Mothers’ Day celebrations were put on ice whilst a handful of York Acorn stalwarts headed north to race in the ninth NEHRA winter fell series races.
Results:
Matthew Driscoll, first Acorn home in eleventh place overall 43:16 followed by Michael Hetherton 50:02, Carol Dixon-Yeung 51:53 (and first in age category) and Pete Murray 53:05.
Weather conditions: sunny, cold and muddy, and still quite a bit of snow up on the tops.
It was a beautiful day and I was really excited to be taking part in this race because it is the shortest of the series (just under six miles) and everyone had told me one of the easiest. It was only upon arrival that people pointed out it was the steepest of all the North Yorkshire Moors hills! My false sense of security was absolutely shattered and the nerves started to set in!
It was incredibly muddy – I think the clue was in the name ‘clay – bank’ and it was very gloopy and hard going from start to finish. We set off on a steep hill where you have to position yourself because this is followed by a mile of flat narrow track, which is difficult to overtake on, before hitting a really long, gradual incline that really tested your stamina. When we reached the top and touched the cairn you had to double back on your opponents for a short period and it was a bit hit and miss between runners going both ways to see who was going to ‘give way’ at the last minute. This was followed by some down hill on a wide snow covered track and a very steep downhill onto a gate that I had to leap over because I could not pull open. At the bottom we had to hurdle a fallen tree and then it was a very fast downhill finish back to Clay Bank car park.
Rating: 5 out of 5 – I absolutely loved it as I do all Dave Parry races, challenging, but really friendly and enjoyable. Plus I won three bottles of wine for winning my age category (courtesy of Marks and Spencers – this is ‘no ordinary wine’ lol!). I will definitely be back next year – this time kitted out in some sturdier shoes than my X Talons (Mudrocs I think for this one).
by Carol Dixon-Yeung
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