17 August 2014 – 14 miles / 6004 ft – English Championship Counter
Part 5 of a 6 part series for the English Championships which had turned into a tit for tat battle between our own Rob Hope & Tom Addison of Helm Hill. Tom having the slight edge with 3 first places to Rob’s 3 seconds & 1 first.
For the men our top boys, Rob & Darren toed the start line, along with new starlet Jamie, followed by Niall, James, Alex & me as back up.
For the ladies with Caroline still struck by injury it was down to Claire & Rachel to uphold the P & B honour.
The race itself is hilly but what is known as ‘runnable’ to those fitter chaps, although at times the wind & rain slowed many to more of a crawl. The clag on the tops also provided some useful encouragement to ensure eyes were firmly kept on the person in front at all times.
Rob Hope and the race’s other main players pull up and away… Photo by Andy Holden
At the sharp end Rob put in a superb performance to pull off another win from Tom of over 2 minutes. My maths isn’t that great but looking at the results overall I think that secures the individual silver medal at least.
Jamie in his first Championship race, secured an equally superb 9th place, beating such likely lads as Morgan Donnelly and Ian Holmes. Darren was next in, hampered by ongoing injury niggles.
Niall, James & myself had our own tit for tat battle throughout, with James getting a good push up the final climb to The Calf to claim bragging rights & next counter. Alex wasn’t too far behind us, the previous nights beer getting the better of him on the day.
At the sharp end of the ladies race nobody was going to catch Victoria Wilkinson finishing in an amazing 19th place overall but Claire & Rachel did really well for 8th & 16th lady respectively. Although this does rely on me counting down through the finishing list so stands to be corrected. (Editor’s note: I counted it as 9th and 17th but my counting is equally susceptible to error – between us we should be about right!)
(The author, descending. Photo from www.athletesinaction.co.uk)
Rob Hope 1st 2:06:10. Jamie Parkinson 9th 2:12:21. Darren Kay 59th 2:33:50. James Titmus 72nd 2:38:26. Charlie McIntosh 73rd 2:38:46. Niall Bourke 79th 2:41:31. Claire Green 120th (9th F) 2:53:32. Alex Jones 149th 3:00:26. Rachel Pilling 153rd (17th F) 3:01:53. (Full Results)