Ashurst Beacon Fell Race – Sat 14th January
January 17, 20124 of us Lostock fell runners turned up for the Ashurst Beacon 6M fell race near Parbold. It was a beautiful clear day although a tad nippy, this race is not wot you would call a typical fell race as it starts on the road at the top of one side of a valley, descends to the valley floor, then follows farm tracks / trails up to the other side of the valley then back again along most of the outward tracks. This of course means that the last mile is all uphill.
The RO moved the start 100 yards further forward than usual presumably because of the icy road conditions and asked everyone not to tear arse it down the hill, then set us on our way. The first thing i noticed was Pete ‘The Bullet’ Noble tear arsing it down the outside like he had a rocket up his you know wot, so much for the steady start.
I set off after Pete with Mark L well out of sight, finally catching Pete at the 1st stile before the climb to the half way point. Half way i was running alongside Andy Quickfall one of the organisers with a group of 5 or 6 40 yards ahead, i pushed on and gradually drew the group in finally overtaking the last one on the last climb out of the woods.
A good fast race to blow a few of the xmas mince pies and lager out of the system but a killer last mile uphill.
31 35 Mark Liptrot MV50 Lostock AC 44.38
59 27 Mark Shuttleworth MV40 Lostock AC 48.58
97 137 Peter Noble MV55 Lostock AC 53.37
120 127 Mark Sammon MV40 Lostock AC 56.46
There were 150 runners.
Comments
Mark L
Jan 17, 2012 10:48
You’re not exaggerating – that last mile or so of climbing is terminally hard.
Mark Sammon
Feb 14, 2012 0:10
It’s a great little race this one. The start makes you think this is easy with a nice downhill run but then at the finish you can’t wait for the end to come.