Sunday 19 November 2017

Newcastle Town Moor marathon 2017

I haven't done a road marathon for over a year - the last one I did was Morpeth to Newcastle and I was very happy with a sub 4hr 30min time there. The weather conditions on the Town Moor can be very variable and if it is windy it can be a bit of a nightmare. However, the forecast for this year was cold, sunshine and small amount of wind and that turned out to be accurate.

I last did this event in 2012 and I had completed it the previous three years. By that time I had had enough of laps of the Town Moor. It has taken me five years to come back and give it another go. They have changed the course since I last did it, the one hill which you covered five times has been omitted and we now do seven laps. I not a great fan of lapped courses so I knew this was going to be a mental challenge.

I had expected to see about four or five people I knew, but it turned out of be far more than that, probably about twenty people, some running the full marathon, some the half, the organisers and some of the marshalls. That made it so much better. It was particularly good to see Kate from Fetcheveryone who I haven't seen since we ran the Northumberland Coastal marathon together a few years ago. The marshalls were as encouraging as they always are at this event 😀

There was no particular plan, I thought it might be good to get sub 4hr 30min, but I would be happy to get round. Since Goathland last Saturday, I have had an ache on the left side of my right knee, but I am only really aware of it when running downhill or uphill. As this course is pretty flat I was hopeful it wouldn't be be and issue and it wasn't.

There were probably about one hundred and fifty doing the marathon, maybe slightly less doing the half (who set off an hour after the marathon).

The course ? Well what can I say, it was the Town Moor, if you have ever run there you will know what it's like. Flat, no trees or shrubbery on the moor itself. There is a section where you run on the pavement close to the road which isn't much fun, but that isn't too far from the end of a lap so I was just focusing on getting the lap finished. However, there is short part which is in Exhibition Park where you run round the boating lake and past the Wylam Brewery which is more attractive.

I set off at a pace what I thought was gentle, but I was feeling pretty good and I speeded up more than I should have done with hindsight. But if you don't try running a bit faster, you will never know what you are capable of.  Also it was very cold throughout the race and I wanted to get a bit warmer. I had three layers on for the first lap and my hat and gloves never came off.

Thanks to George Routledge for this photo taken towards the end of the first lap


For the first lap I was wearing a base layer, short sleeved top and a windproof jacket as I was so cold. The jacket came off at the end of the first lap.

My first half was really good 2hr 2min. I knew I would slow down in the second half as a consequence of running Goathland last weekend. However, I thought I had banked enough for a sub 4hr 30min finish.

At 16m the wheels started to come off and I had my first walking break. However, lap 5 wasn't too bad, but things started to go downhill in a big way on lap 6. I still expected to be less than 4hr 30min at that point, but the final lap was worse. Twenty minutes from the end, I knew I wasn't going to make it, so I just took it easy from then on and finished on 4hr 33min, Pretty close, but not quite there. First half 2hr 2min, second half 2hr 31min tell its own story

Chatted with a  few people at finish before heading for the 'Cafe in the Park' before heading home. The goody bag was impressive for the price  of entry 😀 Besides the hat and medal, there was a smartie packet and a bag of crisps but they didn't make it home ...


Saturday 11 November 2017

Hardmoors Goathland marathon 2017

This event was hopefully going to lead me to becoming a member of the Hardmoors 1000 mile club. There were twenty six club members already and I worked out that I would have completed 34 Hardmoors events to get to 1000 miles. That is twenty four 'marathons', eight 30 mile events, one 55 mile and one 60 mile event. I imagine my predecessors would have taken fewer events and most, if not all, will have done at least one of the 110, 160 or 200 mile events. It is a good to have a milestone to pass by on the journey onwards. Where to ? Well nowhere in particular, for me it is just continuing to have fun.


As happens at all Hardmoors events, you have to go through a kit check and you get marked to say you are through that stage


Then you collect your number and I had been given what is now to be my permanent number at Hardmoors events 😀


It was great to see some very familiar faces who were all marshalling

The weather at Goathland has been wet or misty for the last three years, but today was very different. Sunny skies and only a sliight wind. We gathered for the start outside Goathland Village Hall


and headed down via Beck Hole to West Beck


and then to the lovely Mallyan Spout


We crossed the beck a couple of times


before starting the climb out of the valley


and on to the moor above Hunt House Raod


We reached the first checkpoint at Hunt House and passed one of Jon's signs


On the climb up to Simon Howe, we passed one of the SportsSunday team 


Soon after Simon Howe on the way to Wardle Green I was running through a narrow path with heather either side and caught my foot and went flying.


No damage luckily. From Facebook lots of other people took tumbles and several more than one. 

The approach to the checkpoint at Wardle Rigg is usually muddy and this year was no exception


There was no way of avoiding this bit...


 Through the Wardle Rigg checkpoint where Denise and Sue were marshalling and down to the railway line with the sun streaming through the trees



Across the railway line and up the muddy steep climb to Levisham Bottoms and a lovely section  almost to Levisham Elbow



Another steep climb up to Levisham Moor and on to the checkpoint north of Levisham (about 13m) which roughly marked my 1000th Hardmoors mile. Phil was stationed here and the following are his pictures





A bit of a long drag up Levisham Moor to Saltergate and then onto the Old Wife's Way where we had this view:



We then climbed the valley on the right of that picture up to Malo Cross which used to have trees in the background but they have all gone so it looks more isolated


Then on past RAF Flylingdales and onto Lillia Cross via Derwent Head. We then follow the Lyke Wake route down to Elleberbeck. This section is usually very, very wet. It was still pretty wet and boggy but as bad as it usually is. From the Ellebeck checkpoint, I reckoned it was about half an hour to climb back to Simon Howe and then another 30 minutes downhill to Goathland Village Hall. That was pretty much how long it took. During that last hour I had hoped to get a course PB but missed out by under a minute. Then having got changed, it was time for my presentation:


Thanks to Wayne for the next one:


I also get a fleece as well as the plaque and my own race number, so it is a great club to be a member of ! And then of course there was the finisher's medal and tee shirt from the event :