The weather forecast said very little chance of rain and the sun would come out. I thought I should put on some sun tan cream. Well that jinxed it, we hardly had any sun, it rained every now and then and there was a cold breeze. My gloves stayed on all day and I wish I had a better mid layer than a tee shirt between my thermal base layer and waterproof.
Thanks to Sports Sunday for this photo. It was hard to imagine that people were really struggling in the hottest London marathon that has been just a week ago.
I think there were three differences between this year's event and other times I have run it - the start, the druid and the eagle owl. There has been a lot of chat about the eagle owl online and a reference to it was on the race number.
The start was different in that normally within about 100 meters of the start there is a gate and a stile and in previous years everybody scrambled over one of the other. This year we were told we had to go over the stile and there were marshalls at the gate to dissuade anybody attempting to climb it.
The result was it took Elly, who I was running with, and I six and half minutes to cover the first 100 meters which must be the slowest start to a race I have ever done. It doesn't get any better after you have got through the stile as this is followed by the biggest and steepest climb.
Having got through that we ran along the top of the moors, which were mainly mud free and then descended to Scugdale. As we went down the rain started and we stopped to put on waterproofs, which came off as we got to the first checkpoint at Scugdale.
Then its the second climb up Carlton Bank which seems to go on for a long time, but the views are lovely. You can just see Roseberry Topping in the distance in the first photo
As Elly and I reached the top of Carlton Bank we could hear some banging in the distance. I put it down to someone working. On the way down we past this, which for once was accurate.
As we went down I realised the banging was the druid with his drum who I think first appeared on the Hardmoors 55. This was my first sighting and his banging was accompanied my a might roar.
There was a checkpoint at Lordstones and here we were joined by the half marathon runners.
Then it is the three sisters, three hills one after another. There are some great views.
On the third sister there have been reports that walkers and runners have been attacked by the eagle owl this year, but clearly it felt a bit outnumbered today and there was no sign of it.
After the third sister it is down to the checkpoint at Clay Bank and up the hill on the other side.
Then there is a nice bit along an escarpment before the half marathon runners stay on the escarpment and we go up a long drag to Round Hill and then down to the infamous Blowarth Crossing. As usual the weather at the Crossing was windy and wet. Elly had heard a lot about Blowarth Crossing but had never been there so we took some photos with the help of the poor marshalls stationed there.
A long drag up the ridge before the descent down to Bransdale and the checkpoint there.
Luckily we only had a bit over 6 miles to go at this point.
A lovely downhill before a long road climb to the final checkpoint and on to the moors. I was quite cold at this point as we were again into the wind but as soon as we turned for home it got a bit better and we climbed the final hill and started the descent to the finish at Chop Gate.
A chilly day, but it was lots of fun !
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