It was a beautiful Spring morning for mine & Jason’s journey down to the North York Moors for the Pinchinthorpe Plod part of Esk Valley’s Winter Series. It was a pleasure to see the sun shining and not to have a dilemma over kit choice! We were accompanied by our Derwentside club mate Mark, and met up with David from Tyne Bridge Harriers for brief introductions & chat before the start.

A few indecipherable instructions off Dave Parry and we were off. The route started along the cycle path, then all too quickly headed up into the woods. A mile or so of ascent later, I reached the top of some steps leading out of the woods to see Jason just ahead of me. Either I was running really fast (unlikely!), or he had a problem. A brief chat determined he was struggling with an already niggly calf and I encouraged him to head back & prevent any further damage jeopardising his chances of running the forthcoming Anniversary Waltz.

Out onto a bit of flat & I tried to get my breath back and pick up the pace, with marginal success, along a brief bit of flat before the climb up Little Roseberry which lay ahead. Reduced to a walk & after a lot of huffing and puffing, I finally reached the top. It was then straight back down a steep rocky descent (nowhere near as fast as I’d have liked), through some woods and then onto some nicely run-able forest tracks back down to the cycle path.

A quick shout to Jason to ask him where the finish line actually was & I was home. Looking at my watch, I was happy to have completed the distance in just over 58.19, although it was shorter than the advertised 10k at just under 6 miles.

We met back up with Mark who had finished an excellent 19th and David who was celebrating a fabulous 2nd place. A quick stop at the café and then, struggling to carry my huge piece of rocky road cake, we made our way to the presentations where there were 3 bottles of wine for David and 1 bottle for Mark. I had to make do with the rocky road but was happy to be the first person from NFR home. Ok I was the only one … but we don’t need to tell anyone that … right?

photo of me & Mark Davinson from Derwentside - photo:Lisa Taylor

Photos here: http://eskvalleyfellclub.org/piwigo_gallery/index.php?/category/92
I seem to have managed to escape the cameraman who had packed up by the time I got there!

Results here: http://www.eskvalleyfellclub.org/results.htm

Lisa Taylor