Hardmoors Fryupdale marathon 30m 2021

It has been eighteen months since I did a marathon or ultra event. The last marathon distance I did was in May and since then I have only done one twenty mile training event. This showed in today's marathon.

It was an early start which we haven't been used to either. Melanie and I left home at 6.45 as the sun rose.

The start and finish were at the Yorkshire Cycling Hub in Fryupdale (what a wonderful name). The route was already nearly 30 miles but Jon, the route organiser, thought it would be fun to send us up the zigzags of the mountain biking route on the site. To compensate we were going to take a short cut to the finish - a net gain of distance, but he said that we would get the extra distance over with early in the race.....

I started last as I knew I was going to find it tough. However, I found that I was running well and started to slowly overtake other runners. We ran down the valley and then started gently climbing out

The photo below has not come out well, but if you click on it you can see the runners in front zig zagging up the top. It was a big climb out of the valley and up onto the moors

The view from the top looking back towards the start on the hill in the distance

Over the moors, on past the Lion Inn and on to the old railway line towards Blowarth Crossing. Here the views are looking into Farndale

A descent into the lovely Westerdale and onto a section of the Hardmoors Rosedale marathon route. Most of the route was using the Esk Valley Walk which is a lovely path starting in Castleton, doing a loop to the south and then following the valley to Whitby. Highly recommended !

Soon after Castleton I was in a group of about eight or nine and they weren't sure of the way and so I was leading them, hoping I didn't make  a mistake. We ended up in the Moors National Park Centre and went past this guy

Then a big 1.5 mile climb on tarmac up to Danby Beacon where Melanie was waiting for me. 

The bottom of my left foot was sore so I changed shoes and socks applied vaseline, had some tea and sandwiches and generally had a bit of a rest. The rest of the group were long gone by the time I started again

This is where my lack of good consistent training hit me hard. I was walking much more and sometimes on the flats and downhills.... not good

My ankle was also getting sore - I had gone over it a couple of times earlier, but each time it had been fine immediately after. I met Melanie in Glaisdale and I was struggling with it. I didn't stay long there as I could feel myself getting stiffer and I was hoping it would ease as I walked up the long ascent on Glaisdale Rigg. That drag upwards seemed never ending. At one point I could see the finish in the valley but had further to climb...

Finally we turned down into the valley and it is some descent. I remember it from two years ago but I was hoping it would be easier because of the drier conditions. It wasn't. If you want a combination of grass, mud, steepness and rocks it is perfect ! I took it very carefully.

A bit of tarmac to the Cycle Hub and a steep climb up to the finish line

I was the only veteran 70 in the field and so by finishing I won a plaque !

It was good to see so many people I know. Hardmoors marathon/ultra number 51 and overall total now 205. Although the last nine miles were hard, I am glad I entered the event. It is a beautiful route. The next challenge is not to let the fitness I have gained here deteriorate, I don't want the next one to be as hard as this one !

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 😀

2019 blog

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.

2016 blog