Long Mynd Valleys

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With the cross country cancelled due to bad weather conditions, we turned our attention to a nice Sunday run and before we knew it were on a start line in the freezing cold Carding Mill, ready for the Long Mynd Valleys fell race. Billed as an 11.5 mile course with 1372m of ascent we wondered what this would mean.

Before we were let loose on the hills covered in snow with a layer of thick ice beneath, we were requested to reveal the contents of our compulsory bum bags. (In here you have to squeeze everything that you will ever need in an emergency).

After a talk about the imminent dangers that lay ahead we were off. The course was a series of very steep climbs out of one valley across a ridge of varying length and then a very steep descent into the next valley. Being a self-navigation course you could choose you own route to the 7 check-points. However, with visibility being good and obvious snow tracks it was a matter of following the crowd.

If that wasn’t enough to think about, the ground conditions lent themselves to sliding down most of the descents if there wasn’t enough heather / bracken to brake you. I think we all enjoyed the experience, although my legs are taking a long time to forgive me.This event was part of the winter fell running season of Mercia Fellrunners and well organised and marshalled with lovely soup and a roll waiting at the end. About 210 runners took part.

Croft runners results: Richard Hornsby 2:18:27, Sue Davies 2:40:37, Mark Paviour 2:42:03, Ruth Stafford 2:46:15, Gary Gunner 2:52:20 (1st V65), Adam Kennerley 3:01:46, Dave Rouse 3:13:22, Helen Karlsson 3:13:22.

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