Norman Conquest



Having strayed from the paths of righteousness and racing, I decided this winter to do nothing about the former but something about the latter. Accordingly I've been doing more races but have been the only O/70 in the two fell races I've entered. Saturday's Half Tour of Pendle, being relatively local and also a English Championship race, gave me the opportunity to see how I'd fare against others in my category, especially as they'd no doubt be serious about this running lark. Would I be good, bad, or indifferent? As indifference deposited itself upon me in my early youth and as remained attached ever since, I had an idea what the answer would be.



On the way up Pendle Hill I was joined by Jan Atkins and we remained together until, between checkpoints 1 and 2(Nick o'Pendle), I jumped into a bog for no discernible reason other than I'm me. By the time I'd parted company with the bog and re-connected with my right shoe Jan was in the distance catching up on a lady in pink. The route up to Spence Moor after checkpoint 3 differed from the full tour, in that we had to go along the wall before doing the steep climb. By this time I was back with Jan and "Lady in Pink". As we rejoined the main path a marshal near the top cheerfully told us that only Ian Holmes had run all the way up. That this was humanly possible was all we wanted to hear as we puffed, panted and cursed our way up to the top. I managed to literally slip away from Jan and LIP on the nasty descent to checkpoint 4 in Ogden Clough.



From here the route had a cheeky variation from the T of P in that we had a testing climb by the side of the wall up to Buttock. At this stage of the race this was a pain in the bum and I was glad to get off the Buttock and down to the bottom.



The race was won by Ian Holmes(1:03:08) of Bingley Harriers who, judging by the results, have some talent and steep hills at their disposal. Darren Kay was 1st RMI in 9th place(1:05:44). Suzanne Budgett was 1st F45(1:27:16). Geraldine Walkington was 1st F50(1:31:48). Jan Atkins was 1st F60(1:57:50).



!st O/70 was Fred Gibbs of, yes, Bingley Harriers, in an awesome time of 1:38:41. He was placed 306 out of 384 runners! His was the Norman Conquest, beating last years O/70 champion Peter Norman(1:47:20). I was next(1:56:52) in 369th(indifferent) place.

I've published this picture of a batch of RMI runners as apart from Suzanne and the odd guy with the bob hat, I don't know who the others are. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

Just for your information NLN, when FSS who you might know, ran with the group, he emailed some of us with the info regarding the Winter Hill scrapbook.