Claire and I are not particularly active in the club at the moment. I've always been a bit 'arms length' with any kinds of clubs - I'm not very gregarious and people who are tend not to understand that; and Claire is still unable to run after years of one injury after another.
We do almost always turn out to volunteer though, and the Fell Relays needed a lot of volunteers. At the last minute it turned out I'd been missed off the roster, but Darren Tweed had too many jobs to do so I picked up a few. Claire was planned to be marshalling out on the course, but ended up on the finish funnel for most of the day.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. We figured we should get to the park for 10.30, which should give me enough time to get out to CP1A at the minor summit north east of the road near Sourhall. It turned out to be about ten minutes too little, once I'd found the first aid tent and picked up my kit.
The spectacle in the park was extraordinary. I've never done the relays, although I've dropped Claire off for them (at Appletreewick 2 years ago). The number of people, tents and the bustle was quite overwhelming. I picked up my two SI controls and the ground spikes and set off out of the park.
I don't know Tod park very well, but I thought I knew a cut through out onto the road behind the park. It turned out to be bramble and nettle choked and even now on Monday I'm covered in scratches and stings. I didn't have time to search out an alternative route though, so just had to force my way through.
Up the track towards Tod Edge and Parkin Lane, passing runners doing a spot of reccying. Once I got to Parkin Lane I caned it (absolutely sweating buckets in base layer, fleece gilet and Paramo) up to CP1A. Dave Woodhead was already there camera in hand and had a good chuckle at my expense, which was fair enough.
I got my CP set up with about ten minutes to spare, then faffed with layers as I rapidly cooled and dried off in the cold wind. It took about 30 minutes between the first and last teams coming through, followed by Helen and Nick sweeping.
Then back down to Tod Edge to take over from Finn at the gate above the woods on shepherding duty. Literal shepherding - there were sheep in the field and we didn't want them getting into the woods while runners were coming through.
Finn was comfortably settled in a deckchair and dry robe, but a bit cold so he headed off home while I settled in to watch out for sheep and cheered on runners. In fact with the number of people bustling around the sheep had scarpered for the other side of the field, but it was as well to have someone there and it was a pretty good place to spectate.
I was there from 12.30 to 3.15, so I was a bit chilly and my bum was a bit numb by the end. From CP1A I could hear the tannoy, but not what was said. From the gate I could hear every word. I didn't realise until I got down to the field that it was Doni Clarke on the mic (more about that later), but I could hear someone massacring the pronunciation of 'Hebog'. I made an effort to spot the Welsh runners and say 'Da Iawn!' as they came through to try and make up for it.
At one point the quicker leg 3 teams started to come through and one runner spotted me, grinned and shouted my name. It was Barney Nikolich - I haven't seen Barney since we worked together in about 2018 so that was a nice surprise.
Finally the mass start for leg 4 kicked off and a huge stream of people came through. I started to pack up, chatting with Julian who was out supporting his club.
Sweepers Darren and Katy came through, Darren didn't have clippers for the cable ties but I had a knife in my first aid kit so I clipped off the signage, gathered up my many flags and signs and headed down to the park.
At the park I delivered all my burdens and went to find Claire. She was on the finish funnel and hadn't been able to get away for hours, so I went to find her a coffee. A bit later on as things wound down I hopped over the fence to stand in while she went to find the loo, and while I was there Doni clad in vivid pink suit was winding things up on stage. Thanking various people he called out his co-host Johnny Parsons from Pudsey. Later on I managed to locate Johnny - we'd been friends at school but I hadn't seen him since about 1989!
Finally we had a bit of a worry with a team missing on leg 3 - they came in tired but happy, and we started packing up. We were all done by half six, and the park was back to normal apart from some muddy marks that will soon heal (in spite of the snotty opinions of a passing dog walker).
The Harriers did an amazing job of the relays. I was reminded of a medieval tourney - whoever thought of putting the individual club tents along the side of the run in, that was a stroke of genius. The huge screen was a real focus, and Doni and Johnny's commentary & interviews brought a TV coverage style gloss to the whole thing, with a distinctly Todmorden flavour. An amazing job, well done to all!
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