Powburn Show Hill Race.

Brief rewind to 2001, the last time I entertained the idea of doing this wee jaunt, and I remember rolling up at the show ground only to find the field deserted, the sign reading, "Cancelled due to Foot & Mouth." It should've been obvious that's what I'd find that day- every farm on my rounds at work had been off limits for a couple of months. 8 years ago though! 'Time flies,' I thought to myself when setting off from Belford to try get on the start line this year.

Weather didn't look very promising on the drive across. Only the Cheviot foothills visible, everything else blotted out under a purpley-grey smudge, smeared across with a south westerly breeze. Could be rain, could be monsoon, could be......

...Not too bad actually as things turned out. Rain stayed off, breeze dropped away to nothing really and the sun tried to make an appearance, turning conditions just to the overly-warm side of comfortable. But not unpleasant. Glen & Jack smoothly shepherded the entrants into the starting area and the 20 to 30 of us were soon ready to run, looking  ahead at the straightforward course which took us out to the nearest bump on the landscape about 2 miles away (East Hill I believe) then up it. And back again. The only fore-warning was that there was a river crossing to be negotiated in each direction! How deep? Various hands on various legs indicated various depths. So...  that'd be somewhere between ankle and crotch depth then!

I was a little apprehensive. For no other reason than Jack breezily saying, as soon as he saw me approaching to register, "Well! That's a good 1-2-3 then! Phil Sanderson, Ian Twaddle and Adam!" Nice to get such a strong vote of confidence but.....well....no pressure!

The strongmen huffed and puffed in the main ring, ewes and rams bleated in their pens as judges cast their expert eye over, a show official strode over to announce the race (Who had also very kindly donated a lot of the quite substantial prize money from his own pocket.) and then Glen shouted 'the off.'

Straight away the race set up as a two-man showdown between Phil and Ian with, after reeling in a couple of frisky Low Fell runners who took off at a belt, me pottering along in 3rd place a hundred or some yards behind. Phil didn't seem to go away at quite his usual pace and it looked as if he and Ian were weighing each other up during the first half, waiting to see if the other would make a move. As well as the river crossing (stony, about knee-deep as it was) there were numerous gates and stiles en-route too as we crossed from field to field and eventually up the hill. Varying terrain underfoot too- grass, soft and hard track and a bit of road. What the feet are landing on doesn't bother me too much but I'm a picky bugger when it comes to opening gates and jumping stiles and the like- don't get on well with getting my stride broken once I've got going, so such obstacles are always a challenge.

Approaching the top of the hill I met Phil and Ian who'd made the turn. Phil seemed to have got away a bit and that became clear once I turned and saw him opening up the gap on Ian which he continued to do during the return leg. I didn't realise it at the time but the strong fourth place runner who, whilst not breathing down my neck exactly, always seemed to be within striking distance behind, was Phil's younger brother. I dug in during the last third of the way and got myself into more space to secure third place then coasted in the last quarter mile.

The surprise of the day for me had been to discover that Ian Twaddle was wearing the Wooler vest for this outing and that he had high hopes for us to take the team prize. Like Jack with the 1-2-3 prediction, he wasn't wrong. Soon after crossing the line I trotted back a bit to see how Jack and John were fairing and how we might do on points. It turned out that Jack's 10th place (Which put him as 1st local) was enough to do it, Wooler gents first place!

The ladies that turned out to compete had a good day of it! I believe they were three in number, although could be wrong at that, and so were assured of each getting a share of the prize money. Now that's what I call organisation! I hereby propose that all runners in the area draw up a rota of just who is going to turn up at each race in the calendar, only three at a time though so that everybody gets a turn on the podium.

Well done one and all, and thanks again to Glen for another great course. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get up to Hethpool for the new College Valley course on sunday so hope everyone had a good day there.