New Years Day 2010 - Giants Tooth Fell Race

Giant's Tooth Fell Race CS, 3m/400ft

There are other ways to celebrate your birthday, and clear a hangover, but I like this one. There is usually a pretty good turnout for this race, and there seemed to be more than ever this year. The number of Spen runners was up this year too, with Michael making a welcome return, and Tim making his first appearance in this race.

The weather was good, although it was pretty difficult underfoot because of all the snow. In places, it was like runnign on polished glass, whereas in others, it was quite heavy going. I suspected times would not be as fast as last year, and in my own case that prophecy was true.

I was a bit worried about Matthew getting the better of me, since I'd had trouble closing him down at the club handicap a couple of weeks back, and was just recovering from a mother of a cold that I'd had over the Christmas break, so wasn't feeling at my best. however, I managed to overtake him before we got to the first stile, and didn't look back until we were climbing up through the woods before making the run-in to the finish. I could see that he was not too far behind me, but I had a comfortable enough gap to know that I'd managed to hold him off for this year at least.

I think my time was about a minute down on the previous year, which I can attribute to the conditions, and being a bit under-the-weather. Matthew was pretty pleased with his run, Michael looked suitably uncomfortable at the end, having made the same mistake as me in conveniently forgetting about one of the hills. Tim claimed not to have enjoyed it too much, so we'll see if he's there next year!