Forest and Moors marathon 2018

We were up early for this and left home at 6.30. I had to de-ice the car before we could get going. We saw a lovely sunrise on the way down to Dalby Forest.

We arrived in plenty of time and registered (no kit check although there was a compulsory kit list). It was pretty cold waiting for the start, but it got warmer after a while.

The route is very roughly a square with the start and finish at the south east corner. Last year the signage was a bit variable, especially after the half marathon split off at 10K. This year the signage was very good, there was only one place where I thought a sign would have been useful although we knew which way to go.

After an initial climb we had a lovely downhill into Stain Dale, with the inevitable climb out

The view down Stain Dale

At the top of the climb was the Fox and Rabbit Pub and there was a lovely descent down Cross Dale to the North York Moors railway line

Here was a change in the route from last year - we missed out a hill !!! This is very unusual we are used to Race Director's adding hills not eliminating them 😏

We stuck fairly close to the railway line (no trains came along sadly) before climbing to Levisham Elbow where the half marathon runners left us.

and we had a run down some tarmac

to Levisham station where they were clearly expecting a train.

Another climb out of the valley and back to running westwards. Finally we turned north and into Cropton Forest. Last year the forest trails seemed to go on a long time, but knowing the route this year it didn't seem so bad. Finally we left the forest behind and got onto the moors

Down to the Wheeldale stepping stones

where my phone got a little hot and bothered

but Melanie's was fine

Up and over Simon Howe. It was starting to get a bit breezy with wind coming from the south and we knew the last six miles or so were going to be in a southerly direction so we tried to run as much as we could on this easterly section. Down to Ellerbeck and into the outer perimeter of Flyindales. Past Allerston High Moor to Malo Cross

Followed by probably the toughest climb up to the Bridestones

A lovely descent (we went wrong here last year but it was well signed this year) into High Stainland before the rather tough climb back to the finish. 5hr 55min so we knocked off twenty five minutes of last year's time (though we did miss out a hill this year !).

This is a lovely, cheap, low key event with fantastic scenery and it is for a good cause (mountain rescue). I am surprised it doesn't seem to sell out, but there were lots of other races on this weekend. Well recommended 😀