Another week, another new local race to me. Again, I've often wanted to do this race but never fitted well in the diary. Now Lewis is 8, I'm more happy to bring him along knowing that if he takes his football, he'll more than likely find other kids to play with in the village. That or play Minecraft on his phone in the van - grrrrr!
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| Brassington Wakes Race Route, Anticlockwise inc some steep contours out of Hopton! |
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| Brassington Race Profile, noting what happens at 1.7 miles in ! |
I'd cycled the longer hillier route home with a bit of pace up some hills, so when Lewis and me arrived with Rachel in Brassington I was warmed up enough. Still - I had 15 mins to test out my new New Balance
Minimus Zero Trail v2.0's.
I'd not planned on buying any new shoes at all the other lunch - I just popped in to Derby Runner to get some new running shorts. Alas, these grabbed my eye and - having a soft spot for New Balance anyway - after trying them on with them fitting perfectly I had no excuse not to buy them! They're a zero drop shoe with quite a bit of padding and protection - something I'd often fancied and now I found myself owning a pair. Walshes are great - but on the rockiest terrain (aka Paddy Buckley etc) they leave my delicate feet feeling rather jaded. More padding then please !
Around 70 of us assembled on the start line on what was a stunning summers evening. Nathan turned up (ahead of his Peaks Sky Ultra on Sunday) so I left Lewis and him chatting about biking!
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| Go! |
I knew most of the route anyway, so was very wary of the second climb out of Hopton - I remember it being very very steep, then long. Craig Allen was down so I sat just behind him on the first climb, then passing him just before Hopton. I knew we were roughly the same pace so was happy here. It turns out Craig was feeling a bit jaded from a Llandudno half mara (or something). The climb out of Hopton was as bad as I feared - very steep then gradual for ages - all the way past the new wind farms up to the High peak Trail. I'd overtaken the next runner too by this stage so just had to hang on for the descent through some old quarry workings then down a track, past Nathan and Lewis and back into the village.
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The first climb out of Brassington
Another great new race on a perfect summers evening - outside a perfect village pub. I'd promised Rachel that I'd have her post race lubrication lined up for her after the race - and you can see below how much we both enjoyed it!
Results here: 6th out of 78, so top 8%
Strava link here
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| Some of us enjoying post race rehydration! |
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