Rivington Pike

From one iconic race to another.  Rivington Pike has some claim to be the oldest fell race and on a sunny day it seemed like half the town were out to spectate.  The rest were in the pub at the start / finish.  The pike looms high, very high above Horwich.  The race is straight up and down no messing.  It really doesn't look likely that the faster runners will be up and back to the pub in well under 20 minutes.

Ellen and I lined up for the start still buzzing with the excitement of Juliet's U16 race where she'd sprinted down the hill for an unlikely 2nd place.  I knew that I wasn't recovered from the marathon so I started very steadily up the road monitoring carefully how my legs were coping. 

As the gradient steepened I felt surprisingly good and I picked my way gradually through the field.  I continued to jog up the final grassy slope grinding past the first woman and Richard Marlton  (Stockport).  The leaders came flying down the hill followed by Damian while I trotted on up around the tower and into the descent.  I knew that I had to be careful here with my brittle marathon legs.  A few hard core fell runners bounced past at literally break neck speed but I caught them all up when we reached safer ground.

Back on the road I started to close down a few more but by now my legs were reminding me about the quality time we'd spent on the Embankment last weekend and I had an easy float in to the finish.

Damian had a fine run for 10th, his best ever placing here but just out of the prizes.  Ellen was 12th woman / 4th u18 after finding the summit hill tough and taking a tumble on the descent.  Andy Dodd had doubled up by doing Bramhall parkrun which might have given him an excuse for being outrun by a guy running in an inflated Sumo suit.  I'd run well enough but outside the top 20 and soundly beaten by a Kendall v50.  Doddy was subdued and sub Sumo.  Starving hungry we'd have all enjoyed the solace of a large burger at this point but the pub was so rammed that even a bag of nuts was beyond our reach.

Rob