Strolling back through the icy car park puddles from registration, what a pleasure it was to bump into old friend, rival and legendary Darwen Dasher Dave Naughton. A club legend not because of his peerless downhill dashing, nor for the time he went through kit check with a handbrush to fill out his bumbag, but because he's the only person I know who can traverse under a table, arms only, and lengthwise. Anyway, apparently I narrowly beat him on Boxing Day and he's out for revenge.
I know this route well enough to know that apart from the dips down to the stream crossings there's a fair bit of track and path so it's imperative to run the runnable bits runningly. I pass Dave on a track but he gets me just before the stream, I pass him again but the pattern repeats approaching the second stream. We're neck and neck round the top of Ponden Clough then disaster. A shoe lace works loose having caught on the heather. No option but to stop before the fast descent. How did I not know that my fingers were numb? One each.
I grew up running on the moors, albeit on the other side of the Pennines, and I just love to go back. For me, there isn't a mountain route in the whole of Cumbria to compare with that peaty path round the top of the Ponden Clough. As to the result, well, well beaten by various good V60's but in a time comparable with 10 years ago. It'll do. You can't win 'em all.
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| Coming away from Ponden Clough |
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| The finishing straight |
Results: 92nd/203 V60: 8th/28 Time: 1:06:35
Distance: 12km Climb: 400m
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