P and I are not from the North-East, and we often like to try to guess how North-Easterners would pronounce place names. We come up with several alternatives from what we would class as fairly normal to bizarre. We’re usually still wrong and a complete curveball gets thrown our way. I have only seen ‘Brough Law’ written down, and only in the context of this fell race. I would say ‘Brow’, but could also see it pronounced as ‘Bruff’ or even possibly ‘Brogue’. I am still in the dark as to what the locals would call it. ‘Braaaaaarrr’?!?! If anyone would like to enlighten me, answers on a postcard please!
I’ve been looking forward to doing this run since it went on my calendar in January (discovered as part of my hunting for Races Under a Tenner) – and that should have been enough time for me to build up enough fitness to be comfortable with doing it. As it happens, it’s fallen at the end of about a month of me being crazy-tired mostly with work and therefore doing very little regular or intensive exercise. I’m also REALLY tired – like falling flat out asleep by 8:30 every night. Not exactly the jumping bean fit I’d like to be for my first fell race.
My confidence was not improved by seeing the route elevation profile – some massive hills, and a 400m elevation profile. I packed the night before but checking the weather forecast in the morning and seeing the wind I decided to chuck in an extra thermal layer just incase it was really cold when I was walking, and my windproof jacket on top of the already shoved in full set of waterproofs…kitchen sink may also be in there somewhere. I didn’t actually need any of it in the end…better safe than sorry though 😉
I picked up another runner (CL) from the Metrocentre on my way up – he’s done many fell races including this one before, and off we went on our adventures to Ingram.
The wind at the starting area was ridiculous – even doing a short warm-up trot was a struggle and I heard people who’ve braved the starting bank say it was even worse at the top. I thought the first little kick you could see from the carpark looked bad enough for the opening few hundred meters, but it just kept going up and up and up for the first mile!
(sound on if you want a gale in your headphones/speakers!)
Blue Runnings 