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| AFTER CLEANING! |
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| Runners getting into their stride |
On Saturday my lad, Chris and I travelled down to Durham for a North East Harrier League outing with no fewer than 600 other foolish men, plus the same again in youngsters and senior ladies, are we all mad?
Oh, those far off days when I could hold my own against most other runners. Some years ago at our (Tynedale Harriers & A.C. ) own event at Prudhoe, I was actually in the first half dozen on the final hill - ok, I was then caught by the 'fast packers' and had to settle for 14th, but you get the idea. On Saturday Chris and I started together, before I chased after my rival Harry Matthews, Elswick. After a mile, Chris overtook me and that was the last I saw of him . I then foolishly thought that I could get around on Harry's coat tails, but it wasn't to be as the clinging mud reduced my uphill stuggles to what felt like a crawl and the field started to pass and kept on passing.
By the third lap of this 6.1 mile race I had settled for just getting round and did I tell you about my awful language just to get round that final lap? It was terrible.
At the end I was 459th out of 592 and I never thought that I would have to say that statistic in my lifetime. Now for some mitigation. Shall I mention my achilles? No. Well I will say that Chris obviously struggled as I had, for he said at the end that he expected me to catch him! No way. He was 384th in 51.59. Marcus Byron and Neil Cassidy were just ahead of Chris, as was Harry Matthews, 51.11.
Harry was first V65, I was second, out of 13 vets who probably should know better.
After that tester my next big race is the Hexhamshire Hobble on Sunday Dec. 6th. Did I tell you I used to be a pretty good fell runner?
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