Saturday, December 14, 2019

Back To The Summit

Skirrid this time for the aptly named Skirrid fell race. I covered 7.5km all told, there and back. A steady walk across the boggy fields and slippy slopes of the Skirrid with about 375m ascent in total. It wasn't snowy this year but the wind on top was biting. I timed my journey up about right. I was at the trig with 5 minutes before the race start, ready to set the summit timer going.

I was marshalling with JD and it was fortunate there were two of us. With four digit numbers to record along with having to shout at runners to show their numbers and a field of 117, the runners came thick and fast. Too thick and fast and so after the first 35 runners I had to drop to just recording the times while JD did the numbers.

I was chief shouter. Yelling at the runners to show their numbers - funnily I've not yet mastered the art of x-ray vision or bendy vision for those runners fixing the number to the side of their legs - yes, you know who you are.

The key to recording the times and numbers of runners coming in groups of three or four is to be able to spot the numbers from as far away as possible. Once they are on you - not literally - because you've had to wait to see their number it's game over. There will no doubt be a fair number of errors but we did our best.

With the 117 runners through I headed back down into the warm.

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