Family commitments mean only three of us here today at Edale for race 3 of `3 in 3`, Rob Beers (Me), Katie Hateley with an ultra in her legs from yesterday and Matt Chalmers.
We all have absolutely shot legs and the warm up seems impossible let alone a 5 mile fell race, its a mere £5.00 entry which includes parking and the absolutely superb Village show. Despite the spots of rain we are cheerful near the start with the words `training run` and `bit of fun` mentioned numerous times as we view the sheer uphill path which starts the race to the ridge.
A good field of runners as we head off up `the Nab` and around `Ringing Rodger`, I try as much as possible to keep running but its heavy traffic and get irked at having to walk. I am following the Dark Peak girl I beat on the line at Castleton Friday night, she`s a tough runner throwing a lot into it. Suprisingly now my legs don’t feel bad and I`m making decent progress and passing quite a few people over the often quite scary and technical edges.
First wrong going of the day begins when we have the chance to go one of two ways along the edge or more through the middle, this quarter mile section I choose wrongly and must’ve lost about 8 places by hugging the edges.
I make the final hard ascent to the top and drop down what can only be described as `a fall`, it’s that steep thankfully its heather and some opt to slide down via the bottom! The descent then goes on to some very rocky scree track which again I’m not good at descending like an 100 year old man in Stiletto heels. So when the option again goes to descend via grass I follow a Steel City Strider along a trail path only to come out at the drop of doom! I’ve never descended off anything so steep and thank goodness I have both strong ankles and balance but it’s playing hell with my quads. When I resume to the normal path I must’ve lost 15 places with my awful descent and my quads have limited my speed temporarily, back on the flat it’s down an alley and the last half mile to the finish. Its hear like a `secret shiny` I sort of redeem myself by knocking a 5m/m to the finish line, overtaking a whole lot of people and as usual collapsing in a heap over the finish line.
Despite by the time Matt coming in the rain just bucketing down we got changed and enjoyed the great English traditional festival at Edale, it really is a corker. My second Edale fell race and I hope very much next year is my third, great hard technical fell race that feels a lot longer than it is.
Rob Beers (94th, 50:02) , Katie Hateley (145th, 55:12), Matt Chalmers ((189th, 1:00:29) Steve Dewick (210th, 1:06:45)