We did the Hebden 22 fell race on Saturday, this event is one of those that kick the season off and actually, it's quite a toughie. Its billed as a 22 mile slog around the Calder Valley with about 4k of climb involved, so enough to be challenging. Navigationally it's a very twisty-turny and it's easy to mess it up, it's also a race with a bit of an identity crisis; until 2019 it was ran by Calderdale LDWA, but they backed out and from 2019 onwards (i.e. the last two races) it's been promoted by a local Scout group, so not unlike the Rombald's Stride event. I say "identity crisis" because although it's sold as a race, it really isn't - there are no prizes, no age categories and as far as I can tell, no acknowledgment that a given person has won. Last year they really screwed the results up and had no record of which lady had come home first ..... not good really. I think these foibles can be forgiven to an extent, but this [race] is always sold out and presumably scoops in a load of cash for the Scout Group, so I think they need to get that identity problem sorted out.
I'd optimistically set 4:20 as my target, I've never got under four hours here and last year did 4:37, could my improved health lead to a better finishing time? Things got off to a decent enough start and I felt I was running well, keeping Helen in sight for the first few miles. I'd studied the map long enough to be confident I wasn't going to get lost, but then disaster struck with an early fall in the mud (of which there was a lot), meaning a bit of a slide until some convenient rocks halted my progress. Yes, it fecking well hurt and didn't set a good tone for the rest of the race, I was focusing way too much on sore knees and not enough on terrain/navigation. It was a nice day though, so no problems with determining the lie of the land and I managed to more or less get the route spot-on until my silly preoccupied head completely missed a crucial turn coming out of Cragg Vale and thing started to go a bit awry. The course was really chewed-up due to the recent wet weather and it made things tougher than I can remember, certainly I was slower on some descents than I would have liked and I was having cramp issues that made things worse. I proceeded to miss a crucial stile above Mytholmroyd and for some reason it made me really angry. My reason goes out of the window when the red mist is down, the result being that I forgot to cross the field below Scout Road and had to go the long way round behind the farm, minor mistakes I guess, but they cost time and I should know a whole lot better. I stomped down the finishing track feeling relatively strong, finishing time 4:25:40, so not terrible but could have been better, I feel it should have been ten minutes faster. I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that I made some minor nav errors or that I missed my target time!!
Results came out this morning and it's a similar mess to last year. They didn't have any kind of a finishing funnel and Helen is listed as coming behind several runners she comfortably beat, so not good really. Constructive feedback to race organiser needed methinks.
I'd optimistically set 4:20 as my target, I've never got under four hours here and last year did 4:37, could my improved health lead to a better finishing time? Things got off to a decent enough start and I felt I was running well, keeping Helen in sight for the first few miles. I'd studied the map long enough to be confident I wasn't going to get lost, but then disaster struck with an early fall in the mud (of which there was a lot), meaning a bit of a slide until some convenient rocks halted my progress. Yes, it fecking well hurt and didn't set a good tone for the rest of the race, I was focusing way too much on sore knees and not enough on terrain/navigation. It was a nice day though, so no problems with determining the lie of the land and I managed to more or less get the route spot-on until my silly preoccupied head completely missed a crucial turn coming out of Cragg Vale and thing started to go a bit awry. The course was really chewed-up due to the recent wet weather and it made things tougher than I can remember, certainly I was slower on some descents than I would have liked and I was having cramp issues that made things worse. I proceeded to miss a crucial stile above Mytholmroyd and for some reason it made me really angry. My reason goes out of the window when the red mist is down, the result being that I forgot to cross the field below Scout Road and had to go the long way round behind the farm, minor mistakes I guess, but they cost time and I should know a whole lot better. I stomped down the finishing track feeling relatively strong, finishing time 4:25:40, so not terrible but could have been better, I feel it should have been ten minutes faster. I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that I made some minor nav errors or that I missed my target time!!
Results came out this morning and it's a similar mess to last year. They didn't have any kind of a finishing funnel and Helen is listed as coming behind several runners she comfortably beat, so not good really. Constructive feedback to race organiser needed methinks.
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