Robin writes:

Upon reviewing the entry list, I thought it would be a small party at Hathersage, only to find that there were many striders entering on the day! 11 striders in total made the race, to continue the streak of a really well attended fell championship this year. (great race picking Kieran!)

Initially I thought it was strange to be given a leg tracker pre-race for timing, but it later became clear it was a great idea!

206 of us huddled onto a small taped off bit of grass for the pre-race briefing, nothing to note from the RD apart from the route would not be diverted by cows like a race a couple weeks ago. After shuffling onto the road it was a very congested start. It was made clear that we should all keep to the left on the road and bless weren’t people obedient of that. I did however use that to skip past on the right as once again, I’d let myself start too far back in the pack. 

The race curves up a trail after a few hundred metres and your heart rate is elevated almost immediately with no reprieve for the first mile and a half with so much climb, before you reach the top of Over Owler Tor, what a name! There isn’t much room for overtaking on this race, whereas most would be happy with this, I was racked with guilt for holding people up on the climbs. Tired legs from the fast mile from the race before took their toll faster than I’d hoped and I graciously moved to the side when heavy breathing behind me became to burdensome for me to bear. 

Once at the top after the narrow trails opened up at last, it was very reminiscent of the top of most of the edges around there, Stanage, Curbar, Frogatt, lots of rocks to dance around. A welcome shower of wind and rain helped cool me down at this point as I thanked the marshals who’d drawn the short straw on the tops. I should say all the marshals were brilliant, lots of clapping/encouragement, really a fantastic job. 

After coming off the top of Higger Tor, I knew that if I’d kept Rob Nock at bay, that the 60 points would be mine, as I glanced round I hoped that perhaps he wouldn’t be in sight and I could run down to the finish a bit easier….sadly not he was only 5-6 seconds behind! Bollocks. Pushing to end are we Rob? Damn it. 

With a wonderful descent of grass, road, trail, I pushed it as much as I could, passed a few and sprinted with whatever I had left around the school field to the finish. 33^rd in the end, but the time was more-or-less what I was aiming for so I was happy and I secured the 60 points with Rob coming in 45 seconds or so later. I knew it was going to be close! 

A great race, one which was hard fought but I’ll definitely go back for again, as it seems, fell racing just sucks you in like this. I’ve never done fell races in short sequences like this year, but man are they addictive. It’s 3 weeks till Brassington and I’m gutted I have to wait till then! 

Last point to note was that with the leg tracker, the Hathersage team had put together a live results screen scrolling through all the positions as soon as you came in, wow, what a great idea and one I may have to look into for the future!

Results

Robin Leathley	36:43
Rob Nock	37:28
Col Allott	39:12
Thomas Penn	39:37
Wayne Grant	40:03
Chris Randall	42:11
James McGill	43:18
Bec Day	45:20
Brian Holland	45:58
Julia Carter	53:29
Pete Fotheringham	61:20

• Distance: 7.3 km / 4.5 mi
• Ascent:  325 m / 1066 ft