The Rivington Pike Fell Race is one that claims to be one of the longest running. It is usually held on the Easter weekend and despite being my training ground of choice and one of my closest fell races, I have never actually managed to get to the race (work, injury, covid etc). But one nice thing is that Covid means the race this year was in September, on what was looking like a very grey day to start. As I had driven past on the motorway earlier in the day, the Pike was well and truly in the clouds. But the joy of a 3pm start was that it was actually clear by the time we raced.
This year, Horwich running club, who organise the event, had decided to make the race a memorial to Ron Hill who died earlier this year. Ron Hill's many achievements in running need little introduction, not least his running streak and the infamous tracksters, but he actually ran this local race many times, winning on a few occasions. This charming tribute attracted a large and quite prestigous crowd, including I think Wendy Dodd who checked in a bit in front of me at reigstration. It also raised the average age of the race a bit. Over in the Peaks, it was the Groovy Kinder Love race which at 15 miles, catered for a bit of a different crowd, and I was pleased to see some people who said it was their first fell race (and I hope not their last).
The race is quite simple: start at the memorial gardens, run up to the Pike, go round the Pike and run down again. It is less than 3 miles, but it packs quite a punch. It also has a decent chunk of road which isn't in my favour. Oh, and my coach was going to be there, and, given we have never met in person, I felt I better put on a good show.
An elite band of 4 Chorlton Runners were in the starting line up. This was nearly reduced to two after two people nearly were too late to register but we all made it to the start. This year it was chip timed but everyone crammed on the start regardless, those in the know aware of the slight bottle neck as we leave the road, and everyone else just eager! We did a minutes applause for Ron and his wife did the count down. It was touching actually. My memory of Ron, incidentally, is him running gently down the Manchester marathon course, on his own, a little way behind the last runners as he had done the race start and he waved at me as he went as I was marshalling (and desperately trying to find a loo but that is another story). He just wanted to be part of the day as much as possible, even if his fast days were long behind him.
The fell race starts on the road and so it is quite quick, and it is a reasonable stretch (maybe a third of a mile?) before we turned off and went through a few trees where the bottle neck occurs and everything slowed down. I was surrounded by a mixture of people from the ever fit septigenerians to the steadier first timers. From this point the race goes up, up a bit more and in places very steeply up. My running coach caught me as we headed up the section past the school and we had a brief introduction before she pulled away. I was going plodder pace and I tried to push the thought that I don't like this section past the school from my head (I do it in training and often sneak a walk). But then we were pulling up the steep driveway (still concrete) to the farms. I was managing to run sections and set landmarks to reach every so often. There was fantastic support and one of the mountain rescue guys (in attendance lbut hopefully not needed-- heroes) had a darling little puppy so I had to keep running. I finally, to a parade of black horses peering over the fence, we hit the grassy track and I managed to get going again, and over take my coach (phew!). As I hit the steep part of this field, the lead runner thundered down with good clear water behind him. I didn't recognise him but he was blooming quick. I got a bit further up the slope before more came down and one of the Chorlton guys looked to be in the top ten.
Pulling on to the track at the top, a lady pulled passed me and I cursed that I hadn't run past the top of the section, and had pulled back at the top. Never mind, time to get up the Pike! The route goes initially up the 'cobbled' (read skin stealing nemesis) track then on to the carved out path up to the pike. Now up this section I made some progress: I have done it several times, and it involves a proper stomping climb and a few big steps and looking at my strava sstats I put my fastest time in today. But again at the top, someone immediately over took me as I failed to keep pushing over the top. Blast! Fortunately I got her on the bumpy descent of the top.
From the top you descend what you have just run. The top section is bumpy and takes some concentrating, the track up to the pike is uneven but can be hammered with care, and then the field presented two options: a direct or indirect descent. I had come up the direct so went down the direct but two men who ere behind me had caught me up at the bottom so maybe this was a bad move. I knew once we hit the concrete I was going to lose places so I put on a bit of a spurt out of the field, and was promptly over taken by a chap just after we hit the road. Oh well.
Through the next section of road I was over taken a few times but I managed the narrow tree route section quickly (the bottleneck from the way up) and managed to catchup two people, one of whom got away from me on the flat road at the bottom. I tried to get some pace up but my fell shoes felt clunky on the road and my body is just too heavy. Right toward the finish one of Horwich's septegenarians was just in front of me and I had a moral battle about where to over take him in the final 100m. In the end I decided I couuldn't and just took the pace down a notch to keep behind him until the finish funnel.
I took a bottle of water (something I try not to do- plastic) and drained it. It was actually quite a warm day and I hadn't worn anything to keep the sweat out my eyes. At least I had worn a vest, not a long sleeve! I was quite happy with my time and enjoyed a chat with a few of the Chorlton runners at the bottom as we watched some of the other runners came in. I was last Chorlton runner home but given the company I was keeping, that wasn't a problem. The had raced hard too and we were all enthusiastic about upcoming hill trips and races. It was rather wonderful.
So in summary, its a short sharp race with reasonable climb (for Manchester) and a fair bit of road. I liked it as it had a good atmosphere and people along much of the course cheering. There were quite a few concerned members of the public who were having their Saturday walked ruined but most were very pleasant (except on lady who stepped right in to the race line, stood there and just stared at me as I swerved to avoid her...). Its probably not actually a great first fell race as its not that runnable on the way up unless you are very fit (so not me), and its quite fast. A couple of the girls from the club did it a few years as their first and they haven't fell run or run with the Blacksheep since which isn't a good sign as they have done other trail running.... But it is an old fashioned up and down the hill, and it does have some prestige. I'll do it again, as it is local, but I might not travel if it wasn't the memorial race (which had brought people from far and wide incidentally).
Time to mini taper for the Lakeland Trails next week!
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