Elvet Striders

T minus 15 minutes:

Me, Phil Owen, Steven Gustard (DFR) arrive at the Car Park and dash for registration while Will finds somewhere to park. We spot Jan and Alister. Alister is standing trance-like looking up at Roseberry Topping with an expression of horror on his face.

T minus 5 minutes:

The weather is cheerful and the lane is full of runners jogging up and down the track. Phil and Alister pause periodically to stop and stare and point at the big lump of rock that beckons. Will has a chat with Casper and assures him he’ll be back in about 15 minutes for his walk.

T minus 1 minute:

Assembled at the Start, we’re giving a nicely balanced safety talk. We’re assumed to be capable of seeing the obvious. The ground will be slippy. And it’s a bit steep.

T minus 0:

Away we go! I’m not too concerned about beating the rush for the first gate. The race is only 1.3 miles long and it usually takes me twice that distance to get even remotely warmed up, so I tuck in and take it easy.

T plus 2.21 (0.26 miles):

We hit the gate and it’s not too congested. I’m feeling perky so I climb the gate and overtake about four runners. I’m feeling pretty pleased. The ground starts to rise steeply as I see Phil just ahead. I give chase.

T plus 4.50 (0.37 miles):

A lot has happened in the last 2 minutes. I’ve reconsidered some life options and reviewed my race plan (which was, basically, it’s only a mile and a bit, how hard can it be?). This was hard, really hard, and the Topping was still some way up. And it got steeper. We had a choice of routes now, and Phil followed the herd to the right to take the longer, ‘flatter’ route. Here was a chance to cut the corner and get passed him. I chose to go straight up. I climbed the fence and started hauling myself up hand over hand grabbing clumps of grass and digging my feet into the mud.

T plus 8.51 (0.48 miles):

So much for that plan. The routes converge and Phil is still ahead, although I reckon my route choice was ultimately more expensive energy-wise than taking the longer route. I pass Phil, he passes me, I pass him again, he passes me again, and during that time Will hurtles past in the opposite direction heading to the finish.

T plus 12.42 (0.6 miles):

I hit the trig point a few seconds after Phil, high-fiving as we pass. Will has already won the race in a time of 12.29. As I start to descend I shout encouragement for Jan who is not very far behind me and has her head down intent on the climb.

T plus 14.49 (0.71 miles):

Rather than retrace my ascent I take the stone path back down. Most of us agreed later that this was a mistake as the cobbles were very wet and very scary. I tip-toed gingerly down and Phil was already out of sight in his characteristically suicidal descent. I must have passed Alister and Steve at some point but we were probably all to busy watching where we were going to see each other. So many route choices in such a short race!

T plus 20.32 (1.26 miles):

I cross the finish line feeling I’d had a pretty good run. Jan, Alister and Steve power in not long after. Will has collected Casper and they’ve already gone half-way around the course again. Alister asks me how far the course was because his Garmin decided he was going so slow that he’d actually stopped. At one point I hit a mile pace of ’63 minute miles’ which must come pretty close to ‘not actually moving at all’.

Apart from Will none of us had done this race before and I for one certainly underestimated quite how tough it would be. At Jan’s hash run the following evening I could barely hobble round at the back. I’ve been in better shape after running a marathon.