Spinal Sunday

The Spine series of races started yesterday. I've never really taken any notice but the events have really grown in stature, and are now well established on the ultra-running calendar. Today I took Tussock over to Lothersdale and we had a walk up Pin Haw beacon. We met several competitors including Tim, a smashing guy from Ambleside, who was looking really good on the full 268 mile (!) course. Tim has a Dragon's Back completion behind him plus a Spine Challenger and obviously was very well prepared for this gruelling event

Lothersdale fell race

It was what I always think of as the start of the 'summer' last night: Lothersdale fell race. I don't know how he does it but Brett does seem to have an uncanny knack of laying on decent weather for his races and yesterday was no exception, with a bright, sunny evening;  close to perfect for racing 

Without looking back through either my blog or results list I've no idea when I last did a short fell race so I really enjoyed it. Slogging slowly and persistently up 1000 or 2000 feet climbs before jogging along a ridge with a rucksack is great but nothing beats the adrenaline rush (and pain) of a 30 minute dash! 

I met Darren from Chorley last night. He's the guy who did 101 fell races last year but he's also a big music fan, so we had a natter about bands we like after the race including Midlands-based metallers Witchfynde

Bob was out taking photos and the results should be up soon here

Lothersdale fell race

Last night was my first short race for many months and Stef's first ever race in KCAC colours. We both ran reasonably well and enjoyed catching up with various friends, FRA forumites and club-mates after the race in the village hall. Full results are here and Bob Wightman has some photographs on line here 

Next Tuesday it's the Jack Bloor race on Ilkley Moor and we're hoping to get over there for a run out. I've done the event two or three times and it's a always been a great evening