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

Gritstone Grind 35m 2019

Mow Cop, The Cloud, Wincle Minn, Croker Hill, Tegg's Nose, Kerridge Hill, White Nancy and Sponds Hill - an interesting set of names for hills and features of this route. This area was completely new to me and the route followed the well signposted Gritstone Trail

I was doing this one on my own as Melanie wanted to take care of a few niggles, so she went on her own shorter run. The start was as Kidsgrove and the finish at Disley and we drove to Disley. Melanie ran back to the hotel where we were staying and I got on a coach to Kidsgrove. It was an early start from our hotel, registration was between 6.00 and 6.45 and the race started soon after 8.30.

The first two and half miles were along canal tow paths which was a nice way to warm up.

The first hill was Mow Cop, where there is a folly. 

Then it was a ridge run befor a descent to an old railway line. This was all very runnable. We turned off the old railway line and made our way to the first checkpoint. The checkpoints on this event were just amazing - orange slices, sausage rolls, cheese rolls, vegetable samosas, onion bhajis, twix, biscuits, cordeial, coke and water. A lot of people were gathered at this checkpoint !

I filled up with water grabbed a samosa and a vegetable roll and left as soon as I could before I was tempted to have more. The next hill, the Cloud, came straight away.

SportsSunday were there and took this one of me

and then a long runnable descent

There were some lovely wooded sections as well

Then the start of the next climb up to Wincle Minn and we passed this

On the way to the top we came across the first of three unofficial checkpoints put on by a local running club, Bollington Harriers. Even they had a great selection of food !

Once at the top there was a short descent and a climb up to the transmitter at Coker Hill. I had started almost at the back but I was going well here and others were starting to tire so I was gradually overtaking people. This was the half way point and I had a rough aim to be there by 4 hours and I was just a little behind, but I wasn't aiming to do anything but finish and I now knew I had plenty of time available.

Another long, gentle descent and on to the next official checkpoint next to a pub. It was now getting a little warm. On across some rolling countryside towards the next hill Tegg's Nose which was clearly visible as we approached it

It wasn't quite as bad as I expected and the view from close to the top was lovely

After another good descent, a few more rolling bits before a steep climb up Kerridge Hill and along a ridge to the White Nancy which was about marathon distance.

I took the tourist down as the alternative looked pretty steep to me. More rolling hills and in to the final official checkpoint. Then a long, long drag upwards to the final hill, Spond's Hill. Again lovely views

I was expecting it to be all downhill from here and it mainly was. We went into the lovely Lyme Park which was heaving with people.

A few more ups and then a long runnable one mile descent to the finish in Disley. Medals and tee shirts you could order before the event and pay for, but I decided not to opt for either and I thought it was a good idea to make them optional.

It was the first time I had had a tracker (not everybody in the event was given one). It didn't work for all of the event, but Melanie found it useful to see where I was.

It was a lovely day to do this route, hardly any wind, but not too hot, just right.

Harvest Hobble 26m 2019

This was a new event for us, neither of us had been to this area of the Lincolnshire Wolds before. The event started at Ludford, near Market Rasen and headed north west and then was a rectangular route. There was a strong breeze from the south west that blew us along in the first half, but it was hard going into the wind when Melanie and I didn't have the protection of hedges which sometimes helped.

The event HQ was the village hall and this being an LDWA event, it was cheap. Free tea or coffee at the start. The first checkpoint (3 miles) had biscuits, but after that there was sandwiches, cheese and sausage rolls. At the end there was tomato soup roll followed by rice pudding with peaches. A good day for eating !

We started off and headed for a long section of the Viking Way. Initially there was a few flat field edges, but we did come across some sunflowers.

The route then started to undulate

Before a descent to the first checkpoint (3 miles)

Then it was up and on to the edge of the wolds with lovely views to the west

Still more undulations

and into an area where there were deer

We passed many lovely churches, this one was in Normanby-le-Wold

We made a slight error when we came off the Viking Way, the path forked and we took the left one instead of the right one. We had the route on our Garmins and the paths were very close so it was hard to work out the correct way. Luckily, runners behind us let us know we were wrong so we were able to quickly backtrack.

We then entered some woods (a long way from anywhere) close to some old workings (according to the map). We came across three of these, which may apparently be airshafts.

More typical wolds countryside, lots of the route reminded us of the Golden Fleece Circuit route on the other side of the Humber

Late on the route was telling us to go straight across a field of potatoes. Not easy and we gave up in the end and headed down one of the valleys between the potatoes.

After the last checkpoint at 21 miles, there was a long drag upwards into the wind, which was very hard going and I would say this was the least attractive part of the route.

We were pleased to get back to Ludworth to our soup, roll and sweet - if you have never done an LDWA event, go for it they are fun !