Turnslack Fell Race  22nd July 2000
8 miles   2000ft climb

This was a great day out, a great day out.   I had not raced (due to injury) since the Wrekin Race on the 2nd April and it  was bugging me,  really bugging me.  I'd been doing a little training during the previous month, on my usual training run when coming back from injury,  that is,  over the fields from Hadfield to Windy Harbour Farm.    I'd not done enough training for this sort of race but the sun was shining and my back wasn't hurting, so I thought I'd risk it and have a go.   Its boring being sensible all the time. 

 I know the terrain quite well in the area north of Rochdale up to Todmorden and know it to be wet, very wet at times on the tops.   I first damaged my right heel here in January last year running in Walshes on ground puddled by cattle and subsequently frozen solid.   I also knew that there  were some stony tracks and seeking assurance that there wasn't  very much of these on the route,  I 'phoned the race organiser who quickly told me it was all soft going except for one or two odd bits.   This was exactly the reply I had 'phoned up for - if he'd said there weren't any stony tracks in the whole of the North West I would have believed him.   I wanted to believe him  -  the sun was shining and I wanted to run the race.

I got there in good time and was pleased that I'd remembered sun block since apart from the sun,  there was a deceivingly cool wind - ideal for running but an aid to sun burn.   I said this was a great day out and it was,  this was a great race.  There weren't any very long steep climbs but there were plenty of ups and downs on the route.   There was a longish very gradual climb to the  highest point, Trough Edge End at  454m and with a strongish wind in our faces, it was quite a slog or at least,  it was for me.    Most of the route was in fact, on soft/firm ground and it was just right because there hadn't been much rain for some time and the wet patches had dried out.  Running across some of the moors was a bit testing  due to tussock grass but this was altogether better than long stony tracks.  There was one stretch of stony track on the way down from Trough Edge End to Coolam ruins and then a stretch down to the finish but this is  to be expected in any race and it didn't bother me too much at all.

I thought I might be in with a chance of a reasonable position thinking that everyone else was doing the "Tour" but I had not considered the competitiveness both individual and team due to this race being race eight of the South Lancs Grand Prix and thus hotly contested by teams such as Rochdale, Todmorden, Calder Valley, Clayton-le-Moors, Rossendale etc.   In fact I felt quite conspicuous, being a lone Glossopdale Harrier in club colours amongst a paddock full of teams in their team colours.   I finished alright and was pleased with my position of 69th (80:21secs) out of 148 finishers. 

Brian Shelmerdine   July 2000

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