Tebay reactions
Rob Hope at Tebay 2009
After the dust had settled we caught up with some of the leading runners at this year’s Tebay Fell race to get their thoughts and reactions and how the day went for them. Although not crowned yet Rob Hope looks to have the 2009 championship in the bag.
Speaking to MST the Pudsey and Bramley man said:
“I did enough finishing 4th to clinch the British Champs for the 3rd time in a row with one race still to come, so I’m pretty pleased. It was a tough race and nearer to 9 miles than 8 with a killer climb 4k from the finish. There’s not much flexibility in this 3 from 4 system but I’m not complaining this year!.”
And added…
“it’s the key thing really trying to be consistent over a season, which sometimes means you don’t really hit any super form. Fortunately, I’ve been pretty consistent for the past 3yrs.”
Runner-up on the day Ricky Lightfoot was obviously also happy with his performance as he stated:
“I’m pleased with the result, I just wanted to see what sort of shape I was in after Zegama. Tebay was a really good course, fast with some really hard climbs. As always in the British there was a top class field.”
Lightfoot - big prospect
There were a few disappointed heads a bit further down the field. After finishing a solid 7th P&B runner John Heneghan was valiant in defeat, and understandably not happy with a performance that he would have been expecting to better:
“I was seventh and disappointed with my run, no climbing in my legs and just generally feeling tired. No point brooding on it though, I’ll see how I get on in Andorra and it will be good training for Pikes Peak if nothing else.”
A pragmatic Andy Symonds was also well below par by his very high recent standards and this can be considered a blip in what has been a very good year for Andy. His recent ‘marathon’ efforts at the LAMM would have no doubt added to his endurance but maybe have taken the edge off his speed, something that was obviously required for this one. He added:
“having spent the last few weeks concentrating on a couple of long events, my legs had (hopefully temporarily) forgotten how to run at any sort of pace and hence I struggled round at what should have been the speed of a training run. Now looking forward to a few more long jaunts with a couple of classics coming up in Europe in July.”
