Its Autumn but its still flippin’ glorious – report

The weekend was kicked off in style by the Hunks night out/build up to Steve C’s 50th. Unfortunately I was only there for a short time and hence missed out on plenty of carb loading and athletic preparation which continued into the early hours. Fun was had and hangovers were gleefully acquired.

The GDH flag was indeed being flown at the Winnie Mambaso “shine a light” 5k at Hargate Hill/Gamesley woods. Lawrence, Dan E, Caity, Jo and Esme were there, and considering that Dan is clutching a bottle in the photo I can only assume that it went pretty well.

This weekend saw the welcome return of the Peak Raid events. These Mini Mountain Marathons are orienteering events that last a few hours – based around the Peak which give runners the chance to hone navigation, route finding and timing skills. The first of the series was over at Edale. Tim Culshaw and John Stephenson navigated their way to the start without mishap, and proceeded to have a lovely day in the sun. Tim was 16th overall with a score of 365 – and no lost points! (9th in class) and John Stephenson came in 58th with 270 points (17th MV50). The next Peak Raid is from Glossop scout hut and is on November 6th.

Martin Schmidt of the London contingent had a great time out in the Coastal Trail Series Suffolk “half marathon” coming in 70th overall. The final distance ended up being somewhere around the 23km mark (more distance for your money…. that’s the way to look at it).

‘Ben “the Badger” Naylor  ran the inaugural Dark Peak 30 Ultra, again having some more distance amusements – finally measuring at about 33 and a bit miles. The route took him around and about some glorious places on the Kinder plateau, and from his comments, it really is a decent race for people to contemplate next year. He came in joint 12th overall in 6:31. Apparently next year there will be a 60 miler being offered alongside the 30, so plenty of muddy miles for the more ultra inclined of us to have a go at. Good effort Ben!

Park run corner

A few new PBs were got at Glossop Parkrun this weekend – Dan Oldham in 2nd and Charlie in 3rd both hitting new fastest times, they were joined by Josie Swan (also beating her every-so-slightly-hungover father), Dan Ellingworth and Laurie Barlow who also all nailed the PB wagon. (as it were).

There were the usual suspects out and about in Glossop and the surrounding area – Stretford, Manchester and the like, but from what I can see, nothing out of the ordinary. (though I maybe wrong, feel free to email me if you think I have wronged you and in fact you should be in the report).

Beyond that, there ain’t a whole lot else that I know of.

Oh – the Glossopdale goodie box is out for another week. I’ll be taking it in after next weekend, so if you fancy some flapjack on the hill, find the most recent post on the facebook page and go find it. (else I’ll have to eat it all when it gets brought back).

I believe Ant’s vest is still recuperating after a particularly bad injury. Hopefully it will be out racing again at some point soon. I have bets on it for winning the club championships.