FORM IS BACK WITHIN REACH   
WITHINS SKYLINE
It was great to be back at a Woodentops race last Sunday. Organisers Dave and Eileen Woodhead are living legends to the sport of fell running. I've rambled on enough about my endearment for this couple in previous scriptures, but it's always a pleasure to take part in their races. There is something unique, a special feeling from lining up with a few hundred Tykes and the odd fellow Lancastrian in the quarry at Penistone Hill. This was my sixth appearance at the Withins Skyline, but I really cannot believe that it has been six long years since my last showing back in 2010. A five race absence followed five years of solid Withins loyalty. Hopefully this can be the first of another five or more in succession.
The weather conditions were excellent and whilst obviously heavy going as always on the open moor, the rarely forgiving microclimate upon Penistone Hill and the surrounding Bronte country was  exceedingly generous for the time of year. Thanks to yet more improvement in the achilles department, I felt I could go fairly minimal again with my footwear. This in itself is a massive breakthrough and testimony to finally doing some effective exercises. Wearing in some new inov8 x-talons to race in for the first time in probably five years would be deemed a dubious source of great excitement to the many, but not for me. I was looking forward to giving them a run out.
Quite relaxed before the start, I'd come here to enjoy the race and I was confident that whilst I won't be raising eyebrows - not even my own - I wasn't going to have a complete howler. I felt pretty sharp for the first mile or so and seemed to be well up in the pecking order, but the messy climb up to the Stoop trig point took the wind from my sails. I was disappointed to lose ground on the pack ahead and more so to lose up to a dozen or so more places. It didn't get better over the rugged moorland skyline as the rarity of a stitch set in. There could be a case here for a lack of proper hard hill work on the fells recently, but in fairness I did also go a little overboard with the porridge at breakfast and perhaps that toasted bagel took me over the edge! Anyway, abdomen pain didn't so much stop me in my tracks but it wasn't comfortable, disrupted my breathing and certainly felt it cost me an opportunity to gain back ground on some of those ahead before it got too late. As the gradual descent begins from Withins Ruins, the stitch was subsiding and I was able to start building up a bit more speed. A couple of Calder Valley lads came surging past intent on showing their downhill skills and an Ilkley runner whom I recognise from these races of yesteryear had also nipped ahead. The tenacity of the Calder lads in descent wasn't matched when things began to plateau and undulate again and it was like I had yanked them straight back to me on a rope. With those two picked off, I set my sights on that Ilkley man Steve Turley and was pleased to reel him in back on Penistone Hill near the finish to take 24th place. I'd had that one man band of a Ribble Valley Harrier that is Chris Barnes in my sights after he started to drop back through the pack from his insanely fast start, but he seemed to equal if not better my efforts in the last couple of miles and maintain the distance. I finished strong though which is always a good sign and I feel some decent form is now back within reach. Comparative times are difficult to call in fell races, but at least this one was not my slowest. For the record, back in 2010 I was just over two minutes quicker which took 14th place and would have got me 12th today. Up at the front, Tom Adams was in a complete class of his own. His own course record eclipsed, four minutes clear of second place and over ten minutes ahead of myself. Some going.

WITHINS SKYLINE  7m/1000ft    Penistone Hill, Haworth. West Yorks.
Sun. 9th October 2016
1st Man: Tom Adams 38:32 (Ikley)  
1st Lady: Nichola Jackson 47:52 (Preston)
My Stats - 48:45   24/290