The Druid fell race
As it was just up the road I couldn’t miss out on taking part in “The Druid” fell race, starting from the Druid pub in Llanferres. This was an “AS” race of 5 miles and 1200ft. Unfortunately for the participants (or perhaps fortunately, if like me you prefer more punishment) today has been one of the wettest and windiest in weeks. This made the going quite tough as there was a good quantity of rain, wind and mud served up.
I wasn’t particularly strong in the first half of the race and generally felt a bit listless. I also can’t remember where the route went exactly but I do recall being narrowly missed by a charging bull when we ran through his field (the chap in front of me was wearing a red shirt). Surely running on mountains is risky enough, without further threat from the wildlife?
For some time I was kept busy battling with a stitch that I picked up on the first big climb. Having successfully managed to get this under control (and amazingly without losing any places) I managed to find my legs a bit just before shrewdly leading my trailing pursuers the wrong way! This was promptly fixed by several suicidal bounds down the mountain in thick heather to the correct path. After about 3 miles the descending started and I made up a few places here and there by disengaging my common sense, and then settled in a good strong pace for the last few miles. Lots of fun, but not my best race.
Think I finished somewhere in the top 30, in about 40.5 mins approx.
(Photo courtesy of Dave Pinnington Photography)
June 19th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
And the results… I finished 17th out of 71, in 40:47. Full results can be viewed here.
June 19th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Congratulations on another good race. Keep it up.