On Saturday I ran the UK Fell Relay Championships in Kettlewell. My club Dark Peak Fell Runners were given little hope in the predictions on the popular fell running forums and independent blogs online. The competition was going to be tough and we were thought of as too weak an opposition for Bingley, Leeds AC, Shettleston Harriers, Borrowdale and Pudsey and Bramley. 

The race consists of four legs, two of which are run in pairs. I was handed the navigation leg (one of the pairs legs) by our team captain Rob Little. After the nightmare at the Ian Hodgson's a couple of weeks before I was keen to right my wrong doings with a map in hand. 

The captain got us off to a great start tearing in to the finishing field in first place ahead of some quality runners. He handed over to Oli and Rob who I imagine spent most of their leg arguing about training philosophy, which type of chocolate milk offers "optimum performance" and politics. Despite this Rhys and I saw them coming down the hill to the changeover having increased the advantage over Mercia. We got a bit of banter from the teams at that point along the lines of "the pressures on now boys". After Rob and Oli passed on the metaphorical baton with a weary hand slap Rhys and I set off hard. We didn't want to act as navigators for the chasing pack. We hit the first and second controls with ease and managed to get out of the line of sight. We were slightly left on the way to three but it didn't take much to adjust our line (see map below). The rest of the race passed quickly and on the way to control 6 we could see that we had a big gap. A quick descent later we were back at the finish handing over to Lloyd who finished off the job. 

In the end we were almost five minutes clear and we picked up our gold UK athletics medals in the evening sunshine. I asked a well respected professional sports development officer later that day if a UKA gold medal is better than a WOC gold and he said it is - so it must be. I hope you are reading GG. 

This is extremely exciting for Dark Peak. There were some good teams out but our victory was convincing. With the likes of Stuart Bond, Ralph Street, Matthew Speake, Dave Schorah and Tom Beasant all on the "bench" or in the "injury room" the first team could be a mouth watering proposition for years to come. I hope I can make it next year. 

Results: http://www.sportident.co.uk/results/2011/BritishFellRelays/fell_relay_relayoverall.html

Other blog posts: http://www.mudsweatandtears.co.uk/2011/10/16/uka-fell-relays-dark-peak-dominate/http://fellrunningbriefs.blogspot.com/2011/10/sun-shone-but-darkness-reigned-in.html

Pictures:

Unfortunately Lloyd had to go and catch his ferry so missed this. 

Now the Orienteering season has been long wrapped up it is time to start thinking about last year and planning ahead for next year. The 2010-2011 "year" turned out to be a good one. After a few years of standing still after progressing to the senior ranks in 2008 I felt I made some positive steps forward. I made a concerted effort this year to perform at sprint races and will continue next year down the same path. 

The best result of the year came at the JK sprint distance. Training had been going excellently in the run up but I was hampered by being on placement in Accident and Emergency at the Northern General where I had to do 5 night shifts 12 days before the competition. Despite this I managed to steer clear of illness and tiredness and felt great warming up. The race was in general smooth. I made an early mistake but had a great middle section. I felt tiredness creeping in through the final three controls but hung on to claim third place not far behind Murray Strain and with Dave Schorah just one second behind. It was great to take an individual medal home especially as it was from Belfast which has strong ties with my family history. 

http://www.jk.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=29&kieli=en

Murray went on to take a great result at the World Championships sprint later in the year. Sprint orienteering is by far the Brits strongest discipline and I can see increasing competition for those three places at WOC with some quick guys progressing well. 

Unfortunately I was unavailable for the Nordic Orienteering Tour due to my elective in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana which would have given me a bit more experience at running against the world's best. Saying that though Africa was unbelievable and I would recommend taking a trip down there to anyone. 

Another reason for my progression is as always the support in Sheffield. Mainly from the other members of the University Orienteering Club in terms of pushing me in training and being such a good laugh. Thanks also goes out to Elle Baker who lead my physical training this year helping me to reach my goals in running and orienteering.