Hardmoors Princess 31m 2015

It has been two months since the Crosses. There have been no marathons since then and my longest run in August was 11m. The plan was to do the Tour of Fife (five short races in five days), followed by the Hardmoors Saltburn and then the Hardmoors Princess leading up to the daunting Hardmoors 60.

The Tour of Fife went fine, but a week later I had problems with my ankle. It may have been caused by running too hard and fast in Fife (something I am not used to). But it meant that I could not do the Hardmoors Salthburn which was disappointing.

We did some hill walking in the Lakes last week and during that time my ankle got better and and better, but I had a temporary back problem at the beginning of last week and I was just hoping it would fix itself for the Hardmoors Princess.

It did :-) I drove down with Kath, Debbie and Nicola from the Striders and I ran with them and Angela (another Strider). Kath is an experienced long distance runner but the other three hadn't done more than a marathon before and they all had great runs on a tough course !

The weather was cloudy and very windy. It also started to rain heavily just before the start so it was looking a bit grim. The rain stopped before the start, but I had my waterproof top and gloves on to keep warm.

The waterproof came off at about 2m, but the gloves stayed on until Robin Hood's Bay the second time when we had some shelter.

I carried some poles to try them out on the first 8m (when we reached the start again). We ran most of that so I didn't really get the chance to try them very much so I left them when we got back to Ravenscar. This was my sixth time running this route, so navigation wasn't a problem.

We set off down the Cinder Track on the lovely descent to Robin Hood's Bay. However this section has a history of injuries and it happened again as Nicola took a tumble. My first aid kit came in handy and we reached Robin Hood's Bay.

We walked a lot of the climb out of Robin Hood's Bay, the wind was in our faces and it was a bit of a slog. The rain came when we reached the top but it didn't last too long and we made it to Whitby and the lovely sign over the Bridge at the checkpoint.

We then dodged the tourists in Whitby, smelling fish and chips everywhere and climbed the steps to the Abbey and headed onto the Cleveland Way. Now the wind was behind us and blowing us along. Shorlty before Robin Hood's Bay again , we reached the 26.3m point which was the furthest that these three had every ran :-)

As we came into  the Robin Hood's Bay, there was a Striders support party, which was wonderful :-) Thanks to Kelly and her family, David, Neil and Elaine :-)

The last 4m are tough, very hilly, lots of steps. But we were sheltered by the headland so we didn't feel so battered, it was almost warm !

There were some Striders waiting for us as we approached the finish

There was loads of food at the end, chips, pizza, cake. Flip and Kelly did a great job of organising this excellent event.

It was great to have company on the race and to have support from the Striders. I have also now done over 500 Hardmoors miles so hopefully I will appear on this list soon :-)

Thanks to Debbie, David, Kelly, Neil and the Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue (the event was held to support this team) for some of the photos.