11 February 2008

Helm Hill Race KWL 10th Feb 2008

Susan Goodfellow and Ray Gill have split the reporting duties for the Helm Hill race .It's really good to receive news from races to put on the weblog and perhaps Club members can continue to keep me supplied with it for other fell,road and trail races that we compete in throughout the rest of the year.The best medium to provide photos to me is via Picasa 2 (it's free with simple but quality editing and a fairly large storage size, have a word with me about this if you need more info).

Here's Ray's report for the Senior race.

Sadistic 1970’s PE teachers would be well impressed by the spirit sapping effort that is the KWL Helm Hill course, as would the Workhouse Beadles of time gone by. It even had a wooded section for those who wanted a secret fag. The sense of achievement of a Fairmile or the ardour of a Cautley Spout is at the opposite end of the spectrum to a Helm Hill course. The course strings out the miles by going up and down Helm Hill, what appears to be as many times as possible in an effort to break the will to live. Delicate youth such as Alex Till, Sam Till and Cathy Gill have to endure the soul sapping course once, whereas toned veteran athletes, close to the top of the league table, such as Dawn Gill have to go round twice.

Largely representing Dallam at Helm Hill we wheeled out a classy team of toned athletes in the peak of condition, these were Dave Crayston, Dennis Nelson, Dawn Gill, the newbie Ruth Webster and myself. Dave Crayston had his leg strapped up with a load of white cloth, however I said he should do it and he is going to blame me if it all goes wrong. Pot Hole Dennis seemed in fine fettle as did Dawn. Well off we went up and down the course. The day was glorious with not a breath of wind and it was quite hot, which would seemingly please the seemingly sadistic route master. Young Lizzy Goodfellow, who competed well in the juniors race for Dallam had some star comments to encourage the dripping athletes. Lizzy called me a “Magic Man” for having a shiny head and supported other runners with “Don’t worry only one more lap, it will be really easy”. I think she has a calling to be a PE teacher.

Well Dave did well coming in about 15th but believed to be 2nd in the V40s, though he could do with the odd 1st place to ensure overall victory, whereas Dennis came in a few places later. I managed to finish. Some of the most stunning activity was to be seen in the ladies race. Dawn is trying to get to the top of the league table for the ladies. Her achievement is largely due to turning up for each race come rain or shine, so she is primarily battling with other everyday heroes at this stage. Top of this list is Eden’s Rhiannon George who is three points ahead of Dawn at the top of the table. Dawn was behind Rhiannon at the end of the first soul sapping lap, yet on the second lap she managed to overtake Rhiannon on the uphill stretches as well as other younger “whippersnapper” female runners, who did not need to be wheeled out at the start of the race. At the finish Dawn beat Rhiannon by several places and may take the top spot. Ruth Webster came in not far behind Dawn and looks good for the future with loads of potential; we hope to see her at future races.

Well a good day was had by all.