RACE 8 - Alderman's Ascent

Apologies again for the missed post last week. Work is crazy busy right now and outside of work there is also a lot going on besides running.

Alderman's Ascent was a tough a race as predicted. The weather was inclement, but not really, really bad (although we had clouds great us at the top for a bit of extra wet). The week preceding the race had been fairly rainy, so the course was nice and muddy. Thanks to my mum and dad who came out to cheer me on in that!

Starting at the local Churchill playing fields, we had a long climb up to the obelisk at the top of the mountain, known as Pots and Pans. It began with a lap of the playing field, then across a few roads to get to the meadows. Through nettles, thistles and cow pats and over several styles to get to the really steep climb. It took me about half an hour to get to the top and required crawling on all fours at some points.

Now suitably worn out (and with a sore back from the climb), I had to run to a point to the left of the obelisk and then back to the right, along the ridge line, to Alderman itself. Through some fairly boggy bits and a few more ups and downs in the terrain I arrived at the race's namesake with a stitch.

I had been running with a fellow Greyhound, who had helped me up the various climbs. It was now my turn to help him down the very steep and slippery slope down the back of Alderman's. Navigating this involved quite a lot of carefull sliding. No sooner were we at the bottom than we had to climb back up again!

Back up at Alderman's we had the pleasure of knowing it was all downhill from there. About an hour into the race now and the next 21 minutes were a lot more enjoyable as a result. Some great support from Greyhounds marshals kept us going and we were very glad to finish. Being a new course it was PBs for everyone - I wasn't last and I won a prize (my first ever prize) for this having been my first fell race - result :)

I'll save it until next week to tell you about today's Mossley race, but I was pleased with the fell result. I'm not sure I'll be volunteering to go up and down big hills very often, but I'm glad I did it.