Harvest Hobble 26m 2019

This was a new event for us, neither of us had been to this area of the Lincolnshire Wolds before. The event started at Ludford, near Market Rasen and headed north west and then was a rectangular route. There was a strong breeze from the south west that blew us along in the first half, but it was hard going into the wind when Melanie and I didn't have the protection of hedges which sometimes helped.

The event HQ was the village hall and this being an LDWA event, it was cheap. Free tea or coffee at the start. The first checkpoint (3 miles) had biscuits, but after that there was sandwiches, cheese and sausage rolls. At the end there was tomato soup roll followed by rice pudding with peaches. A good day for eating !

We started off and headed for a long section of the Viking Way. Initially there was a few flat field edges, but we did come across some sunflowers.

The route then started to undulate

Before a descent to the first checkpoint (3 miles)

Then it was up and on to the edge of the wolds with lovely views to the west

Still more undulations

and into an area where there were deer

We passed many lovely churches, this one was in Normanby-le-Wold

We made a slight error when we came off the Viking Way, the path forked and we took the left one instead of the right one. We had the route on our Garmins and the paths were very close so it was hard to work out the correct way. Luckily, runners behind us let us know we were wrong so we were able to quickly backtrack.

We then entered some woods (a long way from anywhere) close to some old workings (according to the map). We came across three of these, which may apparently be airshafts.

More typical wolds countryside, lots of the route reminded us of the Golden Fleece Circuit route on the other side of the Humber

Late on the route was telling us to go straight across a field of potatoes. Not easy and we gave up in the end and headed down one of the valleys between the potatoes.

After the last checkpoint at 21 miles, there was a long drag upwards into the wind, which was very hard going and I would say this was the least attractive part of the route.

We were pleased to get back to Ludworth to our soup, roll and sweet - if you have never done an LDWA event, go for it they are fun !

Hardmoors Farndale marathon 2019

I was running this one with Melanie who is new to this route although she had covered quite a bit of it on other runs we had done when on holidays. We had picked up from Facebook that the route was very overgrown this year and it certainly was compared to the previous two years (when it was called the Hardmoors Rosedale marathon, but the same route). In spite of this I managed to pick up a 25 minute course PB (thanks to Melanie for this). But was hard, it was very humid and warm. There was a nice breeze which helped, but there were times in the valleys when we couldn't feel it.

The start was from the Village Hall in the lovely Hutton-le-Hole.

The route undulates almost immediately. I think of the route as roughly triangular. The first time I did the route, it seemed to take for ever to get to the point where we change onto the second side of the triangle (about 11 miles in). There are lots of twists and turns, but the compensation is that the scenery is just outstanding and very varied - woods, moors, fields. Thanks to Melanie for many of these photos

It did not seem too long before we got to the corner of the triangle and out onto the moors. I was feeling pretty good at this point.

This is the side of the triangle where the hills kick in and by about 15 miles in I started to tire. It was warm and I was struggling. But the compensation was the scenery

The abandoned Stork House

After Stork House the bracken became a bit overwhelming !

Thanks to Nicky Jenkins for these photos (where I looked happier than I was...)

This was followed by what felt a long road section and then we turned on to the third side of the triangle and climbed towards Dickon Howe

Then down the other side towards High Mill where we stopped for an ice cream at the cafe. This was a real bonus ! Along to Low Mill and the start of the very big climb, which was overgrown and a bit muddy. Lovely views from the top

The last checkpoint had cut up oranges and lots and lots of them. Just lovely ! As we left it started to rain a bit which was lovely and cooling. Through the woods and the final tarmac climb and the run down into Hutton-le-Hole to applause from runners sitting outside the pub.

As usual Jon and Shirley had the whole event very well organised and the marshalls and helpers in the Village Hall did a great job !