5th September Running the chase


Sorry about the late upload for all those of you who have been waiting since before it came light to read todays exciting upload, but I actually need to complete what I am writing about before I could actually write about it. And what I needed to complete was he Great Longstone Chase fell race.

Situated just a few kms outside Bakewell this has become a regular little outing in my autumn running calendar with this being the 5th time I have entered it. It is one of the last evening races of the year due to the shortening availability of light, something I always need to be aware of with my expected finishing position. Hence the choice of sporting a vivid flourescent orange T shirt which drew several commenst from marshalls about ' being easy to spot' should i need the mountain rescue services.

Normally this race draws a couple of what I chose to call my 'running nemesis's' but this year neither Elizabeth or Les made the start line. Instead the only recognisable face was Claire, a casual attendee at my home based running groups but who had not run for 8 months due to various cardiac issues. Needless to say it didn't do my confidence any good when she was out of sight ahead of me before the end of the first incline.

The weather was great for running and the HUGE ominous bank of bible black cloud did not unleash its contents on us as we ran up and up and up, then down then back up then down again before a final undulating section that is always longer that I remember it being.

Having reached the first mental distance marker ahead of what I expected, and still managing to breathe, things were looking up especially as here was no queue to get over the style, although I do look forward to the enforced rest to be honest. Unfortunatly I had forgotten that this wasn't the top but just the prelude to another leg bursting 400 meters of up hill before the relief of meandering across the top of the chase appeared.

There were no hot air balloons to greet us this year but the sporadic placment of cars and camper vans on the last never ending climb did provide much neede mental markers of how far I tried to run before the power walking kicked in.

But by the end of the run I had managed to remain upright (always my number one priority)  and get round the course only 3 seconds slower than last year, for my 3rd quckest ever time. As for cardiac Claire well she was probably half way home by that stage!!

 

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