It was hard to believe we hadn't stepped through the wardrobe on Sunday; certainly if we had encountered Aslan on our travels, I wouldn't have been the slightest bit surprised.
As it was, we encountered a bunch of hardy runners and an even hardier bunch of marshals.
Credit has to go to the marshals of Cannonball Event's Windy Hill Fell Race who braved the elements to keep us on track all the while offering words of encouragement and friendly smiles. If it felt cold for us, I can't imagine quite what it felt like standing still up there!
Speaking of hardy, I think it's fair to say that fell runners may well be the hardiest kind there is - either that or perhaps the key word in here is crazy?
Having dabbled in only one or two fell runs in the past, my mountain goat skills are in no way as honed and on-point as the rest of the pack on this run. As we picked our way down the hill our 'eeeeeks' and 'oooops' could be heard echoing around the Rochdale hilltops. By contrast, runners would come flying past us as what can only be described as super-human speed seemingly paying no notice to the potential death they could encounter with one false step! Seriously impressive stuff!
Whilst we won't be winning any records for our time - to be fair, once again we stopped for selfies and I even did a Facebook Live from the Roman Road climb(!) - we really did enjoy ourselves. This is a very well run race over 9 miles of scenic[1] hilltop countryside.
less than £10 to enter, The Windy Hill Fell Race is great value for money; chip timed for accurate positioning, clear route markings and results posted within minutes of arriving back in. Plus, although FRA rules are in place - so full kit required - this is also a good race for beginners to fell running or those, like me, who are incapable of reading maps and rely on Google to get them places. Well marked and marshalled, there wasn't one point where I needed to pretend to read a map or hope I had a 3G signal!
If you live in the Manchester area and like your races a little different then check out Cannonball Events who do everything from local 10ks to ultra races.
And just in case you're not yet convinced, here's the Facebook Live post from the Roman Road climb; just look how much fun we're having!!!
This is to be assumed as a white blanket of cloud and snow was the only scenery we were witness to! ↩︎