Saturday 26th Feb - Up on the Moor above the Calder Valley is the small Hamlet of Mankinholes. Saturday saw the ancient community host to the Noonstone fell race, a 9 mile slog up unfeasibly steep hillside and across impossibily muddy moorland bog . I hasten to say that I was not tempted to take part merely to record the exertions of others.
I had never taken pictures of a fell race before and in fact had never entertained the prospect of spectating at one either until Saturday. The photography was limited to just after the start of the race up the really ridiculously first incline to Stoodley Pike a monument to celebrate the victory at Waterloo - I am hesitant to remark that it would not shock me to discover that some of the race participants met their Waterloo over that rain sodden afternoon . And the second opportunity was the final run in as the exhausted runners made a final desperate battle for the finish . Photographs of mud splattered calves and steaming torsos filled then frame.
An interesting exercise for a Saturday afternoon - some of the pictures were reasonably useful as action shots of the first climb and desperate faces running into the line but I don't think I achieved my goal of a strong static portrait of either elation or mud splattered despair. Oh well I guess I'll have to give another wet Saturday afternoon on some rain lashed moor and with my long suffering Canon kit .
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