(photo: Dave Woodhead)
I didn't really need a second race in three days, but having done this race for the last couple of years, I thought that I'd give it another go, but just take it easy. It's a hilly course around the St. Ives Estate near Bingley, mainly on paths through the woods, but with a short section of moorland. We had a good representation of Ilkley Harriers at the race for the annual 'mob match' with Bingley Harriers.
Tempting fate at the start, the organiser said that the course was well marked & had plenty of marshalls & no one had ever got lost. So sure enough there were quite a few runners who took a wrong turning & missed out part of the course. I became aware of this with about 3k to go when I saw a couple of Ilkley vests ahead of me when I wasn't expecting to see any; Tom A was off in the lead (not wearing a club vest anyway), Mark M-W was ahead but he's much quicker than me on that kind of course, Dave C was ahead of me, but only by a couple of seconds. So who were the mysterious Ilkley runners appearing in front? Paul S, Neil S & Alison B had all gone the wrong way, along with several other runners.
The organisers seemed to be quite relaxed about the course issue at the finish & decided that the results would stand as they were, with runners being allocated their actual finishing position & time, regardless of which route they ran! Some of those who'd inadvertently gone the wrong way even picked up prizes - good job it wasn't a very serious race - no one seemed to be too upset about it.
I managed to finish in 20th position out of 92 runners. I was also 1st M50 (there wasn't a M55 category), narrowly beating Nick P. I hadn't seen Nick all of the way around the course, but he was only 4 seconds behind me at the finish. He'd done a 23 mile fell race at the weekend, so had even more excuse than I did for running with less zip than usual. My prize for the age category win was a bottle of wine. Last year in this race I also was 1st M50 - that was the first time I'd ever won a prize in a running race. This year I was just over a minute quicker than last year.
In the 'mob match', Ilkley beat Bingley again for the 3rd consecutive year.
I certainly need a rest from hard running for a few days now before the BMAF 5k on Sunday, so tomorrow's Harrogate League race is certainly off the agenda. Hopefully we'll still have sufficient Ilkley runners in the race to do well in the team competitions.
Tempting fate at the start, the organiser said that the course was well marked & had plenty of marshalls & no one had ever got lost. So sure enough there were quite a few runners who took a wrong turning & missed out part of the course. I became aware of this with about 3k to go when I saw a couple of Ilkley vests ahead of me when I wasn't expecting to see any; Tom A was off in the lead (not wearing a club vest anyway), Mark M-W was ahead but he's much quicker than me on that kind of course, Dave C was ahead of me, but only by a couple of seconds. So who were the mysterious Ilkley runners appearing in front? Paul S, Neil S & Alison B had all gone the wrong way, along with several other runners.
The organisers seemed to be quite relaxed about the course issue at the finish & decided that the results would stand as they were, with runners being allocated their actual finishing position & time, regardless of which route they ran! Some of those who'd inadvertently gone the wrong way even picked up prizes - good job it wasn't a very serious race - no one seemed to be too upset about it.
I managed to finish in 20th position out of 92 runners. I was also 1st M50 (there wasn't a M55 category), narrowly beating Nick P. I hadn't seen Nick all of the way around the course, but he was only 4 seconds behind me at the finish. He'd done a 23 mile fell race at the weekend, so had even more excuse than I did for running with less zip than usual. My prize for the age category win was a bottle of wine. Last year in this race I also was 1st M50 - that was the first time I'd ever won a prize in a running race. This year I was just over a minute quicker than last year.
In the 'mob match', Ilkley beat Bingley again for the 3rd consecutive year.
I certainly need a rest from hard running for a few days now before the BMAF 5k on Sunday, so tomorrow's Harrogate League race is certainly off the agenda. Hopefully we'll still have sufficient Ilkley runners in the race to do well in the team competitions.
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