Calderdale Way Relay
Sunday saw Halifax Harriers host the Calderdale way relay. This consists of 6 legs of different lengths starting in Elland between Huddersfield and Halifax. I've only ever done leg 1 and leg 2. Last year I did leg 1 which is bloody hard work. 11 miles over hard, hilly moors. This year I did leg 2 starting at Cragg Vale (halfway up the longest continuous incline in the UK) and finishing in Todmorden. The race is run under UK fell rules which state that you must carry with you full waterproof clothing, hat, gloves, compass, map, whistle. This meant running with a bag to carry it all in. The weather was fine, slight showers but mainly dry so I knew I wouldn't need any of the contents. I also knew the course so I wouldn't get lost, so it was quite annoying to carry dead weight, especially up those hills. Because it's a relay we had to wait for our team to pass the baton on to us before we could start. Our team mates came in 30 seconds before the mass start so we didn't have a fantastic start. Leg 2 is only 8.4 miles long but the first half is a continuous climb to stoodley pike over the moors. After that there's an incredibly steep downhill section that shreds your legs. Because of my dodgy knee, the downhills were taken slowly to minimise impact. This slowed us down loads. All together there were 3 big hills. The last one was the shortest but the steepest. It seemed silly to try run up when walking would be just as fast. The downhill after that was straight to the finish so that ended up being fast. We missed the pass over by a few minutes but we'd accepted that we weren't at our fastest so we wouldn't make it. All in all its a fantastic race in lovely areas. My only criticism would be that leg 1 is really long and maybe doesn't have enough time allocated for people to pass the baton on. Teams should struggle to get the baton to leg 6, not 1. Not passing the baton on leg 1 is really demoralizing when it should be fun.