STILL IN GOOD NIC 
WITHINS SKYLINE
Withins had a slightly different feel to it this year. The absence of retired hosts, Dave and Eileen Woodhead, was always going to change the ambience to some degree. The legendary couple promised nowt would change and aside from Dave's unmistakable vocal presence, it was pretty much business as usual. The new organisers from Wharfedale Harriers set their stall out with inherent detail. The Woodhead's were still out and about on the Bronte Moors though, capturing the action through their camera lens. The main thing is that these great races continue and they'll always be a bit special to me, Woodentops or not. They were one of my earliest tastes of fell racing.
With many club fell runners engaged in the Hodgson Brothers relays at Patterdale that same day, there was a distinct lack of usual suspects lining up inside the quarry of Penistone Hill. The only thing certain, other than perfect Autumnal racing conditions, was a new name on the men's trophy.
Ribble Valley Harriers didn't get a place at the Hodgson relays. Politics may have come in to it, I don't know for sure. But news that the Chair of the Fell Runners Association, Charmian Heaton, has been lobbying at least one club Chairman to forward a complaint against Ribble Valley for being a ''racing club'' (whatever she deems that to be) certainly points towards our club being treated unfavourably in some quarters. Heaton's behaviour is ridiculous and brings her reputable position in to undoubted disrepute. Now that's a whole catering sized can of worms to be spilled in due course, but for now I'll try and stay with the topic in hand and what really matters, the race. Without those relays to compete at, Withins was given the nod as a counter in our club champs and eleven of us turned out to put the club on the map in West Yorkshire.
Although a few weeks since my last blast of competitive action, I went in to this knowing - not guessing, hoping, or deluding myself - actually knowing I was going to make a decent account of myself. For those few hardy souls who have bothered to dissect my previous ramblings over the past few years, they would easily vouch for the fact that this feeling of genuine pre-race confidence is a very rare entity indeed.
Pre-race thoughts were about getting nearer to Nichola Jackson at one of these Woodentops races where she always seems to put in a top end performance. That's if she had booked this one in of course, but sure enough I clocked our ladies skipper when jogging over to registration and my preconceived racing benchmark was confirmed. Game on.
Sexists, chauvinist, testosterone induced man's men, folk of no athletic aspiration or all three of the above could pour scorn over my ambition to beat a girl here. But I feel no shame whatsoever. Fell racing is what it is. Boy or girl, fast or slow, it's a test of all round running endurance that hard nuts, gym bunnies, Joseph or Josephine Bloggs just wouldn't last five minutes at. So when I, pushing 45 and a nobody in particular, eyes up the runner-up of the 2018 English Fell Running Championships as a potential benchmark to compete against, denomination of sex is completely inconsequential. A race is a race and Nichola Jackson's standard happens to be a very decent one to try and match.
We had a close battle in the Summer at the Whaley Waltz in which I don't think either of us were operating on full power. The lack of technicality under foot at that one probably worked to my benefit and I just managed to beat her for the first time, or at least certainly for the first time since she has come to prominence as a senior. At the Woodentops races, Jacko is old hat. She knows the courses, has won here many a time and generally turns up for them with nothing other than victory in mind and a potential ladies course record to chase down.
A mile or so in to the race and I'd actually completely forgotten about Nichola Jackson. I was making good progress on the main climb to Oxenholme Stoop when a flash of florescent pink blurred to the left of my periphery, maybe two hundred yards shy of the trig point. It was Jacko. By the summit she had created a gap of around ten seconds and expanded that over the bog hoppy plateau and tussocky traverse towards Withins Ruins. She's good on the rough stuff and was in fact starting to get close to our nearest team mate ahead, Ste Hall. But then it's good running again from the ruins on sheep trods and well worn paths and by the time we dropped down to the Bronte Bridge, I had caught Nicola up. There was a decent chase going on here with a couple of other guys in the mix as well and as it turned out, an overall top ten place at stake.
Up from the bridge though, I couldn't quite latch on to this trio for long and the gap began to reopen. Just before the path broadens to bridleway status, I receive a message from behind and it's one of my bug bares. "To the left.. ", forewarns a Keighley & Craven runner, sat on me since climbing up from Bronte Bridge. When deciding to make his move, it came with a verbal warning for some reason. No please or thanks either. I hate that. I tell him it's not etiquette, but no response. Etiquette it most certainly isn't though. Find your time, find your own space and just overtake. It's simple really. This has happened to me twice recently, I think next time I'm just going to barge the feckers off the path! It really pisses me off. With heckles up I went about trying to stay with him, but there was no turn of pace in my legs at this point. To be fair, this Keighley man Ian Willis had put in a tremendous surge and had even nudged ahead of Nichola. But some consolation for me, as I catch the last sighting of them coming off the moor and crossing the road towards the finish, was that spirited Jacko was leading the pack again and indeed that's how it finished as she took 10th overall and smashed the ladies course record.
Over the road myself and with two hundred yards remaining, I'm under the cosh again as club mate Ben Walmsley has been grinding down the gap between us. Ribble Valley race winner Callum Davidson has trotted back to cheer the rest of us on and Ben makes his move on the upward drag back to the cricket pavillion. I wouldn't get near Ben in a road race, but fell racing isn't his forte. With the advantage of knowing all to well where the finish is, I put in a timely sprint to snatch my place back.
Arguably I've run as well for a slower time in much sloppier and windier conditions here, but this eighth run at Withins Skyline was nevertheless my fastest which suggests I must be doing something right at last. A course or personal best of some description has been long overdue and at my age I question whether there could be many more left in the tank. So I didn't quite catch pre-race target Nichola, but I can't complain. She was super strong and showed her class.
A bit of a Ribble Valley domination was had, Nic heading a ladies top three from Helen Glover and Caitlin Rice. Youthful Callum doesn't need recovery (yet) and fresh from the Smarna Gora mountain race in Slovenia the day before, became that new name on the men's trophy and one of three Ribblers in the top five, five in the top ten and eight in the top twenty. No wonder the ''racing team'' is so popular!

Sunday 7th October 2018
WITHINS SKYLINE   7m/1000ft   Penistone Hill, Haworth. West Yorks.
1st Man - Callum Davidson (Ribble Valley Harriers) 41:51
1st Lady - Nichola Jackson (Ribble Valley Harriers) 45:44
My Stats - 46:07   14/246