The Osmotherley Phoenix is at a bad time of year for me. It is too close to the Three Peaks Yacht Race and the Cotswold Way Relay and (most importantly / destructively), it is at the hottest time of the year. Part of the reason for doing the Osmotherley Phoenix is to test myself in difficult hot conditions. I have to admit that the other part of the reason is that its a great race, crossing some brilliant scenery with a great atmosphere. I don't expect Osmotherley to count in my final series result, but I suspect that it will this year.
The 2010 race was run under beautiful sunny skies, but the temperature was only in the low twenties and there was a good 10mph westerly breeze. These conditions were almost perfect, especially for those who could finish before things really started to heat up in the afternoon. At the event centre. there was a graph showing the number of entrants over the years: this had been steadily increasing, to the extent that the 2010 event was a sell-out: 400 people gathered on the start line in the centre of Osmotherley. This is a testament to the increasing interest in ultra-running in the UK and the effect of the Runfurther championship (I feel).
Having not run for a week before the race, I was actually a little unsure how it would feel to put one foot in front of the other when the village church bell chimed 9 o'clock. The answer was that it didn't seem totally natural. I felt I struggled a bit for the first couple of miles, before getting into my stride. I was in something like 10th place when I saw Adam Perry go up Cringle Moor instead of taking the (legitimate) route below the moor. At this stage, he had established a lead of several minutes over the chasing pack, but he was caught by the lowlanders after his (unnecessary) descent.
I ran pretty well for the next 10 miles or so, always in contention with the leading pack, but always about 2-3 minutes behind. At least the gap wasn't increasing. I had a good run across the rougher terrain of Noon Hill / Wether Hill and was quite close to the leading pack by the time I arrived at the Wheat Bridge checkpoint (CP6).
The navigation from checkpoint 6 to checkpoint 7 is really desperate. I think it is impossible to navigate this section at speed (I tried that in 2007 and ended up wallowing through forests, blocked by 10ft high pheasant fences) - unless you've recced it. Neither Martin Indge nor Adam Perry (the leading pack) had recced this section and their navigational nightmare allowed me to finally catch them up (after shaking off a pack of "excitable" farm dogs). I saw them run off down to the river, off the route, and called them back. We then essentially ran together through the navigationally difficult section to checkpoint 7.
It has to be said that neither Martin nor Adam showed me much mercy on the final run into the finish. The Drove Road across the Hambleton Hills seems to go on forever and seems to rise forever. Maybe the heat was beginning to affect me here, or maybe I was going through a low patch, but Martin and Adam pulled away from me. I tried my best from Black Hambleton on in as Adam pulled away from Martin and Martin pulled away from me. I think that Martin was held back a little in the final couple of miles by the bursting of a painful blister (he thought he'd broken his toe - it was that painful), but Adam probably "had" the race won by that stage anyway.
The final run into Osmotherley is always great. It's always a party atmosphere as the Summer Games are on (coconut shies, win a goldfish, egg and spoon race... : all great traditional stuff). To add insult to injury. Martin and Adam were having a friendly chat at the finish while I ran into the shade, collapsed under a tree and felt both sorry for myself and pleased with myself at the same time.
Adam Perry won the race in something like 4h40m. Martin Indge was second in 4h44m. Nicky Spinks was first lady home, not long after the first men were through the finish. This "sorted out" her second place in 2009: maybe she doesn't like the heat either!
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