By James Watson
Woah – what a race!
Dear reader it had it ALL! In no particular order……..
500 registered runners
Spring had sprung – Derbyshire looking great
On road but through beech and pine woodland plus some moorland thrown in
1,500 ft. of ups and downs
Cheery marshals
Four drink stops with jelly babies
Fruit
Flapjack
T-shirt or a tree planted
Three runners from the mighty WRC – me (James Watson), James Windsor and Glenn Baird.
I felt decidedly under-prepared for the race having had a stack of ailments to contend with over the last few months but luckily drew heavily on the news of Clare’s incredible exploits in the Lake District the previous day to spur me on (after all 13 miles / 21 kms hardly compares with 75km!). Thanks Clare you got me through the first three uphill miles!
It was also great to be running with James (Windsor) who had decided that four hours of gardening the previous day was the right way to prepare. Even his Garmin watch told him to have rest day based on some sort of sensor that presumably sensed how much effort was going into his weeding and pruning.
At the other end of the technology spectrum was watch-less Glenn who recorded a superb time of 1:46 having set out ‘aiming for just under two hours’.
The two James W’s weren’t quite as fast but happy with their 2:05 and 2:08.