LOST THE EDGE BUT NOT THE LOVE
WITHINS SKYLINE
October. Golden leaves, mulching earth, crisp air, super moons at dawn and of course Woodentops. For fear of waxing lyrical again to worryingly obsessive levels about the fell racing institution that is Dave and Eileen Woodhead, all I will add is that I ended up telling Dave that I love them both... again.
In the bustling rooms of Haworth West End cricket club's modest pavilion where race registration takes place, I am immediately 'outed' by Wayne Macintosh who, along with his Trawden AC travelling partner, caught me having a wee behind a stone wall somewhere along the road near the county borders. I was desperate. It was an emergency stop, I was done trying to find the perfect spot.
Thankfully it was then back to anonymity, merging in to the masses at the base of the disused quarry where the Woodhead barks the orders to get things started like only he does. Six weeks since my last taste of competition, I was nonetheless off to a decent start last Sunday at Withins, feeling pretty comfortable until we hit the bogs. Even by the usual standards of bogsville upon the Bronte Moors, this was as boggy as I have known it to be. I was all over the place. I cast my mind back a few weeks to a training run when I boasted to be bounding over bog like never before. Well, it wasn't bog like this was bog. This was proper bog. The boggy climb to the summit of Oxenholme Stoop seemed to be going great at first but then began to take it's toll and it was hard graft from there trudging across the moor towards Withins ruins. Then the stone slabs along that section were lethally slippy in a relatively new pair of x-talons, but after that I got myself back in to gear. I lost out to a young Dark Peak lad with a mile and a half to go and couldn't quite get back at him, but with a couple of hundred yards left I did at least manage to pass the Barlick vest that I had set my long term sights on. I was rightfully relatively pleased with fourteenth place and only half a minute behind my carrot from the Summer races that is Peter Coates. Although I got the better of Peter last time we met at the Golf Ball, in fairness he had been out for a couple of weeks with that all too familiar setback for fellrunners - a trampolining injury. But this is as near as I have got to him all year without excuses on the table. Not a bad result at all. I felt I didn't quite have the racing edge to dig that little bit deeper that I had ending August, but I'm not sure if that would have made much difference on the day.
This week, and more specifically tomorrow, I was really looking forward to the fell race at Wasdale Show. However, recent wet weather has flooded the show field and so the whole shebang has had to be cancelled which I'm sure is a massive disappointment to the many and certainly myself included. With accommodation already booked, Sara, Connie the dog and I will still be heading over that way for some sort of adventure, so all is not lost.

Sunday 8th October 2017
WITHINS SKYLINE   7m/1000ft   Penistone Hill, Haworth. West Yorkshire
1st Man - Harry Holmes (Pudsey & Bramley) 42:40
1st Lady - Emma Clayton (Leeds City) 49:01
My Stats - 48:20   14/357