Old County Tops
27/05/2010
Old County Tops
Conditions were as hot in the Lake District as anywhere else in the country for the Old County Tops fell race last weekend.
This epic event was always going to be hard, with 37 miles of running and 10000 feet of ascent, but with the heat as well, the challenge was even tougher than normal.
With organisers insisting that athletes run in pairs for safety reasons, they were sent over Hellvellyn, Scafell and the Old Man of Coniston before finishing near to the New Dungeon Ghyll pub.
Noel Hogan and Adrian Donnelly kept up a steady pace in the conditions and didn’t make the same navigational error as the previous year to be 31st in the very respectable time of 9hrs 44m.
84 pairs started the race and it was a reflection of the severity of the event that 26 couples had to drop out en route and did not finish. Sandy Mackenzie and John Taylor were not among them, however, and managed to keep going through the oppressive heat to be 50th in 10hr 42s.
The post race beer must have been very welcome!
