Golden Fleece 27m 2020

Melanie and I went into this event quite differently. Melanie was concerned about some niggles that she had from last week's mud fest at Belvoir. I felt fine and Melanie said she might be slow.

I do like this event, it is low key, friendly, there is lovely wolds scenery, lots of food at the checkpoints and lovely vegetable stew at the end. We thought that there might be as much mud as there was at Belvoir, but we could not have been more wrong, the paths and field edges were on the whole very firm. There was a bit of a breeze in our faces in the last quarter but nothing very strong. The sun even came out for a while.

The start was in South Cave as usual a

and this event usually starts on time at 8.30. There was just one announcement at the start, please don't run on the daffodils at the first corner and that was it, we were off. The first seven miles are pretty flat and we went though a number of pretty villages such as North Cave

and into the Park next to Hotham Hall where we came across this sign

and into Hotham itself

This followed by farm tracks before some woods

and then on to the 7m checkpoint where the short and long routes part. There is always lots of food at this one and they even have vegan food set aside

This is where the wolds properly start and there are plenty of climbs and descents

Shortly before the next checkpoint we were overtaken by a two groups, one of four and one of three. They were still at the checkpoint when we left and the group of three soon caught us up again. It became clear that they had no idea where they were or where they were going - there were no runners in sight in front. They did have a route description but seemed not to have much confidence in it. This event has no markings at all. The group of four were the same and we found they were waiting for us at junctions to check they were going the right way. This continued all the way the the next checkpoint.

Again we were the first to leave and the next bit through Walkington is complicated so they followed us closely and when some one else who knew the route overtook them they tagged along. They then disappeared into the distance, but we heard later they made a few mistakes and had to backtrack. It seemed a bit strange to us to just rely on other runners.

Once we got to Skidby at about twenty miles, my legs felt that they had nothing left. Melanie was managing her niggles very well and was definitely in a better place than me. She could have gone on, but sadly we had not put the route on our watches because I was very familiar with the route and Melanie was expected to be the one who struggled - Melanie hasn't done the route as many times as me and was less confident she knew where to go.

We went on to the lovely Brantingham

The last few miles are quite up and down, but there are some good views

before we got a view of South Cave and finish

We ran through a plantation of some crop which we could not figure out what it was

before passing the grand looking hotel near the finish

I enjoyed it, but less than Melanie who was surprised she felt as good as she did. Will we be back again next year ? Probably 😀

Belvoir Challenge 26m 2020

This is my seventh time at this event. What keeps us coming back is the way they change the route every year, so this year there were sections I had never done before, other sections which I had done before but in the oppostite direction and very familiar sections. The food at the checkpoints and at the end is also amazing and they had special cake and soup for vegans.

As the event is held in late Feburary it has a reputation for mud. This year it was the muddiest I have even known it to be. Especially up until the runners on the shorter route (15.6 miles) split away (after 11 miles). There was just lots and lots of mud (thanks to Melanie for some of these photos)

The start was more crowded than the last time we ran this (2016).

It is become so popular they now operate a park and ride system for parking using an old aerodrome 2k away and two double decker buses going back and forth.

It is now chip timed and they all seemed ready to go at exactly 9.00. They counted down and we were off. Within about 15 seconds they shouted 'Stop' and we all had to back up (which took ages) because something went wrong with the timing equipment. I don't remember this every happening before, but it was good to have discovered it before the faster runners had disappeared. Melanie was nice and clean before while we waited, but this was not to last very long.....

Within about a mile we encountered

It did get slightly better for a while

The wind was in our faces at this point but it wasn't too bad until the first checkpoint when it started to hail for a while. There was lots of field crossings and stiles

As we approached the split point on the two routes, we overheard someone say 'I am so glad we chose the shorter route, I cannot imagine doing another 15 miles of this...'. We weren't looking forward to it, but very soon after the route became a lot less muddy and more runnable. There still waterlogged fields and slippery stiles but we felt like we were making progress. We came across the Branston ladder which often appears on the route

Before passing through some undulating countryside

and down to Knipton Reservoir

Soon after we went into the grounds of Belvoir Castle with its gardens apparently developed by Caperbility Brown

Then we turned west to head west towards the finish at Harby. We had the lovely views to the north

before descending to Stathern. It is then a muddy two miles across sodden fields. Sadly the hail started again which wasn't too nice, but we made it back in the slowest time I have done at this event. I blame the mud, we were covered in it and we hadn't fallen over.

and a before and after photo

It was the 30th anniversary so we received a buff at the end as well as some lovely soup followed by cake.

Saturn Running Run to Infinity and Beyond 26.75m 2020

It isn't often you get the chance to do a marathon where the start/finish is less than a mile from where you live. I think Saturn Running started running their seven hour timed runs in 2019, but this was the first one of theirs that I had attempted. Also Melanie is doing the last of her ten road marathons required for her 100 marathon club entry in April so this event, with its relatively flat profile was useful training for that event. That event has a five hour cut off, so we wanted to see if we could get close to that on this one.

The downside is that we know the area very, very well as we run the Durham parkrun every weekend we can. The organisers did an enormous amount to work to ensure that the event was not cancelled because of Storm Dennis. The river levels were very high, so I think there were two course alterations to ensure the event went ahead and we were warned that the the course might have to change in the middle of the event if any part became flooded. This was part of the original route

and here are other photos of the river that was very high.

The course that the organisers came up with was an out and back lapped route with each lap being about 3.3m long, so we needed eight laps for a marathon. For those of you who know Durham the route started from the Durham Amateur Rowing Club and went along the river to St. Cuthbert's Boat Club, then turned sharp left towards Green Lane and followed that before turning through the wood in the direction of Maiden Castle. Soon after the old railway bridge the path was flooded so we diverted across Durham City Rugby ground (which was pretty muddy) and came out the new tarmac path from St.Cuthbert's accommodation at Parson's Field. From there to Maiden Castle across Noisy Bridge, turn left and head towards the old railway bridge. Just before we got there we reached the turn around point and headed back the same way. Here is photo from near Noisy Bridge showing the water level

One of the advantages of a lapped course is you get frequent access to your gear and any specialist food and drink you might want. I didn't end up changing anything and just had my own food and drink. However, the aid station had a very good selection of goodies and lots of vegan things. They even had a vegan goody bag at the end.

There were lots of people I knew running this one and it was lovely to see them regularly, an advantage of an out and back route. Melanie ran with Sabrina, who was doing the half, and I soon found the pace too quick for me. I did catch Melanie on the final lap and we did that together. I never get tired of seeing the sculpture on the right

We passed the 26.2m mark at 4hrs 52min which felt good and we finished the 26.75m in 4hr 58min 15sec. Because we had registered a bit late we didn't get a medal from this event, but we got a choice from the left over medals from other events and a marathon pin.

A 3.3mile lapped course which is out and back sounds awful, but it turned out much better than I thought. Not sure I will do another marathon distance one again, but you never know ....