THE SMILING FACE OF RUNNING'S FUTURE?
Whilst temporarily out of action, I thought a good old rant to myself should exhale some of the tensions that brew when I'm not getting a running fix in.
The whole running scene has changed quite a bit, even in the relatively short time I have embraced it since 2006. Fell running to an extent, thankfully remains intact. Not entirely, but generally speaking. There are still fell races on the calendar where everything is still as blissfully raw and uncomplicated as it was when I first started racing.
Some races have bitten the dust though unfortunately, including my old favourite the Winter Hill fell race. What I consider to be a very strange rationale from conservation groups such as English Nature and land owners United Utilities were behind this. In this particular case it was deemed unacceptable for generally less than 200 runners to make that once a year invasion upon some areas deemed sensitive moorland. But what about the mountain bikers with wheels far more erosive than feet and given a 24-7-365 license to go where the frig they want? What about the weather? Water from the sky does it's fair share of damage, perhaps they should ban rain as well or put the whole of the West Pennine Moors under a protective canopy? It seemed unfair and certainly a knee-jerk reaction rather than a more considered move. I, and I am sure the many, would have happily paid more for the privilege to race it and seen those extras go towards conservation work on the moor for example. But that sort of offer never reached the table I don't think, which was a pity. An opportunity to continue the race but rerouting to official paths was on the table, but I was with the organisers on this and not settling for second best. The whole distinct character of the race would be lost. Soon enough and equally as sad, even the shorter race over Winter Hill from the Belmont end was also pulled off the calendar.
And what of the Fell Runners Association? Things have changed there. For the better when initially engaging UK Athletics to become involved in the insurance side of things. When a race organiser was remortgaging their house to fight a court case against them, rational action and a proper liability framework was long overdue. For the worse though, the FRA have since let that said national governing body interfere too much, bowing down to generic UKA rules and regulations, of which some frankly don't apply to the discipline of fell running. Tick-box culture has filtered it's pretentious way in to the very nooks and crannies of this simple amateur sport. I would argue the FRA have become a lap dog organisation and have ultimately handed over the governorship of their own sport. It might be easy for me to say, sat on my backside rambling my thoughts as an outsider trying to look in. But rather like in politics, I can't help thinking that well meaning folk get involved on committees for all the right reasons but then become detached of their original values and get sucked in to the system, losing the ability to question their own actions - or indeed the lack of them.
Anyway, on to online entries for races. That was always going to snowball, but in some cases to the detriment of racing as an actual contest. Probably more so in road racing than on the fells, but with some races filling up very quickly and awash with nobody in particular's, many athletes of higher end ability may not want to commit six months in advance to some low key but highly attended race. They certainly won't be hanging around on waiting lists, and so the quality runners that surely we all want to be involved to give any race more credence and competition are being squeezed out and so the standards slip. 10K races with a thousand runners won in 36 minutes and all that sort of carry on... once upon a time 36 minutes wouldn't get you on the first results page. Not only can pre-entry detract the more serious athletes, but it's actually an advantageous system for runners who all along were planning just to plod around the course with a groin strain and fuzzy head from the best part of a bottle of wine the night before. Somehow that's not right and it certainly isn't progressive for the sport.
A massive new wave of beginner runners in recent times has seen the rise of events companies popping up left, right and centre, creating and taking over the organisation of races. These guys have spotted the boom and found a niche in the market. Charging incredulous fees of up to £25 for a 10K race around the stark streets of suburbia, chuck in a cheap looking finishing medal and a bag of tacky goodies and everybody is happy. Well, happy for now perhaps. Twenty five quid for a 10K, ten quid for a 5K... holy smoke, I thought Dick Turpin wore a mask? Prizes for actually winning some of these race are often reported as very poor indeed given the entry fee. Again, another turn off for the faster boys and girls.
Then there's Ultra runs for the sake of  'Ultra' status, 24 hour races, 'Great Run' such a place, 'Great Run' the other... these events are undoubtedly popular to the new wave, but I don't like the whole corporate attachment which intrudes on what ought to be - and I repeat - a simple amateur sport. Times will change again I am sure. The boom may go bust as folk wise up to the big rip off. These event companies threaten to price themselves out of existence just as much as they threaten to take over. For the good of the game, I hope it's the former rather than the latter. It will be interesting to see the future unfold.
Proper race organiser's do it for the love. Certainly I for one will ensure that races I enter either support the organising club, make a direct contribution to a worthwhile cause, or both.
Speaking of the current running boom, somewhere along the lines since I got involved in running, Parkrun has exploded on to the scene. The free, weekly 5K time trial, fun run, jog with your dog, whatever you want it to be. The positive effect Parkrun has had on hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide should not be underestimated, but I would like to see a couple of key amendments made so far as Parkrun UK is concerned. I think participants should be asked to consider sticking a quid in the bucket at parks which are open and managed by voluntary organisations that have to raise their own funds. This would, and I believe should, be the case at my local Cuerden Valley Parkrun for example. A few pay for parking on site which is fair enough, but we all know there's loads of places nearby to park for free that some tight arses will find. I doubt this motion would be popular though, I mean heaven forbid some participants being asked to stick their hands in their pocket for a Parkrun!
Parkrun is massive and a great success. But why are the statistics from these runs religiously updated on UK Athletics' Power of Ten website? Parkun is many things, but a proper race it is not. No entry fee, no race numbers... and besides, Parkrun have their own excellent website from which one can dig a result or statistic out from anywhere in seconds. It's like UK Athletics attaching themselves like leeches to something popular and progressive in the sport that in fact they have had absolutely no input towards. Is this the best they can do for grassroots? Pretend they are a player on the Parkrun bandwagon? I did plenty of actual races last year, but no signs of them on Power of Ten  - not that I'm particularly bothered about that - but it's this strange prioritising of Parkruns on there which makes me smell a rat. Strange processes at UK Athletics are nothing new, just look up the history past and present when it comes to selecting (or not selecting) athletes for major championships. In the corridors of power at UK Athletics, I have a vision of grey suits with a very studious eye for business, opportunism and political game playing. A lack however, of understanding and passion for athletics - from the very grass roots right through to rising talent who we know are not supported anywhere near like they ought to be. Where does all the money really go?
I'll finally put this rant to bed by controversially perhaps, expressing my disdain as I peruse various running magazines with photographs exclusively of people doing daft stuff for the camera during races. All this jumping in the air, smiley faces and thumbs up nonsense does my head in. If it's at the finishing line and they've something to celebrate, then I get it. But this habit of runners perceiving to be having the time of their life in a race when, as is often the case, they really can't wait for it to end - it really is a complete nonsense. Just be natural, let's see your pain please if there is some. And if there isn't any and you can't be arsed making an extra effort, don't devalue the occasion for the rest of us!
Killjoy? Who, me? If you like, but it's almost like pain, effort, competitiveness and even reality itself is to be censored and that we must all run for fun and purely for fun and even if we don't find it fun, let's just pretend and make it look like it's fun. And what do we class as fun? I find competing fun. Is competing allowed to be classed as fun? This brings me on to a theory that Neo-Liberal Conservatives with too much money and a desperation to find a healthy hobby are trying to take over the sport, over-socialising it, trying to ring-fence and demote running as some sort of purist inclusion activity. These people are the sort of lobbyists who endorse non-competitive sports at school, but then scratch their head in dismay when the country falls short of medallists at major competitions. I'm not denying anybody their right to inclusion, but I fear this smothering effect could indefinitely send some quarters of the running scene spiralling in to something where style and smile prevails at the expense of substance.
Racing is essentially an ugly spectacle where hours, weeks, months of hard graft and toil may or may not boil down to a brief moment of success. When the good old Athletics Weekly magazine starts filling up with pictures of jolly jumping, smiley faces and thumbs up... well that could be a whole new and very different reason for me to take up Crown Green bowling instead.

LANCS CHUMP
LANCASHIRE CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Straight to the point - that was bloody awful. Down there with my worst five races - and that's saying something. This was the first time I had taken on the County Champs, for I have never had a particular enthusiasm for cross country. But it was a debut to quickly forget. In a very meagre defence of the return of self deprecation and sorrow to these pages, I suppose the training leading up to the race was a bit hotchpotch with annoying niggles just not going away. But the very lack of engine to battle against the odds on the day was the biggest disappointment. I just felt knackered and was stuck in one pace from the very off. With a race in the bag the previous week, I wasn't expecting too much, but had every right to expect progress. So regression, and the extent of it, took me by surprise and with the legs not turning up, it didn't take long for the head to go. For me, this was a bit of a humiliation and felt like a public one too. The reality is that few people watching probably cared or even noticed, and of those that did they probably sympathised. But to return to the home soil of Witton Park so to speak and with most other Tom's, Dick's and Harry's within the local running circles in attendance, this was a really frustrating and ultimately not very enjoyable afternoon of racing. Despondent war cries could be heard from yours truly on the climb known colloquially as 'The Saucer'. I lost the plot. 
If it wasn't nice for me personally, there was also the burden of doing a major injustice to the new club vest. Thankfully my very weary performance paled in to insignificance as far as the Ribble Valley men's team was concerned. The first four counters of Gaskell, Livesey, Hall and Barnes all did the business and stormed to a Veteran's team victory for gold medals all around. As expected, the Ribble Valley ladies were all over the medals table as well. Pleased as punch as I was for all these guys, I was nevertheless the black sheep in the black vest who ran crap and went home deservedly empty handed. Ah well, there's always next year.
Since that race, things have continued to go backwards. Winter has got the better of me. Never truly shaking off that gluet strain from last month, one of half a dozen other aches and pains which have culminated in me being shackled and unable to actually enjoy a single run so far this year. Currently on day three of sidelining myself, I'll put some running shoes back on once body and mind are genuinely in agreement that it's a good idea again. All I can do is to look forward to starting again and getting in shape for Spring.

Saturday 6th January 2018
LANCASHIRE CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS   Witton Park, Blackburn.        
1st Senior Men's Race (9.8K) - Daniel Bebbington (Preston H.) 31:01
1st Senior Ladies Race (6.5K) - Sarah Astin (City of Norwich) 24:04
My Stats - 39:25   73/154      

ALI'S LANG SYNE
DALESIDE BREWERY AULD LANG SYNE RACE
Well you really had to be there, and I'm glad to say I was. The swansong race for the brilliant Mr and Mrs Woodhead after thirty years of organising fell races. Fitting then, that at least one of the Brownlee's, of whom both brothers started racing here at the Quarry Runs in their very younger years, should honour this occasion and it was Alistair that did so by gracing it with his fifth Auld Lang Syne victory. Alistair's presence speaks volumes about how the Brownlee's, even now as two of the country's most famous sportsmen, are so refreshingly grounded. Brother Jonny was meanwhile engaged at the other side of the county border racing the Ribble Valley 10K at Clitheroe with the Northern Road Championship at stake. Each to their own, but I'm with his older bro on this one - no other place to be on New Year's Eve morning than packed in to the Penistone Hill quarry where Dave Woodhead yelled, "Reight yeeuo lot! Get baaack 'ere!" for the very last time.
I tried to even ever so briefly thank the man personally after the race and was completely ignored! That's just how it is with him on race day. You can't get near him. I was more embarrassed than offended though. Maybe I'll send Dave and Eileen a nice card that might get their attention to accept my gratitude.
The Woodentops thing captured my heart ever since my first appearance as a keen fell racing beginner at the Withins Skyline race back in 2006. Ever since, if fit, if able, Woodentops races have always been high on the agenda.
AULD LANG SULK
I can be a ridiculous creature at times. Sara would verify this, she lives with me. My well rehearsed mindset that this race was all about just being there and less about hoping for performance went out of the window. Recent weeks suggested performance wasn't going to happen anyway, but pre-race nerves somehow crept in to abandon all those sobering, rational thoughts that I had carefully put in place. Suddenly I was taking myself and indeed my place in the race way too seriously. It turned out I even forgot to pin my race number on - never done that before - so my head was certainly up my backside for some reason. Just as expected though, I didn't have a flyer and so the clouds of disappointment built up in the aftermath. In short, I got in to a bit of a sulk.
Woodentops races never do quite start on time so no chance in this one, especially with Alistair Brownlee poised on the front line - even more photographs taken than usual as we all freeze our bits off - but as one would rightfully expect in the presence of greatness. Once off and away I avoided trouble where the field bottlenecks out of the quarry and felt fairly strong at probably twenty somethingth, beginning to build confidence until around the halfway mark. Then I realised that for the easier, mainly downhill and wind assisted second half of the race I didn't have another gear to crunch in to and it was hang-on time as the testing ascent out of Ponden Valley took it's toll. There was very little kick left in my legs at all for the final mile to the finish. Past they came, I wasn't counting, but probably in to double figures and that's never a nice feeling towards the end of a race, culminating in a state of said post-race sulky chops.
All done then, and it really was just about being there in fact. Heading back across the moor towards the welcome warmth of Sara's car with heated seats, I spot a nearby runner and turn to Sara, already suitably impressed at seeing Brownlee in action to compensate enduring the bitter wind; "Look at that, a double Olympic champion there just tootling along, you don't get that every day when your out with the dog" ...thirty yards ahead, the lonesome figure of the race winner casually jogs across our path. "Go and ask him for a photo, I'm sure he won't mind", says Sara. I wished I had, he probably wouldn't have minded but I just couldn't do it. The lad was on his cool down and it was great enough just to keep an eye on him as he faded in to the distance, dropping off the moor towards Haworth. Besides, he deserved a few moment's peace to himself and had probably got a bit cold after sticking around at the finish for the final Woodentops photo shoot.
And so, with that inspiring sight, that was that for 2017 and the end of a Woodentops era.

Sunday 31st December 2017
DALESIDE BREWERY AULD LANG SYNE RACE Penistone Hill, Haworth, W. Yorks. 6m/1000ft
1st Man - Alistair Brownlee (Bingley) 44:54
1st Lady - Nichola Jackson (Ribble Valley) 49:49
My Stats - 51:47   44/368| 

2017 Mileage Total: 1528.3