Saturday 7 November 2015

Hardmoors Goathland marathon 2015

Melanie wasn't well enough to do the half marathon, so I set off for the marathon (close to 28m) on my own. The weather forecast wasn't good, heavy rain until 1.00. That seemed a challenge and I was quite excited about the event.

The route was the same as the one Melanie and I did last year and having run the Crosses and the Saltergate Circuit in this area in the summer I was pretty certain I would be able to find my way. This was lucky as I managed to leave my Garmin with the downloaded route at home. I have just subscribed to OS maps and I had the route on my phone in their app as a backup, but I didn't need to look at it. The route was also very well marked and marshalled. The marshalls did a fantastic job often huddled in tents in the weather we experienced.


I got to Goathland pretty early and just before I arrived the heavens opened and I did wonder what I was doing. This was very heavy rain. At the car park it is just heavy rain so I made my way to the Village Hall checked in and collected my number. I chatted to the Quakers group, who are ever presents at these events, until the briefing. At the briefing I met up with the five other Striders doing the marathon (Jules, Mandy, Debs, Diane and Sue). Another four did the half marathon, so it was a good turn out from the club with Flip marshalling as well. Thanks to Mandy for the picture

Just before the start, I took off my waterproof trousers as the rain didn't seem to heavy. I started reasonably and soon found myself running with my clubmates Diane and Debs. We ran together until about 19m when Debs went on ahead and Diane and I finished together.

The first part of the route takes us past the Mallyn Spout waterfall and this involves navigating over some slippery rocks. Not everybody had seen the waterfall and there were some audible gasps at how lovely it looked. We then climbed onto the moors and rain changed from light to heavy. I tried to see if the stepping stones (on the half route) were flooded when the two routes split, but they were too far away to see.

We had the trudge up to Simon Howe and then south into the wind (but downhill into the forest). Then down to the Pickering Grosmont railway and a steam train went by which was good to see. We climbed out of the valley. Underfoot was muddy but about what I expected. At the top of the but underneath Saltergate I knew we were about half a mile from the next checkpoint but one at the Hole of Horcum car park. However we had to go south for about 3m and then climb up to Levisham Moor and go up for another 3m to reach the Hole of Horcum car park.

Those 3m south gave us some lovely views but the wind was strong and in our faces so we ended up run walking this runnable section. We climbed up the hill to the next checkpoint and started on our way across the moor. This was when we had ten minutes of the heaviest rain I think I have ever been out in. Some people said it was hail where they were there. It was deafening as it hit our waterproofs. At this point I wished I had my waterproof trousers on, but it was way too late to stop. Finally it passed and it started to stop altogether. And then to our amazement the sun came out for about half an hour. It was lovely and we could see for miles as the steam evaporated from the forests in the distances (thanks to Debs for the photo).

We made our way to the checkpoint and on to the Old Wife's Way and came across Flip who was giving out chocolates and making sure all the runners went down into the valley before heading towards Flylingdales. Once we got past Malo Cross it was very muddy. We had a respite for a while after Flylingdales then after Lilla Cross it became very bad, wet, boggy, slippery, paths nothing more streams. I had my waterproof socks on again and they were great. Diane fell in this section but she wasn't hurt.

We came to the stream crossing of Little Ella Beck before the Ella Beck checkpoint and we could see the Quaker group ahead of us were working their way upstream trying to find a place to cross, so Diane and I went even further upstream and found a place where we could get across.

Down to the checkpoint, across the road and the railway line and then a trudge up to Simon Howe again and then the final turn south back to Goathland.

As we came off the moor Flip, Camilla, Anita and Joan were waiting for us and they cheered us in. That was lovely and we passed Jan before we got back and she was equally encouraging.

Got back to the Village Hall sometime after 4.00 I think. I didn't really care about the time. There was loads to eat and I had soup, crumpets and various cakes. Thanks to Mandy for the pictures



I had expected this to be a bit of an adventure and it certainly was. I wish I had had a bit more energy in my legs, but it has been a tiring week with my Dad being ill. If Melanie hadn't been recovering from illness and been able to look after my father I wouldn't have been able to do this one, so many thanks to her :-)