BM fell race – 9.3 miles/15km

Laura Mcabe found this race and persuaded me to join her after reassuring me it was mostly on footpaths so I wouldn’t get lost. This wasn’t entirely true! The course is basically a figure of 8 with a steep up and down and lots of boggy open moorland running. Laura has elected this race as her wild card for the fell runner of the year competition. The theory being it was a low key event so hopefully she will pick up high points. Unfortunately for her, last years winner and course record holder turned up.
I was was nervous at the start as my navigation skills aren’t great so I worried there wouldn’t be many people around me. However once we were set off I felt good and remembered a lot of the land marks from the map. However after check point 5 I made the mistake of following the line of runners in front of me assuming they knew where they were going. They didn’t, so having climbed an extra hill I had to run back down to the check point then back up again increasing my race by an extra km. Laura being the more experienced fell runner and excellent navigator informed me she almost made that mistake but realised before going too wrong. Looking at the results there were a few that missed that checkpoint and got a DNF.

First male – Karl Gray of CVFA – 01:09:29
First female – Nichola Jackson of Ribble Valley – 01:19:54

For Otley AC
Vicky Stainburn – 27th(3rd Lady) – 01:34:35
Laura Mcabe – 30th (4th Lady) – 01:35:31