Hardmoors Goathland marathon 2019

A different course for this event and we were warned it was going to be muddy. It was very muddy and one five mile section was very bad and it was difficult to run at all. In one mile Dawn and I managed a 26 minute/mile and there were no hills in that bit !.

However, it was a lovely day and the scenery more than made up for our slow progress through the mud.

The start as at usual at Goathland Village Hall. It was bright and still a little icy with a little bit of black ice on the initial short tarmac section.

Then it was down the old railway line to wards Mallyn Spout

which was in full flow. A steep climb up out of the valley, which is where I noticed that we were just in front of a sweeper. This happened at Fryupdale and we ended up catching quite a few and the same happened again at this event.

On to the moors and a quick look back at Goathland

and on toward the first checkpoint

and up towards Simon Howe ( a gentler way up than we usually do on this event). Past the SportsSunday photographers

It was warming up a bit now although there was still ice on the pools of standing water. At Simon Howe we headed south towards Wardle Rigg checkpoint. This was the vew back towards Simon Howe.

Then down into Newton Dale and towards Newton Dale Halt, a bizarre place for a station with no buildings anywhere close.

The next climb up through Talbot Wood I had bad memories of when I did it on the Crosses. However, it was a very long way into that event and this time teh climb did not seem so bad. Lovely views from the top.

We then headed towards Skelton Tower (after I made a minor error in navigation) with more lovely vies back into Newton Dale

Then some climbing towards the village of Levisham

About a mile after this we reached the very heavy mud. Melanie and I had run part of this in September and it was nowhere near as bad.

There was no easy round most of it. We both had waterproof socks and poles which really helped.

Finally we reached the next checkpoint at the south end of Levisham (17.5 miles into a 28.5 mile event)

The mud didn't finish there but it did get a bit easier. Onwards into the Hole of Horcum, a first time actually in the Hole for both of us.

Then a steep downhill towards the railway line

and back up the final big climb to Wardle Rigg again. It was starting to get dark now, so our head torches came out for the return to Simon Howe and then a direct line back to Goathland across Two Howes Rigg. This section wasn't fun, boggy, very cold and it wasn't easy to see the tape in the pitch black. Also Dawn was getting very cold so once we got to a grassy section and then tarmac we ran faster than we probably had all day to get to the end and warmth.

Dawn had done the driving today and it was lovely to be driven home after a long day.

During the run I had found that various items (such as my mug, poles etc) had had string attached to them as a joke by Melanie. When I got home I came into the house to this 😀

2018 blog

Hardmoors Fryupdale marathon 2019

A new Hardmoors marathon starting from the Yorkshire Cycle Hub.

The Cycle Hub is a new facility, but there wasn't much space in the Registration Hall so we had to store our bags back in Dawn's car - Melanie wasn't running this one as she has a niggle in her foot so I was running with Dawn.

Jon announced a few changes in the route at the briefing and we started uphill

As you can see we weren't going to get many views today because of the low cloud. Once at the top there was a gentle road incline up to the first checkpoint. It started to rain at this point and basically hardly stopped all day. The intensity changed a bit, sometime light drizzle but other times pretty heavy.

A couple of muddy sections across the moor, past the Sports Sunday photographers who took these two photos

and we headed for the Lion Inn. Although we passed very close to it, we could not see it because of the cloud.

On to the railway line heading towards Blowarth Crossing and we got some views

Before we reached Blowarth we turned out down the lovely Westerdale

where the route was a bit boggy in places. On to part of the Roseberry Topping route towards Castleton

 and then continuing on the Esk Valley Walk towards Danby

On through Danby and on to the Moors National Park Centre near Danby

Then a long road climb up to Danby Beacon with the rain getting a bit heavy. There was a checkpoint at the top and we both got a bit cold after that so we ran most of the way down and through Leaholm. The weather got a bit easier for a short while at this point

On to Glaisdale and then a very, very long climb up the Glaisdale Rigg, before a steep, muddy descent off the Rigg - we both slipped and fell in this section. Then some road sections back to the Cycle Hub where we were greeted with lots of flags showing us the way to the finish !

The Cycle Hub has showers and a cafe and we both needed showers and warm drinks to heat us up a bit. We had been told that this 'marathon' was at least 32 miles, but because of the various route changes I measured it as just under 29 miles, so that was good !

Forest and Moors marathon 2019

Today I leant that I should not book a marathon the day after two busy Open Days at work. Open Days are busy, I was giving short speeches and talking to lots of people. I love Open Days but there is no getting away from it, they are very tiring.

We have done the Forest and Moors twice before so last year we thought, yes, lets do that again, it was lovely. Then a week ago we had a more closer look at the details and saw there was a six hour time limit and a couple of intermediate cut offs, one at Levisham Elbow (just over six miles) of 1.5 hours and Ellerbeck (19.5 miles) of 4.5 hours. We looked at what we had done last year 5hrs 55min.... hmmmm, we couldn't dawdle then. We aren't too keen on having pressure in our events, but there wasn't much we could do about it, but give it a good try.

The start is in Adderstone Field in Dalby Forest. There is plenty of parking and we met up with Jon and Shirley, the organisers of the Hardmoors events. Thanks for Shirley for these pictures

As you can see it was quite warm even at 9.00. Rain had been forecast but none arrived and it remained quite hot all day even when the sun was in. Hardly any wind and only occasional mud. Pretty perfect running conditions.

We had seen a lovely sunrise on the way down

A couple of other photos, one that Jon took at the start and one that Melanie took

It was a quiter start this year as the half marathon was staring 30 minutes later than the marathon runners. The usual start, an average firtst mile then a the fastest mile of the event as you plunge downhill and then a steep climb up to the Fox and Hounds and and another descent to the railway line.

Today we were lucky enough to see a steam train although we were a little too far away

Then we came to the one place which wasn't marked as to which way to go. I guess tape could have been moved and we had to call back four runners who made the wrong choice. We followed the railway line for a while - thanks to Melanie for some of these photos

and after a bit of a climb,

we made it Levisham Elbow in 1hr 15min beating the cut off by 15 min. Not much considering it was early in the event. Here the marathon and half diverged - we had been overtaken by three half runners by this stage. We went down the road to Levisham station

and another climb through fields

and into woods and into a forest. This section along forest roads seem to last a long time, but finally we reached the checkpoint which is the start of the moors section (no cut off here) and it was halfway which we reached in 2hr 45. Okay if we could keep up that pace ! Spoiler - I couldn't.

Onto the moors

and then down to Wheeldale Stepping Stones

and then a long climb up to Simon Howe. I started to tire quite badly here and it looked increasingly unlikely that we would reach Ellerbeck in four hours which had been our target so that we could take it easy for the last seven miles. Even on the descent to Ellerbeck I was struggling and I know we had been able to fly down there in previous year. We made Ellerbeck in 4hr 20min, 10min inside the cut off, but we had to keep pushing if we were going to beat the final cut off.

We started round Fylindales and this is mainly uphill, but when it flattened out I was struggling to run. So we took the decision that Melanie should go on and ensure she met the cut off (this was her seventy fifth marathon and she wanted to reach that number today rather than postpone it). I tried to do a little running, but I was just too tired, nothing left at all. I just had to hope they would not time me out at the end.

I passed the lovely Malo Cross

which looks more likely to fall over every time I see it.

Even the next downhill section I hardly ran, this wasn't good.....

Then the nasty steep hill up to the Old Wives Way and the final checkpoint. Here I heard there were about thirteen runners behind me and I thought this probably increased the chances of us not being timed out.

I teamed up with another runner who was struggling with his back and we chatted all the way to the finish which made it go very quickly.

My time was 6hr 21min but I wasn't timed out - phew ! And I got a medal

Melanie had pushed hard and made it in 5hr 58min which was a fantastic effort, but she said she would rather have dawdled in with me if we had known that we wouldn't be cut off.

2018 blog