From Dave Robson…
This year’s plan to run a previously untried race each month continued in May with the ‘That’s so Hebden Bridge’ Fell Race. It is organised by Todmorden Harriers and is described as “a delightful 10K fell race run over trail and open moorland starting in Hebden Bridge, with a steep climb up to Stoodley Pike and back”. Prior to the race I thought that ‘delightful’ was an unusual adjective for a fell race so decided to give it a go and find out.
The race started with a steep, but runnable path up through the woods, followed by a short but even steeper, ‘heather scramble’ onto the open moor. After an initial ‘tussocky’ section it was onto good paths up to Stoodley Pike. The turn point is a loop of the pike, where you get a feel for your race position. I was about 15th at this point but had a decent gap to make up on the group in front. I knew there was a fast downhill section towards the end so thought if I could stay close enough to the group in front, I might be able to grab a couple of places on the way down.
The group ahead spread out across the return moor section but I managed to keep the next place runner in sight and as we hit a boggy section I seemed to be closing the gap. Next was the fast decent down a combination of steep wooded paths, titled “the mental descent” on Strava. I managed to pick up a couple of places and pushed along the short canal section to finish in 13th place and to my ‘delight’ first M50!
So on reflection it turned out that the race description was pretty accurate. I would definitely do this one again and would recommend it to others.
1st Joshua Holgate Blackburn Harriers 44:27
13th (1st M50) Dave Robson Ilkley Harriers 52:50