Hodgsons 2022

Ellen and I are paired for leg 4 of the Hodgsons Brothers Mountain Relays. I’m nervous because, well… it’s Ellen. But I’m armed with the usual set of excuses a runner can have, sore foot or injury, not ran races recently, have been under the weather, covid infection 4 months ago blah blah…

Both nervous we wait for leg 3 runners Alice and Emma coming in. Time to warm up we agree and just at that moment yellow westies vests come flying down the hill. No warm up then. I’ve never really used them anyway. Great advice from a physio. In a flurry we strip off our layers and get to the changeover in time.

Heart rates up we run along the flat start before hitting the first gentle ascent up through the bracken. Checkpoint 1. Ellen leads as expected. I’m trailing a little. We run past leg 3 runners descending and I secretly wish I could swap places with them as their decent looks a lot more fun than my uphill slog with Ellen. She powers up the steps. It’s hard to imagine that some people “run” up these. I’ll believe it when I see it. I’m sweating from my eyeballs and wish I’d brought goggles to aid with the stinging that’s going on. Ellen probably thinks I’m crying. Maybe I am. She encourages me on.

Second check point completed at Hart Crag. We hit the rocky flat then onto Fairfield. To take ‘Sam’s’ scree line or not? I’ve ran this leg twice and never had a fully successful scree line. I blame bad viz. We decide to leave it. We’re running alongside a males vet team. A short technical descent and I find myself in front and in new terrain. Unsure on the route, I follow the men. We end up on the scree, oh well. Fast feet with some sliding. I quite like it because you feel like you’re doing that thing with ski boots on when you run down a slope then slide on just the surface area of your boots leaving two satisfying lines in the snow. Your weight has to be well balanced, if not slightly onto your heels. You want the angle of the base of your foot to match the gradient of the surface you’re on. Rotation from the heel allows you to steer. It’s actually very similar skill needed when learning how to parallel ski. When you get it right on ski boots it feels amazing. When you get it right on scree your grateful to have all your skin attached to your body.

We get the sheep trod nicely back to the main line and now up to St Sunday crag. Weirdly the ups don’t feel so bad now, I think it’s that weird pain cave psychology thing. We fly down some runnable downs together, well matched. It’s glorious. There’s a mixed team ahead. I hear Ellen say we’ll catch them. I’m starting to feel the bonk. Anything that’s not a technical down feels like a struggle. We’ve hit the steep steps that descend to the finish, finally. It’s the only part of the race I can leave Ellen in dust, ha take that!

The westies cheer us through the gate at the bottom of the steps. We feel like heroes. Last bit down the road and into the games field. Westies women take 5th place! Thanks Ellen for a fun but brutal run together. And because we got a time within 1 hour 30 we also get Rona’s respect. What more could we ask for.

Well done Rachel, Anna, Meg, Ella F, Emma and Alice who also made up the women’s team. Great run also by the men, coming in 7^th place.