Taddington Lanes Race and Pilsley Fell Race.

Two evening races.
I found out about Taddington Lanes Race from a flyer left on my windscreen at Edale Country Day. I knew little about it other than what was written on the flyer;

So on Tuesday I turned up, paid my fiver and pinned a number to my red + yellow vest. There were quite a few others there, mostly fell runners by the look. The start was at 7pm, outside the village institute. The course is mostly tarmac backroads and starts with a climb. A long climb. Turn left and keep climbing. Turn right and it undulates a bit. Cross a junction and its a typical green lane, stoney vehicle track grassy centre muddy in places. But much flatter. This loops around, heading back into Taddington, but before the finish line is reached we're taken across a road and up another lane between the backs of houses and fields. Then left, left and we return the way we left, running downhill now back to the startline. I finished in a time of 32:50 (official time 32:57), which I'm quite pleased with, and I set a new 5k personal best, 24:34. 43rd place out of 82 finishers.
A pretty unique race, well marshalled, nice course (although quite unrelenting), with a very laid back atmosphere.
By the way Taddington is in Derbyshire about halfway between Buxton and Bakewell.

Thursday evening and I was off to Pilsley, on the Chatsworth Estate.
Another fiver, another number on the red + yellow vest (washed between races!) and another start line. This time the race started from the village green, went up a small lane and across fields. Some fields had sheep, some had cows (thankfully kept out of the way), some fields were nice and flat and others hilly, some had neat 'estate grass' and others tussocky. One rickety bridge needed crossing, single file, queue nicely. Apart from one woman who jumped the queue, much to our disgust, "we're all racing!" was the comment from a chap behind me. A wasted effort on her part as I and quite a few others soon passed her... We passed a river, and crossed a golf course as well after ducking through a tiny gate in the fence. There were a few road crossing, all well marshalled, and any cars kept waiting seemed happy to sit and watch us go past. All in all a nice romp around the estate, a fell race in name only to be honest as its more of a trail race. Still, an enjoyable way to spend a Thursday evening. The course was well marked and the event well organised.
How did I do? Not great to be honest, although I kept a decent enough pace. I started at the back, my usual practice at a new event, and had difficulty making my way through the field. I was beaten by people that usually finish behind me, but hey, thats racing. Still, lesson learnt, start closer to the front in future.

I ran the 9.8k(ish) course in 57:48, average pace 5.55min/km. 170th place out of 255(!) runners.

So, two races, two evenings well spent. Although it would have been nice if I didn't have to get up at ten past four the following mornings and go to work...

Paul.