Emma Beddington tries … fell running: ‘It’s like dragging bags of cement uphill – only the bags are my legs’

A run on Ilkley Moor promises panoramic views. But what about the bogs and boulders en route – and my terrifying lack of fitness?

My favourite part of childhood summer holidays with my dad was our trip to the Yorkshire Dales agricultural show, a respite from his usual gruelling regime of mountain walks and examining dead fauna. Between prize rams and displays of trimmed leeks we watched the fell-running races: infants and gnarled pensioners scampering up and then down a sheer crag, all for a biscuit and a certificate.

“Look at the little bastards!” Dad would exclaim, gesturing incredulously, plastic pint glass slopping bitter as wiry five-year-olds whizzed past, legs a blur. Lumpen by his side, mouth crammed with cake, I would feel an obscure longing: why wasn’t I a fearless, muddy-kneed dynamo?

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source https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/23/emma-beddington-tries-fell-running-its-like-dragging-bags-of-cement-uphill-only-the-bags-are-my-legs

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