Duncombe Park marathon 2019

A short summary : Melanie had a great run and was second lady 😀😀

I had a not so good run...

This was our second It's Grim up North (IGUN) event. They are well organised events and often lapped events. Today was four laps.

There was a nice start

downhill along a Duncombe Park estate road into Helmsley. Some good views of Helmsley Castle

Into Helmsley and a long a road to the start of the Cleveland Way

It was then a long drag up the Cleveland Way to the checkpoint 2 miles into the lap. This included a dip down and out again so a few steps to do each lap...

From checkpoint 2 outside a small but lovely house

we continued along the Cleveland Way but turned off before we reached the Rievaulx road. Now the path go a little muddy in places and there were some steep climbs before we reached a viewpoint looking down on to Duncombe Park

Then south past the house and a steep road descent to a very long flat couple of fields before a steep climb back to the start/finish. Repeat three more times.

I had not felt great the last couple of days, a sore throat was gradually getting worse and my throat felt a bit like sand paper at the start. Lozenges helped a little, but I was struggling a bit at the end of the first lap and in my head I was saying there more hills than I expected and you have to do them three more times ! It was warm but not stifling and a bit of a breeze so that wasn't a factor. I slowed a bit in lap 2, but a quarter of the way in I realised I had not put any vaseline on my nipples (I normally run with a race vest so I rarely need any) and we had both left our tins at the start/finish. Luckily a fellow runner overheard us and offered me some which was lovely. Too late though and I arrived at the end of the lap looking like I had been shot. I changed my shirt and a marshall kindly came along with some plasters which solved the issue.

Into lap 3 and I was slowing so we agreed Melanie should go ahead. It was good timing, if she had stayed with me longer she probably would not have won her trophy.

I was getting some attention through wearing a Hardmoors shirt

One marshall commented - you're a Hardmoors runner this should be a walk in the park ! That pretty accurately described what I was doing in most of laps 3 and 4 !

Finally I finished, 45 minutes ahead of the cut off so no problems there. The usual finishing goody bag, beer, chocolate and a medal.

This may be the end of my lapped marathons... Definitely no more this year.