Better Late than Never. It’s the Champs Report!

Whilst the races tend to peter out this time of year, there’s still quite a bit to report on this week. And as we wind down for Christmas, and we have no clue if and when the binmen will turn up, its really important that we concentrate on “re-fuelling”. So go ahead an pour yourself a pint of Egnog, grab the whole Marzipan Stollen, and and let’s go nuts!

Stockport 10

OK so this took place the same day as the Christmas Party, so hats off if you made it to both, and Dan is forgiven for being too drunk to cover it last week! This is a great 10 mile road route, with a little trail here and there, starting and finishing in Woodbank Park Stadium. Congrats to Steve Knowles for V45 category win, and everyone else who went over. Results as follows:

23	Steve Knowles	1:00:50
184	David Christie-Lowe	1:13:02
199	Jeroen Peters	1:13:30
258	Alex Critcher	1:16:31
399	Cheryl Stitt	1:21:11
489	Nick Ham	1:24:46
527	Tony Hillier	1:25:29
646	Wioleta Wydrych	1:28:56
918	Susan Moore	1:47:48
920	David Munday	1:48:21

2019 Xmas Party and Club Championships

Great to see everyone last Sunday at the do, and Thanks for bringing all the yummy food stuffs to help our recovery from 2019’s efforts. It would appear there was some “overhydration” took place particularly once events moved onto The Queens. You’re welcome Mr Page….

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OK, lets get into the Champs Results for 2019, and I believe a couple of minor errors may have crept in initially. Oops, it would appear that complex mathematics and Howard Town Beer are not good bedfellows! So I’ve called in some sober bigger brains to help me make sense of it all and I hope its right. Massive congratulations to our winners, runners up and everyone that qualified. Full lists of results will be published shortly, but without further ado here are the positions of those that qualified…..

Mens Fell Championship 2019

Position	Name
1st	Paul Skuse
Joint 2nd	Will Mather
Joint 2nd	Joe Travis
4th	Ian Crutchley
5th	John Stephenson
6th	Nick Ham

Womens Fell Championship 2019

Position	Name
1st	Wendy Trelease
2nd	Zoe Barton
3rd	Rachel Walton

Mens Road/Trial Championship

Position	Name
1st	Sean Philips
2nd	Steve Crossman
3rd	Steve Page
4th	Will Mather
5th	Luke Holme
6th	Rob Sheldon
7th	David Christie-Lowe
8th	Ian Crutchley
9th	Simon Toole
10th	Jeroen Peters
11th	John Stephenson
12th	Malc Brown

Womens Road/Trail Championship

Position	Name
1st	Emma Rettig
2nd	Joanne Brack
3rd	Rachel Walton
4th	Charmayne Brierley

Mens Overall Championship

Position	Name
1st	Sean Philips
2nd	Paul Skuse
3rd	Will Mather
4th	Joe Travis
5th	Ian Crutchley
6th	Rob Sheldon
7th	Luke Holme
8th	John Stephenson
9th	Nick Ham

Womens Overall Championship

Position	Name
1st	Wendy Trelease
2nd	Rachel Walton
3rd	Marie Williamson
4th	Charmayne Brierley

Elsewhere, we had a few additional prizes to be awarded. Club Dad Steve Crossman predictably and deservedly scooped the Nev McGraw Age Graded Award, which was very appropriately presented by Linda McGraw, wife of club legend Neville McGraw whom we tragically lost in 2018. This is the first year that the trophy has been named for Nev, who would have been pleased to see Steve Crossman came out on top again, with David Christie-Lowe in second place, Jo Brack third.

Another award presented, is the The Spirit of John Hewitt Trophy. This handsome piece of hardware was donated to GDH by some former members now running with Carnathy, in memory of our former Chairman and another club legend we sadly lost in 2018, John Hewitt. It is awarded to the runner who most embodies John’s enthusiasm for running, and sense of adventure. Lance Hamilton-Griffiths scooped the prize, and he certainly ticks the boxes! An all round great lad, 2019 has seen Lance go from a first time fell runner, to an ultra runner, and one of the best in the club at that. He will have a go at pretty much anything, and that’s proved fortunate for me, as he’s easy to blag extremely agreeable to daft ideas. I cant wait to see what he gets up to in 2020.

As always a great deal of competition for this years Bombed Out Trophy. A trophy where very much, your loss, is our gain. Regular’s Greg Wasinski (lots his car keys (again!)), and Luke Holme (a default nominee for being navigationally challenged, and this year for taking a nap 3 miles from the end of the Oldham Way Ultra) didn’t get a sniff this time around, which hints at the shear quality of incompetence displayed.

Tracey Robinson made a strong case, by getting lost in the 3km Tinsel Santa dash, hours after running gravy pud. Ben Robertson impressed us all by driving to Birkenhead for an XC fixture, only to find it was the WRONG DAY.

But topping the list has to be Nicola Pennington. Nicola had been looking forward to attending her first GDH speed session, which have a habit of taking place in the Glossop area. Upon arrival in Mossley, Nicola was surprised that she couldn’t find the usual lycra clad, luminous 90’s dance troop that is, the Tuesday night crew. Worthy? Well, she wasn’t finished there, as she managed to go to the wrong Bulls Head, almost missing the start of the Gravy Pud. Brilliant Nicola!

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Dark Peak 15 Trigs

Tim Budd and Chris Webb did a winter round of the 15 Trigs, a 57 mile local classic! Tim sent this in…

Chris Webb and I thought it would be fun to do a midwinter 15 trigs round this weekend. It was indeed fun, with a fair amount of navigation, pizza, scotch eggs and tangfangtastics were in evidence. We took an anticlockwise route and had to take some longer nav lines in order to reduce error potential. Although neither of us was in what you might call “long distance form” we took just over 13 hours to do the 57ish miles of the route.

That’s a great time guys. I can personally attest to the quality of this challenge, but a winter round is definitely hardcore! For anyone interested, you can read more detail about their fun day on Tims blog. https://testedtodestruction.blogspot.com/2019/12/midwinterish-15-trigs.html?fbclid=IwAR0g1DzlnmIQbuNnKShK4bZ3xXddvG7Wqj0lWYEXVmwrFjhiNFv7wXUkfr4

Christmas Pud Social

Fantastic to see such a great crowd at this years Christmas Pud Social. This in from Guy Riddell….

Not a race, but running was involved and a fair few harriers too. I counted 28 runners and 4 dogs turned up for a social run round the ever popular Gravy Pud route from Tinsel. The weather was spot on and there was some lovely mud to run through- good job the pub landlord is runner friendly (as well as mad as a box of frogs) meaning many of us had beer and food after too despite our muddiness.

Special mention to Will Mather who included this run in his 22 miles on the 22nd, as part of his amazing 500 miles in December. Still running stronger than most of us despite his ridiculous schedule. 

Parkrun

Congrats to Jacqueline Christie Lowe who PB’d at Glossop, and also Dan Stinton at Dudley. Rich Martin was poised for “Furthest South Parkrunner of the Week” having done Cyclopark in Kent. But our man Joe Travis left him for dead, popping up at Whangarei in New Zealand. Meanwhile the Munday Clan continue their bid to run every parkrun in the world, this week up at Clitheroe Castle. Well done guys.

The consolidated club report is HERE

Marple Junior parkrun saw the debut of young Leo Hamilton-Griffiths. Always great to see the next generation strutting their stuff. Nice work Leo!

Other Stuff (plenty of)

Will Mather is doing an amazing job on his 500 mile challenge for Mummy’s Star, a charity very close to home, supporting women and families affected by cancer during and after pregnancy. Really is incredible to see how the club have rallied round to support him on this particular epic. If you haven’t ran with Will yet, there’s still time, and I know he will appreciate it as the toughest week begins. Also, if you can spare a few quid, you can sponsor Will and this great charity here…..

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/william-mather500?fbclid=IwAR1tTgNsNMXaHwGvnBP5QagXUJotuV2ZAX1gQIYZIc97udMvOGh7vTGdmyQ

Also doing an incredible job for charity, a group of GDH babes – Jo Brack, Charmayne Brierley, Emma Rettig, Adele Metcalfe and Elanor Swan, are doing the 3 mile December Daily Dash for Sue Ryder, another great charity that raises money to support people who are living with a terminal illness, a neurological condition or who have lost a loved one

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/glossopdaleladies?fbclid=IwAR0ar78P754gJgLTHY-QdoR_yzqopYiKnk6tbUClzskjTYFjD_imOtDZFiU

On 29th December at 7.30, get yourselves to Glossop Mountain Rescue base for an evening of AL Race discussion. To translate, this means long fell races, Mountain Marathons and big rounds like the Bob Graham. There is a wealth of experience in the club, and few more than our hosts Tim Budd and Chris Webb, who will attempt to demystify such endeavors blag us. There’ll be free tea, so I’ll be there, but do be prepared to be talked into something truly bonkers in 2020!

And further to above, there’s a GDH 3 day Bob Graham Round beimng arranged! Lins Palmer posted about this on the FB page, 17-19th July. The schedule is legs 1 & 2 from Keswick on day one, and bed down in Grasmere YHA. The crux leg 3 is on day two, bedding down at Wasdale Head. Finally legs 4 and 5 on day three, finishing back in Keswick. This is a fantastic way to take in the full route whatever your reasons might be…. Its absolutely no picnic though, as amounts to 3 fairly substantial days, however you look at it. Incidentally, I am planning the exact same thing, albeit more like August, and probably more chaotic – carrying everything with no road support, and possibly at Bob Graham pace. Shout up if you’re interested in either!

If I may, I’d also like to plug Wormstones Fell Race which is at 11am on New Years Eve. This is a classic local race from the Beehive in Glossop – a beasty 4 miles, 1300 feet climb up and down to Harry Hut trig point. And it finishes at the pub, so whats not to like?

All that remains to say, is have a great Christmas, and I wish you all the best for 2020!