Skiddaw Fell Race

After riding to work and back on Friday and a hard days climbing on Saturday (reaquainting myself with Chapel Head Scar after the lifting of the bird ban) we popped round to Keswick for the Skiddaw Race. The forecast was soo foul I couldn't think of anything else to do!! My legs felt sluggish on warm up - but that may have had more to do with the torrential rain and strong winds than actually feeling tired. As I've done no hill work or fast running for a while I couldn't really settle on a game plan as I didn't know how I'd feel and also as I'm doing Wasdale this weekend, I had that in the back of my mind.

Took it reasonably fast but steady out of Fitz Park and was second behind Pippa at that point. I got passed by a lass going around Latrigg and couldn't keep up (lack of speed on the hills!), but as we ascended into the clag after Latrigg car park, I realised I was gaining on her on the steeper ascents. I kept digging in, but ran out of steep ascent. The weather was pretty appalling, not cold but very strong winds and horizontal rain and hail. It was some surprise when the leaders came past so soon, and I was wondering how badly I could be doing, until we reached the top fence line and found the marshalls sheltering there. So we weren't going to the top then!

As I turned I made a real effort on the descent (not one of my strong points) and soon caught and passed the lass in 2nd. I put such effort in that the final descent round Latrigg my legs has gone completely, and it was a real effort to  keep the pace going. Finished in 1:19:32 in 2nd place, with badly jelly legs. Happy with that!! Even did a warm down my legs felt so bad. Still finished 11 minutes behind Pippa in first!!

Photo courtesy of StuStod - thanks!