A Wuthering Weekend

On Saturday, I went to watch the Howarth Hobble and get a long-ish run in. So a 6 O'Clock drive from Mossley with my mate Tim in order to arrive for the 8am start in Howarth. In the car I was given one of his inspirational talks (he should do shows) and then got to Howarth with 40 minutes to spare.

Good chance to meet some new people and catch up with some top lads including Andy from Bingley and the Keighley lot. At 8am everyone set off and I was welcomed nnto the center for a bacon and egg butty by Brett and a general fell running chat.

At 10:50 or so me and Nick off the forum headed out the the last checkpoint. The run out washard as it was 4 miles with a long road section and Nick was on the bike. A swift run through Howarth and then past the reservoir and we were on the fell. It was a tracky run down to the checkpoint but it was still hard enough to tire me out.

I hung on until the first 10 runners had gone before heading back the same way but going round the fell instead of using the road to add on mileage. In the end I ended up running in with Simon Bourne from my club down to Howarth, back into the school for a brew and stew before a good old catch up with everyone.

Fish and chips to cap off a good day

12 miles 2300ft

Ian Roberts

My legs were shattered as I warmed up for my first race for 3 weeks. The 3 top local juniors, Sean Carey, Ryan Gould and Joe Crossfield were out for a run so I wrote off any chances of first junior.

The start was along a flat track so I decided to hang back and start steadily before working my way into it. So by the time I reached the road crossing I was pulling people back and felt strong despite the tiredness in my quads which seems permanant nowadays.

As we crossed the dam, I was in no mans land with a sizeable gap both ahead and behind m,e but I could see Gary Fleet in the distance so worked hard to keep up. Onto the flagged path down to Pule Hill I was flying picking off people all the way until I was in around 15th position with my mate Joe Crossfield not too far ahead. Across the road past Phil Davies who had come to watch and started the steady drag up Pule Hill. I had a decent ascent only losing 2 places but then as I descended off the top disaster struck. TWISTED ANKLE....I carried on dropping places and time all the way to the finish when I got hit by cramp. However I did slightly redeem myself by passing Joe at the end which was nice in the race of the cripples. Still a much better performance than I could have churned out a couple of months ago.

6.5 miles
59:20
23rd
3rd U/18