05 February 2008

Fairmile Race - KWL

Report by Ray Gill

Well ecky thump, wot a race. Basically up n down whilst been blown sideways.S’fact that even t’flat bits ad t’be walked cos of t'wind.

Minutes before the action, young Gills Tills, Helm Hill Thwaites n’ Goodfellows quickly formed a group n started arguing about t’merits of wearing spikes. Till n’ Helm Lad reckoned spikes t’wr no good, well no body ad any spikes so they all ran in Walshes or some sort of copy.

The Under 12 race went well with one or two Dallam people doing well. (Come back John Hodgson as I or the rest of the Gills come to that, don’t seem to have a clue who is who).

The under 14 race was an interesting do with Robin Goodfellow springing up the hill and flailing her way down to a comfortable win. The race for second was like a true Steve ‘Interesting’ Davies finish, Jane was in third place down the hill, but Jane had the bit in her teeth and with the odd comment about her famous lollop power stride, drove forward at a reckless pace to close the 30 yard gap and pip a Helm Hill runner at the post. Though with Helm running the event and being 200 metres closer to the finish line than me, Jane was judged to have come equal second!

The Under 17s had a good showing with Alex n Sam Till for the boys and Cathy Gill for the Girls. It was a predictable win for Alex ,though on coming back into view at the top of the main down hill bit, Alex was not in first place! From a distance, it was possible to see a wild but controlled descent from Alex who quickly overhauled the leading runner. Sam were not far behind and was easily on the beneficial side of the Gaussian distribution curve of finishing times, which bodes well for the future. Cath ran well up the slope using a run, walk technique and holding off Amy Fretwell on the up hill gradient. Though on coming back into view, Amy was leading Cath all the way to the finish and no encouragement would convert a ‘studied’ into her usual ‘reckless’ descent from Cath. Mel, the wayward Dallam runner won the race. Hopefully she will realise the error of her ways and come back to the Dallam fold to form the best local Girlie running team possible.

Well, for the adults race there was a Crazy fellow, Dave Crayston, complaining about the cold and saying he was going to run in flexible long johns, Dawn and me (Ray) were also pretty chilly, though Dawn had two pairs of gloves on. Off we went and to start with I was doing quite well, though this only lasted about 100 metres before a tide of people streamed past. The crazy fellow did not seem too far away half way up the first climb, though in terms of time it was significant. A bulbous waterproof made a notable contribution, pushing me past ‘leading’ runners during strong gusts. On the peaks, I ad to take me flat cap off due to the significant risk of it being blown off the top of me ed. Well the race went on and at the end I managed to miss the finish line, having been soundly beaten by a crazy fellow. Dawn came in a little later having battled with the winds and only ran significantly on the final 400 metres towards the finish due to the hurricane type conditions, though well ahead of her stalwart competition.

The trip home had the heater on full the whole way. A grand day out was had by all.