue Matlock club vest. A mile of relatively flat running through the Longshaw estate and then it was all downhill. The easy part you might think, but not when the down is down through the rock and tree root strewn Padley Gorge, which meant that running on already tired legs and in the shadow of the sinking sun, it required great concentration to ensure I simply remained upright.

Then, just when all hope appeared lost, there was 'Les' seemingly not quite as nimble on the downhill sections as he was quick on the uphill section. The race was now on and if you can just imagine some of the battles between Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett in the mid 80's, well it was absolutely nothing like that. 

A final river crossing, yes thats right a river crossing, and we hit the final stretch across a field composed of what felt like quicksand, running over the line together in a photo finish. And the crowd went wild...well those who were not too distracted tucking into their post race burger and pint.  

A tough but scenic run that I will add to my calendar for next year. And just when they thought it was all over, guess who I bumped into during a sunny saunter around Matlock town centre this morning...that's right, 'Les'. And the race was back on to see who could be the first into Iceland.

Here the edited version of the race....the one in Grindleford, not the one into Iceland!!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6th May Olbia

Image
  A chance to stretch our legs today with our first port of call; Olbia, Sardinia. And it was a quick stretch too due to it being only a five hour stay. Up bright and early, so early in fact that the hot food at the buffet wasn't even ready to be served. Still it gave us a chance to watch the ship glide into port past a host of oyster/mussel beds, before performing a 180 degree turn to reverse into it's berth. A couple of short bus rides later and we were in downtown Olbia. But there an hour or so before anything appeared to open, the disadvantage of being early birds and something we don't seem to learn! Not that Olbia had a great deal to see or maybe if we had done the slightest bit of planning beforehand there might have benn but we didn't. It was pleasant enough but that's about it. It was pleasant enough but nothing special, indeed we were back on the ship after just a couple of hours ashore and then managed to sleep away most of th...
Read more

7th May Naples

Image
 I'm sure I've heard the phrase 'see Naples and die' suggesting that it is perhaps not the nicest location in the Mediterranean but if it's good enough for Diego Maradona fir a few years then it's good enough for me for 10 hours. Although the millions of tax free pounds he was paid might have eased his stay. By the time we got up, washed, dressed and up to The Kitchens, the rest of the ship were already there. Compared to the Marie Celeste of yesterday it was absolutely packed, presumably with people having breakfast before heading out on 8am excursions, our excursion was simply going to be the city of Naples itself as possible trips to Vesuvius, Pompei or the Amalfi coast would have been too much / tired.  So on a day when the weather initially seemed uncertain, we jumped aboard route A for the Hop on Hop off bus and headed out into the mayhem that is the Napoli traffic where it was every van, car and scooter for the selves. I think it's bes...
Read more