The Osmotherley marathon route when I mapped it out had 1457m of climb, more than any of the other Hardmoors marathons, so I knew it was going to be tough with lots of walking up hills. It also looked to be about 29m. Melanie did not fancy that much walking so she transferred down to the half marathon (16m) and enjoyed her race.
There lots of clubmates in the marathon, also lots of people I know from the Hardmoors marathons and Fetcheveryone, so it was a very social event.
I started and soon found myself running with three clubmates Kate, Kath and Bill who were running with Kate's sister-in-law Nester who was doing her first marathon ! She did amazingly well, it was a very tough first marathon.
We jogged along, walking the hills and running everything else. We didn't rush through the checkpoints. One of our party was struggling a bit with the uphills, because of issues with her breathing, but she kept going. The route followed the Cleveland Way from Osmotherley mainly in an east direction up until the second sister, then took the lower path round Wainstones (very muddy and some snow), then followed the Cleveland Way back up the Wainstones so we were heading west. I never done Wainstones in that direction before.
Then it was a new section for me towards Chop Gate. I had somehow thought this was mainly going to be downhill. However, there was initially some uphill and when the descent came it was very, very muddy, some of the worst mud I have ever encountered.
I had heard there was soup at the Chop Gate checkpoint but I wasn't expecting much to be left. It wasn't obvious and I asked, and apparently I was the first person to ask. The soup was just great, just what I needed.
We then started the worst hill of all. About halfway up Kate asked what this hill was called and Nester immediately said 'Bitch ! Ooh did I say that out loud ?' One of the funniest moments of the day. It was great running with them all, it made the miles pass so much quickly. They were happy for me to show the way (though it was well marked) and show them the various fell runner paths that avoided the slippery flagstones.
There was more melting snow after that and I was really pleased I had decided to put water proof socks on. I was using my wave harriers I could have done with a little more grip, but I managed not to fall over.
My route plan had been slightly wrong on the way back to Lordstones, but nothing too serious. Even after the climb back up Carlton Bank I was still feeling quite fresh. The climb out of Scugdale was fine but when we came to the many steps through the woods before the cattle grid, I then started to feel it. That was about 23m, so I was pleased I had got that far feeling so good. After the cattle grid, we headed up the road in the direction of the Cod Beck reservoir. I had run down this section two year's ago and down was the operative word. We had a climb and a long drag up. It was also into a cold and strengthening wind. Finally we started to head back down to the Cleveland Way to the south of Osmotherley. We were determined to all finish together and regrouped as some of us had gone ahead
Melanie had had a long wait for me and she was great getting me food, tea and my bag. And then Phil gave us a lift back to the car park which was fantastic.
A lovely day :-) Thanks to Anita for the photos
