The Hardmoors Osmotherley Trail marathon was tough. Some big hills and quite a bit of mud and some snow.
There was quite a climb out of Osmotherley, then the route undulated along trails across the moors to halfway. Then 3m over three big hills along the Cleveland Way from Lordstones cafe to just before Clay Bank. It took an hour. Then back to Lordstones via the lower path which was pretty muddy - that took me almost an hour as well.
Then it was following the Cleveland Way back to Osmotherley. It started with a big climb up Carlton Bank and the a lovely descent to Scugdale and a long drag to the radio station and the descent into Osmotherley and the finish. There were some lovely views from some of these hills. It was a beautiful day to run. Sunny with only a bit of wind. It would have been much harder if the weather had not been so kind.
It was a well organised event with a tee shirt and a medal for all finishers, plenty of well stocked checkpoints and a well marked course. There were three events being held on the same day - a marathon, half marathon and 10K and everyone seemed to enjoy the first running of this event. There are four more similar days in different places on the North York moors during the rest of the year. Aaron Gourley was also running the marathon but he finished so far ahead of me he had long gone by the time I finished. My time was just under 6hr 45min which is much longer than I normally take, but this one had lots of hills, so I wasn't disappointed with that time. Phil Owen did an excellent job at his checkpoint having carried all sorts of provisions up a big hill to reach his station. Melanie ran the half marathon and did very well and she has written a separate report.
The only difficulty is that I finished with very bad blisters on my heels. I can't recall this happening before. I used the same shoes for the Hardmoors 30 and they were fine there, so I am not sure what is going on. They had better heal fast !
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