My mate Jonny was also running again, so we drove over together. It's amazing how the weather can change as the elevation changes. As you can see from the picture the conditions were less than ideal with heavy rain and strong winds being a feature of the drive across to the moors above Stanhope where the race takes place.
After a short warm up and a bit of banter with some fellow harriers the race got underway.
The race starts off with a steady climb to the radio mast on the top of Collier Law and I made good progress, picking my way through the field and even passing Jim Thompson near the top (although I could still see Chris Kennedy around 100 metres in front of me).
At this point I was in around 10th place and feeling good, although I knew there was still a lot of work to do.
The descent back down to the road crossing seemed a little easier than previous years as the bracken was at a lower level so it wasn't as much effort to run through it. On this section I could sense Jim very close behind me and knew that if would be difficult to hold him off as he is a very good fell runner.
Sure enough just as we reached the road he passed me, and I started to feel tired and a little concerned that I may have started off too fast.
Those thoughts didn't last too long however.
After running along a disused railway track the route takes a sharp left and descents steeply down a long grassy slope to the river and it was at this point that disaster struck.
Just before the race I had noticed that one of my fell shoes were starting to come away at the sole and made a mental note to bin them when I got home. Unfortunately they decided at this point that they had had enough and the sole of my left shoe almost entirely separated from its upper half.
I stopped and try to patch them up my wrapping my laces round them which helped a little but my foot was still slipping all over the place inside them which made it impossible run at any speed down the hill and a steady stream of people started to go past me.
At the bottom of the hill there is a very steep drop down to the stream where my shoe came off entirely and I sat on the bank contemplating dropping out of the race.
The only problem was the quickest way back to the start/finish was pretty much following the race route, and it I was going to walk back to the start then I might as well try to run there.
I tried patching my shoe up again, and after a dip in the stream to punch my number I set off along the steep valley side.
This was probably the worst part of the race as my shoe wouldn't stay on my foot because of the unevenness and slant of the ground so I was pretty much running barefoot (on one foot) for this section.
Once this was over the final climb up to the finish wasn't as bad underfoot and I managed to hobble in 53:36, a good 5 minutes slower than the last time I did the race but thankful to get to the end without the other shoe disintegrating again.
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