Race report by Tony Marlow:
This morning I embarked on my first ‘proper’ race since March and the first since I recovered from cancer. Also my first race in a new age group! The Dave Staff Memorial fell race is a short ‘eyeballs out’ race starting at the Olde England kiosk at Darwen, making its way almost directly up to Darwen Tower before making a loop around Darwen Moor and back down to the Bandstand. 6.5kms 1000 or so feet of climbing. I had the pleasure of running alongside (briefly) Penny Hope , the faster sister of our fell captain Josie who was visiting from foreign climes. Starting off right at the back I took it reasonably easy until we emerged onto the fellside and I caught a glimpse of Newborough Nomads Dave Ralphs just ahead and my brain switched automatically to race mode! We had a battle royale, swapping places several times until on the fast steep decent with me chasing him down Dave took a bad fall. Being a hardy fell runner he just jumped straight up and carried on, slotting in behind me! Battling down to the finish I just managed to stay in front of Dave to finish in 42.19, a couple of mins slower than last year but I’ll take that! Penny finished around 1 min ahead of me and was 3rd female overall.
Roll on the Benidorm half!!
