the lactic acid test 8.5 mile

pre-race briefing

this was the third time i'd headed to Millbrook for a Kiwi Classic Events race, and i wasn't disappointed! luckily this fell on a weekend where mrs theoptimistic runner didn't have a FLM warm up event, so i took my chance and paid the very reasonable entry fee a couple of weeks ago.

my better half bumped into a new running friend she had met at the Radcliffe10mile MT race a few weeks ago, she was running today but her husband had come along to support so they kept each other company whilst we legged it round the course.

starting from the Royal Oak pub on Huddersfield Road, after a short run through some woodland the route soon took us on to the fell and the climbing began. After a mile or so of undulating terrain we dropped down the side of Walkerwood Reservoir and began the mile or so climb up Harridge Pike. This was the worst of the climbing, and past experience (after learning the hard way first time round) allowed me to set a steady pace up the fell. Even though the mist was down, there were still some good views of the Manchester basin and further afield.

the drop down to Higher Swineshaw reservoir was quicker than i'd remembered, and there was a welcome water station waiting for us at the bottom of the descent. We then pulled up and across the skyline of the other side of the valley up to the trig point.

the next descent was great fun, marked with a XXX for Extreme Caution to be taken, but my Walshes were more than equal to the task and I was soon at the bottom of the hill. a runner had come unstuck on the way down and had injured his ankle, after making sure he was ok I carried on down the hill to Walkerwood Reservoir.

course profile

from here on in the course took the same route back as the outward leg, so we were left with a gentle run back to the finish for some well deserved vegetarian curry/hotpot (whatever it was, it tasted good!).

I was nicely surprised to finish in 1h19 and 100th out of 169 runners, after my blow out at the start of the year things are definitely looking up!

a cracking little race and i would thoroughly recommend it to everyone for next year!