The relays were as enjoyable and exciting as ever, with the Ladies team still very competitive despite a large number of last minute changes to the team and leg orders!
Lynn had her (non-sore) arm twisted to“ get round” leg 1 after dropping out earlier in the week due to a nasty bike crash 50m from the finish at the 3-Peaks! Pain killer assisted she stormed up the long climb of leg 1 with Kirsty hanging on, though wasn’t quite as speedy as normal on the flat and descents (falling wasn’t an option!) but they managed to finish only a few minutes slower than the previous year. Zanthe and Liz then took over and had a fantastic run on leg 2, passing teams to take the fastest ladies time of the day. They handed over to IH rookies Jo and Ruth who ran fantastically, suprising themselves by getting to Angle Tarn much quicker than expected, to finish leg 3 in a great position- 3rd only 3mins 30 sec behind the leaders and our rivals Ilkley! Sadly it was to finally to be Ilkleys year (after 2 years of being narrowly beaten by Dark Peak) Rachel and Pippa ran hard and chased but unfortunately suffered from lack of local knowledge on one of the hardest legs. Made harder as they were moved onto leg 4 last minute and the previous days reccie by Pippa was cut short by a unexpected (shopping?) trip to Ambleside! But still a great result all round, 5th , everyone ran their best, lots swapped legs and came into the team with little notice and most of all everyone had fantastic team spirit- with every pair coming into the handovers running together in sync! Thank-you everyone for running and for being so flexible -now for the FRAs….
Also does anyone fancy a weekend reccie of all legs next year- it is such a great route and also then everyone would have an idea of each leg for those last minute swaps!!?
Kirsty