Wednesday 25 May 2011

Shelf Moor Fell Race???

It's the Shelf Moor Fell Race on 4th September this year. Will I be fit enough to give it a decent go? It's a local race, and one of Glossopdale's, so it would be nice to have a bash.

There's 1500ft/457m of climbing over 5.9m/9.5km.  2010 results have the fastest man at 40:40, slowest 1:55:03 and fastest lady at 48:49, slowest 1:46:00.

Comparing the states to my Kinder Downfall run
1439ft climb, 6.46m, total time 1:50:30 (moving time 1:30:01).

Almost the same amount of climbing, slightly longer on Kinder, and if we discount some of the stopping time on Kinder and call it 1:40 then I would not have been last. Even if we take the total time I'd still not have been last.

Does that mean I could give Shelf Moor a go? I don't see why not. I've got 4 months to improve to a point where I can run that distance and not feel totally beaten up. Seems feasible.

We went for a walk last night and stood at the 621 trig point above Higher Shelf Stones, this is the furthest easterly point of the race.

View from Hern Stones looking towards 621 trig point
Having been up on the moor it's pretty featureless and would make navigation interesting. I wonder how much of the route is flagged? FRA states course is partially marked, I somehow doubt they'll go and stick flags all the way across from Shelf stones to the top of Dowstone Clough.  I take this race as a a possibility right now and will recce it pretty soon to get a feel for it.

1 comment:

  1. nb. as I've had a knee injury this race is out of my reach for this year. I'm now planning to start doing fell races early next year, and concentrating on running race routes this year to get my fitness up without the extra pressure of being in a race.

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