Summer Series, race 5
Wednesday May 3rd.
I had to go back a long way in my records to find when I last ran Rainow – 1999.
Work got in the way of my running in the early years of the new millennium but 1999 may well have been its most recent appearance in the Summer Series. Tony says he would like to use it more often, it’s a great course, cheap and local but their results system is a little low tech. and they take time to come through, Don took-up the challenge.
Barry showed his versatility, mixing it with the fell specialists to finish second. Jeremy was 13th., Allan 25th., Tom 34th., Matt 40th., Adam 43rd., Jarrod 49th. and Graham 53rd.
As well as Barry, Tom, Louisa, Tony and Sally won their age categories. Diane, Andy, Nicky and Ian were second.
Louisa was first lady followed by Diane, Sally, Nicky, Julie and Sue.
Louisa also took the 60 points in League 2, Richard 59 and Diane 58, just ahead of Tim. Then came Paul, Tony and Andy.
Sally, appearing minutes before the start, won League 3 from Nicky, John and Chris.
League 4 had been crowded for the early races but with Colin, Rachael, Sharon and Jan missing, there was an opportunity for one of the lesser lights. Don led for the first 2k with Julie and Ian swapping places dependent upon whether we were going up or down hill. I thought I had the decisive lead on the 4k-6k descent only for Julie to come back at 7k, I was catching her on the final downhill but then it levelled-out as we hit the tarmac and she was too strong. It looked as though we were both going to overhaul Chris but he too strengthened in the final 800m. 9 seconds covered the three of us.
Sue is recovering well from her toe op, not an easy course for her, but a good result. Simon was forced-out early on. I was amazed that Roy, with his dodgy knee, chose this as his come-back race after his detached retina, but he’s back, he completed the course. Trevor was on familiar ground.