Another successful year completed. I can't deny I was dissapointed with only 42 pre-entries in 2022 but then I had 15 on day so ended up with 57 starting. I was a bit more clever in 2023 and looked at clashes and decided to push it back by a week compared to the previous two years, which proved a success as I had 56 pre-entry plus thirty on the day. I think I may have to make it more than the £1 difference between pre and EOD, it just makes it easier as I already have the entrant details on line for creating the entry/results sheet.
As far as weather I think I am using up my luck. The Saturday on the previous weekend was a scorcher and a couple of people said that if it had been last week they may not have turned up. The winner Jack Scott was telling me he was over the previous weekend and the crossing from Mill Hill over Lygatehead Moor was lovely and spongy, he could not believe how wet it had got in a week. At race HQ it was lovely and sunny the whole day so I was pretty surprised by the photos the marshalls were sending back from the CPs.
I got pretty exited when I saw the club for one of the runners was club Inov-8; mentioned the name to my son Tim and he was telling me he won The Roaches by a comfortable margin (The race was won by Jack Scott (inov-8) in 2:03:11, 6 minutes clear of second place). Oh wow! this could be interesting as I have a challanging male course record by Joe Oldfield in the first year. Obviously Jack was doing his research as he had Joe's splits and was telling me he was actually down on Joe's time well into the race but in the end he took quite a bit off Joe's 02:14:40 coming home in 2:10:19.
The women's winner Pennine's Anna Wildman (3:02:38) did not have it quite so comfortably. Anna is a very experienced distance runner having claimed an excellent Bob Graham earlier in the summer. She mentioned to me at the end she was struggling to shake off my daughter Niamh (3:04:50), who is quite a novice in comparsion. Niamh closed in on the descents while Anna pulled away on the climbs, so the tough William Clough climb near the end was enough to give Anna the margin she required.
Race Permissions
That was my third and final year of the three year Natural England permission so for next year I will need to work with the NT again to obtain the permissions to continue the race. Hopefully the regulations have not changed.
Finances
Hayfield scouts £50 for Hall booking
Hayfiled Paris Council £60 for the finish field and parking (it really is an excellent venu to finish a race)
I will be donating £150 to the NT as without them it just would not happen.
Then loads of food for the runners and liquid "thank-you" for the excellent group of volunteers.
All going well we will be back for September 14 2024.
L..R 3rd, 1st,2nd.
Some volunteers got an easier job than others.
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