Welcome to the first ever Beast of Bamford Fell Race, all profits go towards the upgrade of the children’s playground in Bamford.
I had seen this race advertised and had it on my wish list but due to race 3 of the cross country series being the next day and it being held on a Saturday (a work day) I put it to the back of my mind. A message from a running friend who had already entered and didn’t take much twisting of my arm to make it work. Rearranged a PT, borrowed the husband’s speedy car and started class 5 minutes early to make sure I got there in time. Just though I had to run in my work top. This is my first Fell Running Association race so I had to read up on the rules, as runners must carry kit and depending on the distance depends on what you need to carry. We needed: map, compass, waterproof jacket with hood, waterproof trousers, emergency food, hat & gloves. It was also a self-navigation race, GPS and other electronic devices are not permitted, only map & compass. Much to the embarrassment of one lady at the start and the amusement of the rest of us, when her watch proudly informed her to take the next left just the crowd hushed for the count down.
I like to be organised though, so being the good girl I am, I did a reccy of the route the weekend before. I’m so glad I did, It’s so much easier just being able to run and not think about the route, I also went wrong so many times on the reccy. Which tickled my buddy, she was unable to join me that weekend so I did a voice recording & took pictures to help her, the common theme was “no, scrap that”.
The start was quite congested and it took a little while to find the space to run at my pace but the first hill soon spread the field out. The route was a mix of a few sections of road, woods and moorland, with two major hills thrown in. We snaked our way up towards the moors, climbed up to Bamford edge, rolled down towards Ladybower dam wall , pegged it up Winn hill, flew down through Aston & Thornhill back to the sports fields for free cake. The route makes a beast (bat) shape on the map. I felt extremely smug at the end as 3 runners thanked me at the end for helping them out with directions, I am notoriously bad not only with directions but knowing my right & left (30 years of working in mirror image and being dyslexic, not a good combination). It was a beautiful route, very technical in places and brutal, just my cup of tea, loved it. The timing van at the end had a screen up so you could see the results as people were coming in, I was pleasantly surprised to discover I came in 4th female and 3rd in age (seems like my default race positions from Yorkshire vets is following me).
I would definitely recommend, and I’ll be back next year.
