Bury Ditches

Race Reports

(Or should that be Buried Itches?) Again, a fairly small (in stature too!) Croft turnout at yesterday’s Bury Ditches race – 5.6 miles up to the top and back down again, about 400m climb in all.

It’s a deceptively fast race, despite the climb, with  runnable surfaces, especially this year after so little rain. From the start there is a flat 800m, which is hard on those of us with older, shorter legs! Once the climb starts, it’s unrelenting, then there’s a quick run around the Bury Ditches and and a fast descent (again, long legs are at a premium), broken by a tough little climb up a stony track, before a last run down through a couple of fields and back onto the tarmac, where again I found I couldn’t compete for speed. All in all, maybe I should either accept my limitations, or hang up my shoes!

The race was won by Jack Agnew in 37.16, just off the record, I believe. Gary P was 22nd (out of 83) in 46.17, and probably half way home by the time I crossed the line in 61st place (55.26), in time to see Gary G (58.02) just hold off Flora (58.06), who had beaten him to the summit, and managed to hold on during the descent. The gap is definitely closing.

Tom, after his recent fall, was there only as spectator and encourager at the second gateway on the hill.

Comment on this article

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.