The Doddfather

It was a pretty good day for the Harriers of Chepstow. We acquitted ourselves with aplomb at the British Fell Relays - I wanted an apple but we had to settle a plum. From a large field of 176 (although I think there were actually only 162 on the day) we managed a pretty decent 41st place. That makes Chepstow the 2nd most premier fell running club in East Wales [smirks to camera].

Matthew 'The Lawsonator' Lawson got us off the a cracking start, putting us firmly in the top third of the field. Next up were Peter, Paul and Mary - 'cept Mary had the day off. They stormed through the field to put us somewhere towards the top twenty or there abouts.

Then came the doddering duo of Paul 'The Doddfather' Dodds and little ol' me. We were pretty evenly matched. He outpaced me on the flat but I caught it back on the ascent but neither of us got too far ahead or behind and all in all we paired up pretty well. We had the navigation leg and all in all did a good job. Can't really grumble on our choices. We brought the team home in 29th at the end of leg 3.

We handed on the 'theoretical' baton to Mark 'The Butcher of Bakersfield' Harvey. Mark is more at home - at home - but he put in a steady performance never the less. At the finish he could be heard complaining about fall pretences and muttering something about where were all the roads he was promised...

So all in all a very credible performance. Top quarter is pretty darn good in the British Fell Relays. The weather was great. The sun shone down all day and not a drop of rain was to be seen. It really was a great day out.

Now for the stats, my leg was 11.5km with only 1,600 feet of ascent. For the Shropshire hills we got away lightly - result. The time? 1:17:44. I think I sleep soundly tonight...