SUNDAY 24th OCTOBER
WITHINS SKYLINE
7m/1000ft
HAWORTH MOOR, WEST YORKS.

One of a few annual races I have still managed to compete in every year since I started this game, it's been four years of very contrasting fortunes at Withins Skyline. This is the first of the Woodentops Winter quartet of fell races on Haworth Moor organised by Dave and Eileen Woodhead. The amount of work these two do for both junior and senior fell running cannot be underestimated. I support their races because I think they are stars in their own right. I think it is the duty of anybody who enjoys running off-road to sample the unique atmosphere of a Woodentops race and the barmy presentation in the Old Sun Hotel afterwards. There is nothing quite like it to my knowledge.
Ridiculously, I have gone off course on two occasions over what is hardly the most complicated of routes. Last year's detour was more of an uneducated gamble than an accidental wander. The lesson learned was never to follow a Keighley runner on his own territory!
I was hopeful of a good run this year, with a bit of decent form back in my legs and having made a pact with myself to stick to the official route no matter what anybody else does.
Unusually, the weather conditions were exceptional by Woodentops standards. As ever it was a speedy start out of the quarry at Penistone  Hill and as it turned out, a record field for this race of 345 runners.
Once the climbing begins on the moors I hit a bit of a traffic jam where the boggy trod narrows for a while and such is the extra effort required to overtake here, it makes for a pointless exercise. Looking ahead, Chris Barnes, the former Accrington or still with Accrington runner (the saga continues) had set off like a bloody steam train but was now holding the job up for a moment or two until this single file section opens up. I wasn't too bothered though as it is wise to keep something in reserve for the oncoming mile or more of boggy plateau into a guaranteed headwind and then the fast three miles to the finish from Withins Ruins. I was steadily picking my way up the order and from The Ruins, beyond a few guys just ahead who I was confident of out-running, I had set the Rossendale vest of Steve Clawson as my ultimate goal. Steve was a good one hundered yards or so ahead and despite my best efforts I couldn't draw him much nearer and he was pushed all the way himself by the classy veteran Steve Oldfield.
I finished 14th, my highest finish in this race, knocking 71 seconds off my previous best time and went home four bottles of beer, a Curly Wurly and a toffee apple to the good. Who was I to complain? 
Time: 46:29   Pos: 14th/345