Dark Peak Club Championships

This weekend was my first go at the Dark Peak Fell Runners (DPFR) club championships. The route was the Kinder triple crossing, starting and finishing at Edale.

Parts of the route were fairly straightforward, but the actual "crossings" over the boggy hell of Kinder Scout were less obvious. Not being a navigational expert I tried to stay within sight of the lead group on the first crossing, but as we spread out more and more during the race I struggled a bit and took some slightly dodgy lines, although I don't think I lost more than a minute or two overall.

The nine mile race was great, we seemed to either be running along a river, through a bog, or up or down a steep hill at all times. The winner of the race was Rob Little, who was handed the trophy in typical fell running style (in a carrier bag with an apology for "the faff of carrying it about"). I finished about 7 minutes later in 12th place, reasonably happy if not ecstatic with the position, but a great race!

In the evening we had the annual dinner too, which was a great event with some really good food, beer and (as I recall) an incredible dance display by myself and Rhys. My racing plans for the rest of the year seem to have changed every day recently, but I now think I'm running the Roaches fell race next weekend and the Tour de Helvellyn in December. This is a low-key 38 mile Winter ultra which sounds fantastic, can't wait!

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