High Cup Nick Fell Race

Dufton, Saturday, February 27, 2010

BM / 9M / 1500'

Shaun Roberts

I’d heard great things about this race, so as for the first time it didn’t clash with a Harrier League fixture, I thought it was time to give it a go. Nigel and Dougie also came over the Pennines, and as is becoming traditional, we had the discussion as to whether to wear a Helly or not – I was for, Dougie against – but we were both happy with our choices in the end, so there you go. Bit of a long drag to start with, but after a while we had a nice undulating stretch that took us over to the east and the approach into the High Cup valley itself. Up and over a ‘shoulder’ and there it was – a superb view of High Cup Gill opened up before us – quite magical – and we descended into the valley. Very boggy section here until the boulder field at the head of the valley – we could forget running for a while and just had to scramble over large rocks. Then deep snow, that the organiser, Morgan Donnelly had helpfully cut steps into earlier. Brilliant open views down the valley from here:

Clambering through the snow above the boulder field.

Off and running again, now through deep snow at the top of the crag – followed by an exhilarating run down the valley side, on an unpredictable mix of snow, mud and rock. Near the bottom I saw my wife, and we shouted a few pleasantries at each other – but soon after I heard her talking to someone else, and guessed Nigel had caught me up on the descent (as had quite a few others to be honest), so I put a bit of a shift on over the last section through grassy fields to get to the finish in Dufton. Sure enough, Nigel wasn’t far behind, and Dougie came in soon afterwards. Soup and a roll in the village hall went down very well.

The organiser introduced the results by making some very gracious remarks about runners at the back of the field – he said never mind the hundred or so runners in the front – they should remember that there were sixty million or so people in the country who couldn’t imagine doing this sort of thing – a comment that could apply to nearly all running races, methinks.

A great race, and Dougie’s managed to get some superb photos on the way round, link below …

Results

Pos Name Club Cat Pos Time
1 Chris Steele Borrowdale M 1:04:18
102 Shaun Roberts MV50 1:33:26
107 Nigel Heppell MV50 1:34:47
129 Dougie Nisbet MV40 1:44:26

145 finishers.

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