Cardington Cracker
Thursday Dec 11, 2008
After two months of minimal running due to child introduced infections, I did the Cardington Cracker race on Sunday. I did this race in 1994 and my brain has only stored 1 small section of the race which was across a rather unremarkable field. The rest of the course was stunning. Composed of the full mix the Shropshire countryside has to offer including 2 very steep hills (the 1st climb up The Langley is the steepest slope I have encountered in a race to date). Some steep down hill, some very nice gentle fast downhill, muddy tracks, bit of forest track, fields and only crossing a roads 3 times. As you can see from the plot of elevation, most of the course was either up or down. Most of the ground was frozen or just thawing, so some of the downhill was exciting with the odd patch of ice to keep thing interesting.
Weather was glorious, cold and sunny with no wind, except for a light breeze the 2 tops. Organization was also spot on.
I was pleased with my time. I did the best I could have done on the day given how little training I had done in the previous 2 months. I also really enjoyed it. While you don't spend much time looking at the views, they were stunning.
Next race is the rather shorter, but still sharp Tyn-Y-Groes hill race on Boxing day.
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