Well I guess it was about time I got the nav wrong
Needless to say we did not collect the silverware today and much that I hate to say it Westies beat us, small consolation was how much they seemed to cherish the moment
Day went as follows:
An early start, team tactics and map checking on the way down was followed by a great leg 1 by Iain W and Iain G (beating such legends as Ricky Lightfoot), then Craig Mattocks and I set off in 5th place in hot pursuit of the leaders. Unfortunately we slipped a few places on the climb with Craig appearing to be attempting to cough up his lungs… but never once complained and battled on.
How proud was I to ensure we managed to find the checkpoint on High Street on the first attempt so lesson learnt from last year, ‘hurray’ said I. However we then managed to then come off the ridge in the mist [ed: Donard-like conditions] following some yellow vest who assured us he had the bearing and knew a short cut. For some reason we followed and quickly found ourselves off course and requiring to reclimb 500ft back to the race route. I can recommend this additional route if you want to add 30mins to your leg time and see nice quiet areas of the Lake District.
Craig pulled it round with great navigation and got us back on track and we gained a few places back as we headed to Kirkstone Pass. So late in but having made the checkpoints and kept us in the race.
Jasmin and Konrad on L3 and Andy & Eoin on L4 both ran great legs to prove running fast and navigating is not beyond us all.
A great race and some tough hills and like Arnie said ‘I will be back’ as leg 2 will be conquered in the future. Also cheers to the team for not make Craig and I feel too bad… at least not to our faces.
Michael (looking forward to XC season and off the hills) Reid