Hardmoors Osmotherley marathon 2018

This Hardmoors marathon has more ascent than any of the other Hardmoors marathons. 29m  roughly and ascent of round about 5000 feet. Melanie was going to run this with me but in the last week she has developed a sore hip and so she decided it would not be sensible to run this event. Instead I had the lovely company of Elly and Kath.

It is also the last Hardmoors race from Osmotherley (the parking area has been sold and there will be nowhere else to park). However, Jon, the Race Director, has changed the Wainstones route so that it goes through the village (and has given the Wainstones route even more ascent that Osmotherley....)

The start was in the usual place up the hill and out of the village

and shortly after there are lovely views to the west

and the usual queue at the next gate

Past the radio mast and the runnable descent down to Scarth Moor

As we are a little shy, we gently tiptoed past the SportsSunday photographers hoping they wouldn't notice us

and onto the long drag up Carlton Bank

with lovely views back to the west

and towards Roseberry Topping in the east

Another climb up to Cringle Moor with a view to the west

and a view back to the west towards Carlton Bank

Down the steep descent from Cringle Moor

Up Cold Moor and then the lower path (which was unusually mud free !) to Clay Bank and then up Hasty Bank now heading west

and down the Wainstones

Off to Chop Gate (again no mud !) which is halfway, before the hardest climb of the day up Trennets.

The views to the north are lovely

Finally we made it to to the top and we had a runnable section. Again we could see Roseberry Topping in the far distance

and then Scugdale

We made it to the Lordstones checkpoint for our second visit there and were greeted by one of the Race Director's motivational signs (there was about 8.5 miles to go at this point)

Up Carlton Bank again and the a lovely run down, so much better than going in the other direction which we had done several hours earlier.

Up the dreaded steps through the woods and not far to go now

We made it back in a faster time than last year so we were happy !

Jon and Shirley do a fabulous job of organising these events. The marshalls out on the course and in the hall at the end were just as amazing as ever.

The parking is about a mile from Race HQ at the village hall and when Kath and I left the Hall (Elly had left earlier) we must have looked beat as the Ambulance Driver who had been supporting the event offered us a lift back to the car park. A ride in an ambulance to top off a lovely day !

2017 blog

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 😀

2017 blog

Hull marathon 2018

Road marathons are not our favourite thing to do, but Melanie was born in Hull and wanted to run across the bridge. I lived in Hull for four years and grew to love the city so we decided to enter. I had done a marathon in Hull before, but this was a different route which I was happy about.

After our rather painful experiences at the end of the Liverpool Rock and Roll road marathon, we decided to adopt a different approach this time. At Liverpool the approach was to walk until we came to a band and then run after that, but it was way too vague as a strategy. This time we decided to adopt a run to a mile marker and then walk for a minute and repeat. If felt a bit weird early on and we kept to it until we got to the Humber Bridge area which was a bit more hilly and windy.

We picked up our numbers on the day, the race started from the KCOM stadium and we we were going to get a stadium finish 😀 We came across a few people we know from previous marathons and ultras which was lovely.

We were a bit cold at the start so I was running in a long sleeve top with a tee shirt on top, gloves and shorts. Melanie was also similarly wrapped up and she was running with a backpack.

It took us about a minute to get through the start which was fine. Besides the marathon there were relay runners, some a two person team and others a four person team and they had signs on their backs indicating they were relay runners. The change over points were well organised and no problem for us going through. Overall the event was very well organised. The number of marshalls was just amazing, they were on every single road junction and they were incredibly supportive and encouraging. Lots of them were offering jelly babies, which we don't eat, but we could have eaten our body weight if we had wanted to.

After a run round the outside of the stadium we headed off to the centre of Hull, past the main hospital and the railway station. Hull is very flat which meant that the first 16m or so there were no hills. The drags started as we approached the bridge.

After coming through the centre we headed for the Humber.

Flood protection on the River Hull.

Looking towards the mouth of the Humber.

Then route headed north east through various residential street and then turned to head back to the centre a different way and through East Park.

We came back into the centre of Hull again and crossed the River Hull.

This street brought back memories for me, I used to regularly go to a pub down here and it is such a wonderful name for a street.

There were quite a few music groups on the route. We passed this group of pipers twice and the route crossed itself at about 4m and 9m

After leaving the centre we used a road through the docks which I guess the public don't usually have access to.

and then inland. There was regularly something to look at. Also there was quite a number of pieces of artwork stuck to the ground that we ran over.

Through the lovely Pickering Park.

We came to a dual carriageway which we were to come back on and it was good to see the faster runners go apparently effortlessly by. There was a definite drag up at this point. At this point Melanie was in pain from various parts of her legs so we changed our strategy a bit and walked some of the hills when we came to them.

We came to the bridge and went south which felt good. There was a good reason for this, we had quite a breeze behind us, so coming back north into a strong breeze was pretty tough and we decided that as we didn't care about the time and Melanie was finding it a bit easier to walk, we walked until we got halfway over when the drag upwards finished.

Back down the dual carriageway was easier and then we turned off and went into the Costello stadium where a bit bizarrely, there was a 100m sprint section on the track. I haven'y encountered this before but it was a welcome distraction to see a few people going for it. We were way to beat to try !

A few more residential streets and then half way round the stadium and them into it and another half lap to the finish. A nice touch to finish in an impressive stadium.

Bananas, flapjack and water at the end. A slightly bizarre collection of things in the goody bag...

Overall we enjoyed this one more than Liverpool. It could be a fast route if it wasn't for the bumps on and around the Humber Bridge. It did not affect us but those looking for a personal best it may not be the perfect route. 

Hopefully Melanie will get over her injuries quickly, she is hopeful !