To date I’ve been more than happy with my running progress having only taken up the sport in Jan 2012 I’m well aware of my place in the pecking order when I stand at the start line of a race and I’ve found in smaller local races I can sometimes sneak into the top 10-15 but this time, I won!
I love the variety of events my friend Wane at Organic Events organises and I’d been looking forward to the King of the Hill for a while because it’s a 3.2 mile race on the other side of the hill I train and live on.
The format is simple. Start at the bottom of the trail and run to the top. 752ft elevation in 3.2 miles.
A tough race in anyones book but one I’d been looking forward to for a while. In the end, the race was between myself and one of my friends who runs a similar 5k time to me and yes, two entrants does count as a race. I know that when the event picks up over time and becomes more popular I’ll move down the field but this was a win for me!
Photo by Dogbomb
I started off on the initially quite flat first half mile at a reasonable pace knowing the trail starts climbing consistently soon enough so pacing would be vital because the last 0.2 miles of the course is a real uphill slog to the finish line.
There are some flatter sections but the overall profile is up up up so speed is possible on decent parts of the course and there are two parts where I power hiked 30-ish metres up steep sides of the hill but apart from that I ran a steady pace and race that on the day was just good enough to take the win.
Not only did I run a time I was happy with on the hill, due to rushing around all day doing various jobs I also had to run 5 miles over said hill to get to the start line so overall I couldn’t have been happier with my performance and a win is very much a win, even in a field of 2!
A brief note about the race and organiser – It’s great to see more “indie” style events in the Huddersfield area being organised like this.
It has a flexible start time, is an interesting challenge in a great location and is effectively a labour of love because the entry fee (in the days where a novelty 5k like colour/zombie/obstacle run can stretch to £30 or £40) of £1 is great. Wane, if you’re reading this – you could happily charge a little more!