Tuesday 16 December 2008

Simonside Cairns Fell Race

14th December 2008
11 miles

Results | Photos from Will Horsley

Probably my last hill race of 2008. Felt suitably rough at the start after last night's Westies Christmas Dinner, plus horribly early start, but worth the long journey for a fine end of season blast round snow-covered boggy hills in Northumberland, courtesy of a lift from John Telfer from Haddington.

This was my 8th year in a row at Simonside Cairns. I decided to set off up the first hill nice and steadily for a change. So tucked in behind Ian Mulvey, whilst the 3 front runners shot off into the distance. Ian and I were never more than about 5 metres apart until the summit of Simonside, at which point he opened a slight gap. The whole way back from Simonside James Dickinson was right on my heels. It was mind games stuff on the final farm tracks before I managed to slightly the deeper and pull away in the last 400 metres or so to finish in 5th place in 1:35:35. Nick Swinburn won the race by almost 5 minutes in an incredible time of 1:22:34, given the snowy conditions.

Route Snowy conditions

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