WEDNESDAY 28th JULY
HARROCK HILL (3)
5.2m/900ft
BISPHAM GREEN

Another sticky summer night of running action, but with Kentmere still fresh in the legs this turned out to be another very decent performance. I knew I must have been doing ok as I had classy Horwich veteran Colin Rigby for company most of the way around. Oddly enough, round about the half way mark I tucked in behind him on a long uphill section only for Colin to wave me by, saying ''come on lad, get past.'' Well there was no chance of that. Did he think I was that naive or simply not know who he was? This is the chap who I couldn't get near at Haigh Hall two weeks ago so just to be in his shadow seemed ambitious enough at this point. ''No thanks, you're alright'' I said, just about able to reply as I was putting in sufficient effort to keep with him.
It turned out that I was right to sit tight and run my own race because as the race flattens out for a mile or so on to tarmac, Mr Rigby's road running prowess came to the fore and he began to tear away from me. At this point I was feeling I ought to just settle down and consolidate my position. I couldn't hear anybody behind so I just rested my lungs for a few minutes on the road section before giving it a good old push with about two miles to go with the incentive of clocking myself a decent time. Once off the road though, that red vest seemed to be getting closer again and this really encouraged me to give myself some pain. By the windmill ruin for the final descent, I had got close enough for him to hear me and when somebody looks back, I always get the feeling they are there for the taking. Glance back he did, but on the final section which is a few hundred yards on his safe haven of tarmac, Colin held me off but I was pretty chuffed to have closed him down to just five seconds at the finish after he had seemed out of sight at one point. The old boy was flat out on the deck at the finish and thanked me for making him work for it!
Time: 34:00   Pos:6th/138