This event claims to be a marathon, but it turned out to be a marathon plus a parkrun, a total of 29.3m and I don't think we made any navigation mistakes. But Hardmoors miles are said to be a new form of measurement ... It was the second running of this event, but it was a bit of a different experience from last year - the route was different and had more ascent and was a bit longer but also I didn't have any difficulties with public conveniences this year ....
Melanie was away for this one and I ran with Jane Ives. There were three other Striders running the marathon - Stew Mcconnell, who finished in an excellent 11th place, Denise Benvin, who had a fabulous run and covered 31.2m and Sue Jennings, who sadly had to pull out at about halfway because of an injury.
It was an early start, up at 4.45, pick up Jane at 6.00 and we arrived in Guisborough at about 7.00 for an 8.00 start.
I have done quite a few Hardmoors events over the past few years and I do love them. They are all tough events and this one was not the toughest of the marathon series, Wainstones has that distinction, but I think it is second toughest - 4012 feet of ascent. Most of that is in the first half. There are climbs to Highcliffe, Roseberry Topping (not once but twice - the route send you right down to the bottom and up then up by a different path), little Roseberry, Captain Cook's monument and then the climb out of Kildale. Some of the time we also had a strong wind in our faces, so this made the first half even tougher. I was feeling very blown about on the summits of Little Roseberry and Roseberry Topping. Once we stopped heading south and turned north we had the wind behind us, it was much less testing. There were still hills, but they weren't on the same scale. The underfoot conditions were tougher than the first half, but you could still make progress.
It took us 3hr 50min roughly, for the first half. The second half took us 3hr 25min roughly - with the hills in the first half, this was a perfect course for a negative split !
We went over part of the same course as the Eskdale Eureka but by the time we got there, that event had finished.
I had a bit of a tough time at about 21m, there seemed to be no end to the undulations between Castleton and Commondale. My solution was to eat more food - I had plenty of Quorn picnic eggs with me - my savoury food of choice for marathons. I also managed to demolish an entire Chia Charge banana flapjack at the next checkpoint. It all seemed to help and when Guisborough woods came into sight I knew we are almost there, just a few more miles of slippery, boggy path to negotiate. We finally reached the woods and started the steep, muddy plunge down to Guisborough. It was getting dark by the time we finished and there quite a few runners behind us who had to use head torches.
Everybody seemed to enjoy the event, the other runners were very friendly, the marshalls were helpful and encouraging. If you have not taken part in a Hardmoors event yet, I would encourage you to do so, they are great fun ! Photos