Forest and Moors marathon 2017

This event was organised by the Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team. They had organised the old Saltergate Circuit event (half marathon distance) which used some of the same area and some of the same paths and tracks, and because of that event we thought the navigation might be a little challenging in places. The event was billed as a marked course and they provided a GPX of the route. In three places the organisers had changed the route from the GPX. The marking was excellent in places and non-existent in other places so runners were going off in all sorts of directions. We tried to shout or whistle them back and sometimes that worked, but not always. Some runners waited for us to catch up with them to check they were going the right way. Then towards the end we made an error, not a major one, we just took an alternative route ;-) So it was a bit challenging from a navigation point of view. We were lucky as probably about a third of the route I had covered before.

The elevation wasn't too bad, but the ground was very muddy and boggy in places. The weather was cloudy and it rained a couple of times. The wind was light but picked up a bit in the second half, but that was fine we had completed all the headwind sections by then.

The start and finish was in at Adderstone Field in Dalby Forest, not somewhere I had been to before. However it had an Enchanted Wood, which sadly we didn't have time to explore

It wasn't a big field and the marathon and half marathon started together

It was chip timed with the chip attached to the race number. The start was immediately off road heading through Dalby Forest and we climbed a big hill to get to the Fox and Rabbit pub. We crossed the busy A169 and then started a steep descent into the lovely Cross Dale

and we saw our first directional sign at Farwath. It hadn't mattered up till then, there had been lots of marshalls directing us. At Farwath we had our first change from the GPX route, we headed towards Levisham initially and then had a steep climb into Levisham Woods before a descent back down into Newtondale again with the railway line to the west of us. There was a bit of a climb up to Levisham Elbow where the two routes separated. There were very few doing the marathon, sixty two had entered but I am not sure how many had turned up. We ran down to Levisham station which is lovely

and then started the muddy climb up to Newton Banks. As we reached the top there was a group of about eight runners all gathered with no idea where to go. Luckily I had done this section before so I guided then onto the Tabular Hills path and then after a two or three miles we arrived at the Snape Road. We crossed that and on to  a long section of forest roads. Soon after Muffles Farm we came across a group of runners we had helped earlier, again unsure which was to go. After this the marking got a bit better (it couldn't have got any worse) and they disappeared off in front again.

We finally left the forest and started the moors section at the halfway point, We were both a bit tired by now, some of the muddy sections had drained our energy. Initially, the marking on Wheeldale Moor was excellent, sometimes a bit too much. The ground here was very wet and boggy

We descended down towards the Wheeldale stepping stones

As we descended we could see the leading group hesitate about which way to go and they took the right route up towards Simon Howe. Melanie and I slogged our way up to the top 

and started our descent towards Ellerbeck. Shortly after Simon Howe the path splits and we could see the leading group who were now a long way ahead had gone right instead of left (there was no sign at the fork). We shouted and whistled but we only managed to attract the attention of one runner who had slipped behind the others. We descended down to Ellerbeck crossing the railway line again

We got to the checkpoint and explained what had happened to the other runners and the marshalls informed us that we were the first runners through for thirty five minutes and were twenty second and twenty third, which is not our usual position in these sort of events !

We crossed the busy A169 again and headed round the back of Flylingdales on a signed route which was different to the GPX route. Then onto a section I was familiar with the Flylingdales to Newgate Foot, although I had never done in that direction before. Soon after that one of the leading group caught up with us, he had managed to get to Ellerbeck okay and he soon went off into the distance. However, he waited for us at Malo Cross as he did not know which way to go and he decided to run with us the rest of the way.

We headed on to Stain Dale and came to a fork. Looking at our watches we decided right was best as left didn't seem to be heading in the right direction, and we seemed to be slightly right of the GPX route. However, we assumed this was a badly drawn GPX route. It wasn't, we should have gone left ! But we could see we were very close to the route and and made our way down into Stain Dale. There we saw a marker (which we learned later was a direction sign to the parking for the cars) and ran by the lovely lake in Stain Dale.

which was a bonus as it wasn't on the actual route ! We emerged on a road and luckily saw a checkpoint to our left. The marshalls were a bit surprised to see us, but directed us on to the next section which was clearly marked (but different from the GPX). After a big climb we arrived at the finish, tired and a little sore and collected our medals

Luckily we got back in time to go the Visitor Centre and get some coffee before the drive home 😀

The Ponton Plod 27m 2017

This is an event I have been planning to for a number of years, but something always seems to happen which prevents me from doing it. This year I made it ! The cost is only £14 which is just crazily cheap for what you get. Toast and marmalade and Coffee or tea before the start, four checkpoints laden with home made cakes, sandwiches, rice pudding, fruit and at the finish this was what we could choose from (click to enlarge)

and these were just some of the food at the checkpoints (there were other tables)

Melanie is trying to complete all the Wainwright hills, but because the forecast for the Lakes was bad, she opted to join me even though she had done very little long distance running since the Elsecar Skelter in July. However, she has been walking up lots of hills which clearly helped today. It was lovely to have her company and she checked the route instructions while I followed the route on my Garmin and working that way helped us with the navigation - the route was also very well signed and the route description was excellent.

The weather was very misty initially and the forecast was for it to burn off very quickly and then be white cloud. It didn't work out quite that way, the mist lasted until half way and then we had bright sunshine for the second half.

The event started at the Village Hall in Great Ponton

The field was small about 46 for the 27m route and double that for the 17m route. There was a 12m route starting an hour later

Great Ponton is just to the east of the A1 (not far south from Grantham) and 99% of the route is to the west of the A1 so soon after the start we crossed the A1 by footbridge and were soon on an undulating path towards Stoke Newington and its attractive parkland

Then into the village itself

This road section lasted for about one and half miles. All the roads were very quiet apart from one which had a footpath.

On through Skillington - there were lots of attractive villages on this route and via farm tracks to the first checkpoint at 6.25, followed by Buckminster with his large houses.

Soon after that the terrain changed and we were crossing ploughed fields for a while

Luckily in spite of the heavy rain yesterday, they weren't very muddy. Finally we made it Croxton Kerrial checkpoint at halfway. We now knew some of the route and the checkpoint from the Belvoir Challenge event. The food at this checkpoint was very good ! Then onward

Soon after the reservoir we were off the Belvoir route and we made our way to Harlaxton. The checkpoint here was even better as there was rice pudding and tinned fruit. We probably stayed too long here, but we were in no rush. Shortly before the final checkpoint we pass this country house, Hungerton Hall

The final checkpoint was about 4m from the end and we made good progress back to the Village Hall and the amazing array of cakes, soup and puddings !

Soon after we left Great Ponton, we went through some very heavy rainfall. We were pleased we had missed that !

Hardmoors Rosedale 2017

"Welcome to the Hardmoors Rosedale marathon. There are two things wrong there, you won't be going into Rosedale and it's not a marathon". This was how Jon, the race director, started the race briefing. Hardmoors events are famous for giving you 'extra miles' at no extra cost....

I have done this event three times before. The first two years the route didn't change too much and it was the easiest of the Hardmoors marathons in my view. In 2016 Jon had to make a radical change to the route just a few days before the event and for the marathon this meant two laps of a route round Farndale which was a tougher route.

This year there was a more radical change and it is now longer than the original (most people measured it as 29.1m) with significantly more ascent (4500 feet approximately). The weather was hot, up to about 20 degrees at times. There was also some mud.

I was running this one with Sara and we started at the back as we knew there would be hold up at the first gate - the first 1.5m was the same as it always had been. Once through the three gates, we ran down the side of a wheat field.

and up into the lovely village of Gillamoor

where there was a lovely surprise view

We ran past the SportsSunday photographers

A few field edges and woods

The bracken was high in places (thanks to Sara for this photo)

and then onto some moors

Churches in the middle of nowhere

We were making reasonable progress, walking the many hills trying to preserve our energy in the heat. We had mainly be heading west, but finally we turned west with lovely views of the purple heather

There was a lot of steep descents into attractive dales (the route was very well marked with tape)

but inevitably there were steep ascents out of these dales. We past an interesting abandoned farm

We had a bit of a long road section with a descent into Bransdale, 

 before a climb and a descent into the lovely Farndale

Then onto the popular daffodil walk between High Mill and Low Mill, which was relatively quiet, before a big climb out of Farndale

and the inevitable descent back into Farndale. There were some lovely woods and this photo doesn't really do it justice

Then it was a relatively simple, but hilly section to the finish. At the start Ashley had taken a photo of the Elvet Striders running the marathon (thanks for the photo Ashley)

Suffice to say, I didn't look quite so happy at the end. It had been a hot, tough day on a beautiful route. Thanks to Sara for her company 😀

2016 blog