Bleeding knee's at Shining Cliff Woods Fell Race

Arrived at Ambergate feeling a little groggy after a cold, that had started to drop onto my chest,

Should i have stayed at home or just come along to support today..........?

This dam cold has been bugging me all week and i felt that a good sweat and some nice clean are wood help with it,

Great to see some old friends there, some of which have changed clubs!

Weather seemed as hough it was going to be kind even though there looked like a chnace of rain in the air!

The usual climb up the lane to get to the start, which is great to get the legs warmed up, didn't feel to good and my breathing was all over the place.

The race started and felt good, but soon felt as though i had pushed to hard, 6.5 mins of downhill, which soon got the legs ticking along nicely, when i reached the bottom to trot along the path i felt as though i should be finishing, all done,

But managed to pick my head up and dig in, even though i was going backwards quickly, the climb was tough, i think that David has managed to get a few more feet out of the old woods,

Not to technical but when you reach the wall at the top and turn left you still have some climbing to do,

Eventually i completed the first lap, i knew i was a leap year behind my usual pace, i have recently been knocking 2/3 min of races such as this,

The second decent didn't start to well, i had a fall, and after a few seconds on the floor, got back to my feet and plodded on, when i reached the next marshall, he asked if i had seen my knees, the sun seemed to come out and give me something to smile about at least.

Looking down i could see blood pouring from my right knee, i knew i had hurt it but had just been grinding it out, as the next half mile passed and the climb behind me, i could feel it tightening up, the knee was swelling and it was becoming difficult to drop my foot onto the next foot plant.

I reached the last steep climb up the muddy path to the cone to turn left and pushed up the hill to reach the finish,

Not a great day, after looking at the knee, it was a deep cut, but is heeling,

Managed a time of 1hr 1 min 56 secs of 4.88 miles and 1100ft.

Not a good day!!