Hardmoors 60 2015

I have come to love the Cleveland Way. My initial reaction after running along it a few times was that it was designed for walkers, not runners. Lots of steps, some of them very uneven, stone slabs which can be slippery in wet conditions and lots and lots of hills. However, after now doing many Hardmoors events, the Osmotherley Phoenix and other events I do love it. The view are gorgeous and the sense of satisfaction you get for running on the Trail  is hard to beat. The trail goes from Helmsley to Saltburn on the coast and then goes follows the coast to Filey.

I had run the first half, the Hardmoors 55 in 2010 in pretty awful conditions. I had always wanted to do the second half and when the organiser, Jon Steele, put on the Hardmoors 60 I was very tempted. However, I wasn't confident of hitting the cut offs. This year the cut offs were extended and I thought I could make them.

Preparation included the Crosses, which didn't go particularly well and lots of climbs up Wainwright hills in August. I think both helped, particularly the hill walking.

The plan was that Melanie would support as she made the Crosses so much easier, but a day before the event she came down with a bad cold. So I used drop bags and Denise offered to take a change of clothes to Ravenscar for me. That worked very well as the temperature changed dramatically after Ravenscar as the day changed from very hot to very cold.

Kath, a clubmate, and I had agreed to run together. We and three clubmates had run together at the Hardmoors Princess 31m two weeks ago and we had also spent some time running with Sara. So Kath, Sara and I ran together in this event and it worked out very well. Sara had not run further than 36m and she did fantastically well finishing this event.

It was 62m in total and it was said to be over 10,000 feet of ascent. I had set up the followmee tracker app on my phone which seemed to have little effect on my phone battery when the update rate was set to 15 minutes. However, at some point during the race I managed to switch on my flashlight. How I did this I don't know and it has happened before. The result was that my phone died in Whitby, which was a shame as Melanie was using the tracker to see where I was. Luckily Flip and one or two others were able to post updates on Facebook and send texts.

I am dividing the race into three stages, each of approximately 20 miles, as this was how I framed the route in my mind.

Stage 1 Guisborough to Runswick Bay

I felt I knew this pretty well. We started slowly and after the first stile I was last for a short while. The climb up to High Cliff Nab was muddier than I expected, but better than on the Hardmoors Roseberry Topping marathon last December. The view down on Guisborough was beautiful:

Some of this section I had covered several times, but there were sections I had only covered once. I was also unfamiliar with the location of the Saltburn checkpoint.

However, the race description helped us to find this easily. I was also a little unsure of one part of the Skinningrove diversion. However, Flip, Anna, Jon and Shirley were there to make sure we took the right turn.

Skinningrove to Boulby I had done once before. There was many more hills than I remembered. At the top of them was my daughter and her husband with some very welcome supplies. It had developed into a hot day with little wind and we were drinking lots and lots of water.

Boulby to Runswick Bay goes through the beautiful Staithes. It looked lovely in the beautiful weather. The next section was also one I had only done once a few years ago. Again there were more hills than I expected. It was very hot and although it looked like we were going to get through our informal cut offs that I had calculated for lots of places, we didn't have a lot to spare and I was finding the heat and hills very hard going. It did cross my mind to pull out at Runswick Bay, but we had about 30 minutes to spare at that point so I decided to just see how it went. Looking back I think I was just going through a bad patch which is just inevitable in a long event. There were others who were wilting in the heat and eleven runners withdrew at this checkpoint. In total there were 163 finishers and 32 runners who withdrew.

Stage 2 Runswick Bay to Ravenscar

I thought this would be by far the toughest section especially the very familiar Whitby to Ravenscar section.

Runswick Bay was as lovely as ever and the climb out wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I was rusty with the route to Sandsend, but it wasn't too bad. We were taking it pretty easy, walking all the ascents and gently running the rest. We made to Whitby where I came across Angela and John who were having a weekend away. At this point my phone was losing charge because of the flashlight, so I had a conversation with Melanie to explain before the charge slipped away. At the top of the steps Kath and I had an ice cream.

We kept on seeing the lovely Quaker support team who were supporting their runners who were just behind us for most of the way. Sara's partner Oliver and son Robin (eighteen months !) also popped up in lots of places and Flip also seemed to be everywhere. It is hard to explain what a difference this makes, but it certainly encourages me.

The Whitby to Robin Hood's Bay took us an hour and fifty minutes, about ten minutes faster than I expected. Flip was in charge of the checkpoint. The next section is only about four miles, but I have never done it in less than an hour. There are lots of climbs and descents. The descents aren't ones you can run down with carefree abandon and expect to live. They are steep, large steps and there are some rock steps which can be uneven and irregular.

We went into Ravenscar more tired than we had been two weeks ago. The heat and the extra ten miles had taken their toll. We spent 35 minutes at Ravenscar. I changed everything apart from running shoes - Scott Kinabalu Supertrack - I still think these suit me very well. I also had rice pudding and coffee and consumed some of my food from the drop bag.

Stage 3 Ravenscar to Filey

I had expected this to be much easier than the other two sections. I found it as hard as the two other sections.

We came out of the Ravenscar checkpoint and it was very dark and although I was now wearing a long sleeved top, it became clear that I was cold and shivering. I put on fleece top and that stayed on until the finish. It is amazing what a change of clothes and food can do, we ran most of the way to Hayburn Wyke again familiar territory. I had hoped that Hayburn to Scalby Mills would be straightforward. It wasn't, it was much longer and more up and down than I had expected. I also made a minor navigational error, but that probably only cost us 3 minutes. Scarborough never seemed to arrive. We were walking more than running. When we arrived at the north end of Scarborough we were in danger of not making the cut off at the south end which was three miles of flat concrete away. We missed it by about four minutes but they seemed happy to let us continue. More coffee and flapjack.

We set off again and we walked almost all of the next section. I was a bit rusty on the Cayton Bay to Filey section but I had saved my Garmin for Stage 3 and I had the route on there and this helped enormously otherwise we might have been tempted to follow the group ahead who made two errors and seemed very uncertain of which way to go. We ended up finishing with them although they had run much more of this section than we had. It was lovely to see Flip waiting for us at 2.00 am on Filey Brigg signalling us with his torch :-)

We were 22 minutes late into the finish, but nobody seemed to mind and there were others who came in soon after.

Thanks to Flip for the lift back to my car 😀

Would I do it again ? When I was doing it, I didn't think so, it was too tough to be enjoyable and the roller coaster of emotions you get on such events I find hard to cope with. But now only fourteen hours after I have finished I find myself thinking it was very scenic, the organisation was first class and the marshalls were just fantastic. I am wondering what I will think in a few days !

Hardmoors Princess 31m 2015

It has been two months since the Crosses. There have been no marathons since then and my longest run in August was 11m. The plan was to do the Tour of Fife (five short races in five days), followed by the Hardmoors Saltburn and then the Hardmoors Princess leading up to the daunting Hardmoors 60.

The Tour of Fife went fine, but a week later I had problems with my ankle. It may have been caused by running too hard and fast in Fife (something I am not used to). But it meant that I could not do the Hardmoors Salthburn which was disappointing.

We did some hill walking in the Lakes last week and during that time my ankle got better and and better, but I had a temporary back problem at the beginning of last week and I was just hoping it would fix itself for the Hardmoors Princess.

It did :-) I drove down with Kath, Debbie and Nicola from the Striders and I ran with them and Angela (another Strider). Kath is an experienced long distance runner but the other three hadn't done more than a marathon before and they all had great runs on a tough course !

The weather was cloudy and very windy. It also started to rain heavily just before the start so it was looking a bit grim. The rain stopped before the start, but I had my waterproof top and gloves on to keep warm.

The waterproof came off at about 2m, but the gloves stayed on until Robin Hood's Bay the second time when we had some shelter.

I carried some poles to try them out on the first 8m (when we reached the start again). We ran most of that so I didn't really get the chance to try them very much so I left them when we got back to Ravenscar. This was my sixth time running this route, so navigation wasn't a problem.

We set off down the Cinder Track on the lovely descent to Robin Hood's Bay. However this section has a history of injuries and it happened again as Nicola took a tumble. My first aid kit came in handy and we reached Robin Hood's Bay.

We walked a lot of the climb out of Robin Hood's Bay, the wind was in our faces and it was a bit of a slog. The rain came when we reached the top but it didn't last too long and we made it to Whitby and the lovely sign over the Bridge at the checkpoint.

We then dodged the tourists in Whitby, smelling fish and chips everywhere and climbed the steps to the Abbey and headed onto the Cleveland Way. Now the wind was behind us and blowing us along. Shorlty before Robin Hood's Bay again , we reached the 26.3m point which was the furthest that these three had every ran :-)

As we came into  the Robin Hood's Bay, there was a Striders support party, which was wonderful :-) Thanks to Kelly and her family, David, Neil and Elaine :-)

The last 4m are tough, very hilly, lots of steps. But we were sheltered by the headland so we didn't feel so battered, it was almost warm !

There were some Striders waiting for us as we approached the finish

There was loads of food at the end, chips, pizza, cake. Flip and Kelly did a great job of organising this excellent event.

It was great to have company on the race and to have support from the Striders. I have also now done over 500 Hardmoors miles 😀

Thanks to Debbie, David, Kelly, Neil and the Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue (the event was held to support this team) for some of the photos.

The Crosses 53m 2015

This section is written three days before event starts  ...

I am a bit nervous about this event. It is five years since I ran an event over 50m or 40m or even 35m. I normally do marathons, though some of them like the Hardmoors marathons are often closer to 30m. I always get some nervous anticipation before a race, especially a marathon, because I know it is going to be hard at some point. I know I will question why I am doing that event. But I know that feeling won't last and the buzz I get when I am finished is always good. I wonder if I didn't get any nervous anticipation whether I would do the events. Maybe if it was all routine, then that is the time to find something else to do.

I nearly didn't enter this event, but I read that it is a one off event in aid of the Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team. So if I didn't do it this year I might never get another chance. The plan is that the route visits many of the crosses on the North York moors. It starts at midday in Goathland so I will be finishing in the dark also at Goathland. One good thing about it is that I have covered some of the route before in the Hardmoors Rosedale, Smuggler's Trod, Rosedale Ultra and Hardmoors Goathland races. But there is the nagging negative voice which says are you getting a bit too old for 50m+ events ?

My positive voice says well that is exactly what you said in 2006 before you entered your first marathon. That and all the following ones worked out well, so why not this one ??

After the event ...

With a midday start we could have a bit of a lie in. We drove down in two cars as my car would go in the event car park and Melanie would drive round and support me. This worked out great, it made it so much easier being able to change my shirt (twice) and shoes (once) and pick up food. Thank you Melanie :-)

On the drive down it was cloudy and at one or two places on the moors, there was thick fog. It was still pretty hot, but there was a bit of a breeze. It could have been been much worse there have been some very hot blue skies days with no wind this last week.

At Goathland we parked up and went over to the Village Hall, registered, collected the goody bag and chatted to the many Hardmoors runners who were there. There were quite a few walkers doing the event - there was a 24hr cut off so there was plenty of time to walk round.

From the start at the Village Hall we started off running down the old railway track just like on the Hardmoors Goathand event, but we went a bit further before turning west and heading to our first hill.

After this were small sections of road and lots of paths across the moors. Some of these were uneven and I realised that my Hoka Stinsons were not the best to start this event with, I was twisting my ankle a bit too much. After the first checkpoint at about 6m there was a steep descent into Glaisdale where I had to slow down to keep myself from slipping over. The second major climb, on road (Caper Hill at about 9m), got us out of Glaisdale and there was Melanie waiting for me at the top. By this time the sun was out, but luckily there was a breeze. It was in our faces, but it did give us some relief from the sun.

After the second self clip at Botton Cross, I managed to lose my tally card. It was pretty windy there and I had to bend right down to get it scanned so maybe it fell out of its holder then. Luckily I remembered my number which kept the checkpoint staff happy.

I met up with Melanie at the Lion Inn and had more water melon, it was so cooling :-) Then it was the long stretch on the old railway line to Rosedale Chimney. This stretch I know well and it seems to go on for a long time. I was walking and running by this time. There are some beautiful views down to Rosedale.

After reaching the Chimney checkpoint it was a lovely downhill to Lastingham where I met up with Melanie.

After this there was a long stretch of road followed by a long drag upwards on a forest road before a plunge down to the Pickering railway line at Newtondale Halt. This was followed a very steep climb out of the dale before the drag up to Saltersgate. Here I met with Melanie for the last time and changed shoes and finished off the water melon.

After the next checkpoint, Lilla Cross, it was on with the new head torch, the Alpkit Arc. It had come with batteries but they didn't last much more than an hour so I had to try the big selling point of the Arc, the easy battery swap. I managed to drop the replacement case, but luckily I had a second headtorch and was able to find it !

The next section was Robin Hood's Bay Road, which was the furthest from a road that you could imagine. I would have struggled to run much of this if I was fresh and and it was daylight.

This section was very well lit with perfectly placed glowsticks. After Postgate Cross, (where I stopped for some lovely soup :-)) the glowsticks got a bit more sparse and I had at tricky time getting to John Cross. Luckily I knew where I should be from the Smuggler's Trod and got myself back on track. From there it was a bit of plod back to Goathland which I reached at 9 minutes past 2 am. There was a certificate and a nice commemorative buff for finishers.

Having done the first half in about five and half hours, I can see that I am marathon fit, but not really able to go too much beyond that. I should have done more back to back runs to get myself used to running on tired legs. The heat in the first half also took its toll.

I am pleased I did it, but I am not sure I would do it again if it does happen again in the future, it was last done in 1999 and cancelled because of low numbers and only brought back this year because it is the 50th anniversary of the Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team. Apparently they had 250 enter this time (they had a 300 limit) so it is possible it might continue as a fundraiser for the Team who did a great job at the checkpoints and at the finish in Goathland.

Settle Saunter 27m 2015

We have never done this LDWA event before, but it seemed in a lovely area of the country and Melanie wanted to go up Ingleborough again, the last time she went up she was eight years old.

We went over the night before and stayed in Burnley. We wondered round Thompson Park in the evening The park is fairly close to the middle of Burnley and we were amazed to see a deer about twenty meters away from us, It checked that we weren't getting any closer and carried on feeding.

We left Burnley at 6.45 for an 8.30 start in Settle. The parking wasn't close to the start in the Victoria Hall, but it wasn't too far and we checked in at registration and received our tally cards with all the checkpoints listed. We managed to buy a sandwich from the local Booths and had that before we started. We weren't expecting too much food at the checkpoints, they were described as 'light refreshments'. We were also told there would be no water at the checkpoint at the top of Ingleborough which seemed perfectly reasonable.

It was clear from the numbers in the hall that there would not many people participating (about 80 over four different routes - 9m, 12m, 16m and 27m). There were only 32 people on the 27m route.

We knew we had to go down a very narrow ginnel (alley) very soon after the start so we made sure we were fairly near the front (this is very unusual for us) and we were about fifth into the ginnel and had no delay.

The first two miles or so were in Settle and were easy going. The next bit I had struggled to match the route description to the the GPS route from a previous year. There was a good reason, they had changed the course and the route description made much more sense.

There was a small climb before Fizor, the first checkpoint but on the whole the first seven and a bit miles were easy going through beautiful countryside which was reasonably flat.

However, there were quite a number of gates to open and close and stiles to climb over. We passed through some attractive villages, Fizor, Austwick and Clapham.

After Clapham we started the climb up Ingleborough.

It was long, rocky and tiring. We had cloud cover, but it was warm and very humid which made things a bit more tricky.

We reached the summit (11m),

checked in and started the steep descent, which got much more runnable after a while - we flew down some of it, trail running at its most enjoyable. Then after we had descended, the stiles (particularly ladder sties which just sap your energy) start to come in numbers.

We made it back to Clapham (a different way) and started to head back towards Settle. The way out had been pretty flat but this time we were sent up several hills. After leaving Clapham, the route description talked about passing through two tunnels. We were a bit doubtful they would really be tunnels, but they were. I have no idea why they were there.

After Austwick we entered a site special scientific interest - Oxenber and Wharfe Woods. They were full of bluebells which were just past their best. A few weeks ago it must have been an amazing site.

At the Fizor checkpoint we were told we were joint 7th. I don't think we have ever been so high in the field before. We managed to hang on to this until the end. Exactly seven hours it took us, but my total count was 44 stiles, 34 normal gates and 4 kissing gates. They all disrupt your running and deplete your energy. Then of course there was Ingelborough, which took quite a while.

At the finish there was tea and the usual meal, pie and peas followed by peaches and rice pudding. How they make any money out of a £10 entry fee is amazing.

All in all a lovely, scenic but tough day out. Certainly tougher underfoot than last Sunday's Lakeland Trails marathon.

Photos

Lakeland Trails marathon 2015

My third  and Melanie's second time for this beautiful, scenic run. We normally enter the Challenge (there are two races on the same course, with the Challenge being mainly for those who run a bit slower), but there are two disadvantages with this. Firstly you have to collect your race number and chip the day before and secondly it starts at 7.00 in the morning. The advantage is that if it is hot (and it has been the two previous times I have run it in 2011 and 2013) then you can get a lot of it done before it starts to get really warm.

We drove over to Coniston after our regular 30min pacing run at Durham parkrun and stopped off in Torver for a coffee. Then up to Coniston Hall to collect our number and then back to Kendal to check in at the hotel. It was at that point that Melanie realised that she had left a suitcase at home. She had some running gear such as shoes, but no top or tights or underwear and nothing much to wear after of the following day. It was about 3.30 on Saturday at this point. We looked at what spares I had, but none of them were suitable. We went into Kendal, found a Boyes' and Pete Bland's and managed to pick up basically what was needed. Some of it wasn't ideal but it was the best we could do in the time.

Melanie didn't sleep all night so when the alarm went off at 4.30 she wondered whether she should be running a marathon. She decided to go for it and she seemed to have lots of energy when she was running.

We arrived at the start area at about 6.10 and faffed around getting ready and chatting to Eric and Gillian and several old friends from Fetcheveryone. Just before the start Melanie had gone to use the toilets but the queue was too long. However, we ran past them after the start, so we both stopped to use them and started way behind everybody else (thanks to Eric for some of the pictures)

The route leaves Coniston Hall and goes across fields on hard packed trails (lots of these to come) to the village. We had caught the back markers at this point which was lucky as the route had changed and we hadn't expected this. We went down to the lake before heading through the village.

There is a fair of climbing in the first half, some of it it on quiet country roads but the rest on trails. The sections through woods are particularly beautiful and there are some wonderful views of the
Langdales.

Finally we made it Tarn Howes which is just stunning !

Then it is a bit of drag up to about 14m which is the highest point which has great views of the Lake.

Then a tricky rocky descent down to the bottom of the Lake at Water Yeat.

The water stations were fairly frequent and every other one had food. After Water Yeat we started the climb up to Beacon Tarn which seemed a bit longer than I remembered. However, normally I am very tired at that point, but this year I felt good, mainly because the sun had stayed behind clouds for the vast majority of the time.

The path round the tarn was particularly boggy and the technical bit afterwards was as slow going as ever. Then a nice bit of descent down to the Lake and the tree root section alongside the Lake. The tree root section ends about 2m from the end and it is an easy run in from there if you have any energy left. I didn't have much so Melanie went on and finished just ahead of me. We met up with half marathon runners just before the end.

We came in about 10min faster than in 2013 which I think shows how much difference the lack of heat makes.

A beautiful marathon, if you haven't done it, go and enjoy 😀

Photos

2013 blog