Peak Forest Fell Race 2017.

Yesterday saw me competing in the Peak Forest race for the second time. I've been keen to return to it after last year as I enjoyed the 9.8k course, the relaxed atmosphere, the post race refreshments (tea and home made cake, all at very reasonable prices), and the fact that the proceeds go to the community, this year the village school.

At 11:15 a whistle blew and the race started. As usual I set off at a steady pace, just over half way down the field and not too fast. It always takes me a while to find my rhythm in a race, despite an 8 minute warm up beforehand. Soon I was moving my way up as we left tarmac and hit the first climb, a gentle bridlepath. After a bit of cat and mouse with some other runners, one of which had headphones plugged into his smartphone and a little voice telling him how fast he was moving, I found and settled into my rhythm, leaving quite a few behind as we headed across fields.

This course has a few styles to contend with, luckily they don't come too quickly into the race and with only 80+ runners bottlenecks don't really become a problem, yes there's a bit of waiting but only for a few seconds. Most of the running is pretty easy going on good paths. There is some long grass to contend with, but those of us further down the pack can just follow the trampled line that the leaders leave. Heading up to Eldon Hill the route leaves the paths and we're heading through thistles and limestone, with a short walk at one stage before the summit. Then its all downhill back to Peak Forest, where I left a couple of other runners and ran beside another for most of the way to the finish where I just held him off. My downhill running is improving, which is giving me an advantage, helped by regular practice.

I finished in a time of 56.44, 4 minutes faster than last year. I came in in 41st place, out of 87 finishers, my best result in a fell race so far.

Paul.