April is here, and it's time for the Bunny Run series once again! For those of you who are not yet initiated into this race series, it's a short fell/trail race over 3 miles at Penistone Hill country park near Haworth, organised by the Woodentops (aka Dave and Eileen Woodhead)
With the 3 Peaks Fell Race only a couple of weeks away now, and still recovering (suffering?) from a 5.5 hour/22 mile training run with Steve, Gareth et al just 2 days before, I confess that I was neither relishing nor in fact feeling in any fit state to run at all, never mind in a fast-and-furious race such as these tend to be. However, Matthew just loves these races, as he gets an opportunity to race against adults, whilst not feeling he is under scrutiny or pressure, and he was quite insistent that I should compete, so in the end I relented.
There was a huge turnout of around 280 runners (5 from Spen), and some jostling to be on the front row, as there was some real competition up front with the likes of Ian Holmes, Andi Jones and Olympic triathlete Alistair Brownlee all spotted lining up for the start. Usually, many of the younger runners manage to squeeze their way to the front, which is ok for the fast ones, but can cause some overcrowding problems.
Before we'd gone 20 yards, I heard someone shout "child" and saw that one of the youngsters had fallen right in the midst of the stampede. At the end, someone asked me what club he/she was from, and I said "I don't know, but the kit was a white vest with stud marks up the back!". Seriously though, I hope they were ok.
I went off too fast, and mid-way through the 2nd lap was really paying the price, as I started to fade badly. However, I was still ahead of some runners who had beaten me last year at the finish, with a time of 20:24. Matthew came in at 21:53 which was a big improvement for him, beating his PB from 2007, and a minute up on most of his last years times, hopefully a sign of things to come this year.
My time of 20:24 was 8 seconds outside of my previous best time for the course, which I did in BR#4 in 2008. I was trying to rationalise whether or not I should be pleased with that result. There are many factors, and I can't easily determine if it was a decent performance.
How does anyone else go about comparing performances between fell races, or is it simply not possible? My previous best for this race was in #4 of the series last year, when I did little running training, but had done a few races. However, the general conditions last year were worse (muddier) and I improved throughout the series. This year I've done more training, and got off to a better start, even though I was pretty tired from the weekend. Does it bode well? Tune in next week, same time, same channel...
With the 3 Peaks Fell Race only a couple of weeks away now, and still recovering (suffering?) from a 5.5 hour/22 mile training run with Steve, Gareth et al just 2 days before, I confess that I was neither relishing nor in fact feeling in any fit state to run at all, never mind in a fast-and-furious race such as these tend to be. However, Matthew just loves these races, as he gets an opportunity to race against adults, whilst not feeling he is under scrutiny or pressure, and he was quite insistent that I should compete, so in the end I relented.
There was a huge turnout of around 280 runners (5 from Spen), and some jostling to be on the front row, as there was some real competition up front with the likes of Ian Holmes, Andi Jones and Olympic triathlete Alistair Brownlee all spotted lining up for the start. Usually, many of the younger runners manage to squeeze their way to the front, which is ok for the fast ones, but can cause some overcrowding problems.
Before we'd gone 20 yards, I heard someone shout "child" and saw that one of the youngsters had fallen right in the midst of the stampede. At the end, someone asked me what club he/she was from, and I said "I don't know, but the kit was a white vest with stud marks up the back!". Seriously though, I hope they were ok.
I went off too fast, and mid-way through the 2nd lap was really paying the price, as I started to fade badly. However, I was still ahead of some runners who had beaten me last year at the finish, with a time of 20:24. Matthew came in at 21:53 which was a big improvement for him, beating his PB from 2007, and a minute up on most of his last years times, hopefully a sign of things to come this year.
My time of 20:24 was 8 seconds outside of my previous best time for the course, which I did in BR#4 in 2008. I was trying to rationalise whether or not I should be pleased with that result. There are many factors, and I can't easily determine if it was a decent performance.
How does anyone else go about comparing performances between fell races, or is it simply not possible? My previous best for this race was in #4 of the series last year, when I did little running training, but had done a few races. However, the general conditions last year were worse (muddier) and I improved throughout the series. This year I've done more training, and got off to a better start, even though I was pretty tired from the weekend. Does it bode well? Tune in next week, same time, same channel...
Spen Results
80 Chris Jones M40 20:24
114 Matthew Jones U14B 21:53
202 Jackie Carter F40 25:21
264 Henry Carter U14B 31:16 <-- 1st fell race, well done Henry!
271 Amanda Pearson F40 33:49
281 finishers, 5 retired
Full results here
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