Smuggler's Trod 26m 2010

This turned out to be a lovely run

Up at 5.00 as it was an 8.00 start at Robin Hood's Bay. The weather was sunny, but with a bit more than a cooling breeze, but it wasn't up to a gale.

The start was across the main car park at Robin Hood's Bay and the it turned uphill pretty quickly. I decided that it wasn't runnable so I walked as quick as I could, turning round every now and then to see the lovely view south down the coast

There was a limit of 350 entrants and it looked line about 100 were runners which is a much higher proportion that I had seen at recent LDWA events. The other unusual thing was the number of checkpoints. Fifteen in total for a 26m route ! Some were self clips, others manned with no refreshments and some with lots of hot and cold drinks and lots of food . Some of the helpers at the checkpoints were dressed as pirates and lots of the signs were decorated with the skull and crossbones.

The route directions which I downloaded a while ago were pretty good so I knew where I was going most of the time. The course was also marked, so I never needed my Satmap (GPS), map or the route directions.

Great views of Whitby when we got onto the moors. Some of the paths were overgrown with heather or bracken so it wasn't always easy to see where you were putting your feet. Most of the ground was pretty dry, but on the moors there were some boggy bits

We came off the moors a few times into some lovely North Yorkshire hamlets, but then there was the inevitable climb back up again to the moors.

From about 17m to 20m it felt a long slog upwards and I thought I might have run out of steam. But once past the the high point at 20m, we descended and ran along an old railway line and I was fine there. Then there was descent into Robin Hood's Bay and the finish was the climb out of Robin Hood's Bay dodging all the tourists Some finish ! Finished in 5hr 20min 35sec

Pie and peas (again!) followed by rice pudding and peaches at the finish.

Northumberland Coast marathon 2010

I love the Northumberland Coastal Run which is 14m from Beadnell to Alnmouth. So when the opportunity came up to run a marathon on roughly the same course out and back from Alnmouth, I jumped at it and I am glad I did. An added advantage was that it was almost all offroad and it took me down trails I hadn't covered before.

A very small invited field of about forty including 100 marathon club members, locals and Anna Seeley and myself. Phil Owen was there supporting on his mountain bike and as is almost inevitable when Phil is around we had a sunny day. We started with a slight cooling breeze, but that developed in the second half which made it tough. It also got warmer and I was resorting to pouring a bottle of water over my head at the checkpoints. However, I seemed to dry out in about five minutes.

I had spent four and half hours on a mountain bike the day before and as I expected, I ran out of steam. This was at about 18m and I ran/walked from there. The scenery in the sunlight was just awesome. I managed to come in under 5 hours so I was happy with that. Anna finished not far ahead of me

One of the advantages of a small field is it increases your chance of a prize and I won my age category ! It's only the second time I have ever done that

I will definitely do this one again

Elsecar Skelter 27m 2010

I did this run last year and I enjoyed it, so I decided to do it again. The alarm went off at 4.45. I heard the rain outside and I turned over.

But I didn't go to sleep and at 5.00 I forced myself out of bed, got myself together and left the house at 5.45.

The journey down to near Barnsley was painless apart from the 17m of road works on the A1 which have a 50 mph speed limit. Only two more years before they finish!

The weather was quite bad on the way down but it was just grey when I got to Elsecar and registered. I hadn't expected to see any Fetchies, but it was great to see two I had met before. We ran together until the first checkpoint, but I didn't see them after that and I had to shoot off afterwards so I don't know how they found it.

The route description was only available on the day which gave people very little time to study it. This meant that lots of people seemed to make mistakes and I spent a lot of of the race stopping people from going the wrong way. I did make a very minor mistake myself and there was one point where I took a wild guess about the right way and it was right.

We passed Wentworth Woodhouse where I had my first job in a teacher training college and it was lovely to see it again. It was raining quite a bit then and it developed into a short cloudburst. The view from Wharncliffe Craggs was lovely and we seemed to pass many follies and country houses. It was undulating mainly with just a couple of hills.

The undergrowth seemed much more developed this year and my legs stung from all the nettles for at least a day after.

I liked it a lot. Knowing the route saved me loads and loads of time - I was 90 minutes faster than last year. I was also only 6 minutes behind the first person home - I have never been so close to the front before - and probably won't be again !

Lovely pie and peas afterwards.