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Thanks to contributors Simon Toole, Nev McGraw, Jon Haggart, Marie Williamson and Nick Ham this week. It seems that most of the racing this week was done off the fell and on the trail and road. The glorious weather of the past few weeks gave way to some fairly pleasant temperatures and a bit of heavy mist. We found out that when you write TOT on facebook you get a slightly different outcome than what you expect, we also found out that going diving in Indonesia doesn’t necessarily prepare you for a marathon in Wales. I’m sure there were many other things going on this weekend, but my facebook feed has pretty much been hijacked by photos, results and general stuff from the Tour of Tameside, so if I have missed anything, don’t blame me, blame that.
Trunce
3 GDHrs went to Oxspring near Penistone to race in Race 5 of this years Trunce series. All took advantage of the dry underfoot conditions to record seasons best times:-
Dez Mitchell 38.43 (SB by 1:51)
Neil McGraw 38:47 (SB by 2 minutes)
Nev McGraw 51.59 (SB by 4.47) 2nd V70
The Trunce takes in an undulating course and 3 river crossings and costs only £1:50 to enter and can be thoroughly recommended – I think there are 7 in the series (though am quite happy to be stood corrected by someone in the know…. actually. I’d rather be sat corrected. With a beer in hand).
Holcombe 2 towers
Ben Tetler’s beard made another race appearance this week, racing from Minas Morgul and Orthanc (unless you’re a film affecionado, in which case you think it raced from Barad dur to Orthanc… but there you go) So any way – the beard set off chasing the bloke with a ring, trying to get to Mount Doom Holcombe, Ben swiftly followed, catching up with his errant beard, and overtaking a good few runners in the process. Luckily the Nazgul were not in attendance so the race was run smoothly. I understand that Frodo and Samwise might well have been 1st and 2nd, but nevertheless, Ben’s Beard was 3rd in 33:48, with Ben coming in a narrow 3.5rd.
MDOC
Neil McGraw, not content with just a Trunce to his name this week, competed in the MDOC event based largely in Lyme Park from the Boars Head in Poynton. He ran the 60 minutes score course and finished in 15th position scoring 13 points. Watch out – he’s back and he means business.
Round the resers
A ridiculous number of you went to run around a couple of reservoirs this week, organised by one of our lovely number. It seemed like quite the party was had by the midges if you lot were all wearing vests (which I imagine you were). The sultry atmosphere was probably equalled by Paul Skuse’s dulcet tones as he warmed up for the race, singing a favourite lullaby to lull his fellow competitors into a false sense of security. I have no idea how it went, I have no idea what the course does, having never run it myself. so I’ll say it went around a couple of bodies of water, there were a couple of sharp inclines that none but the most foolhardy ran, billions of midges were eaten while billions more were caught in various bits of bodily hair on show, and everyone had a great time….
8 Paul “the corner-er” Skuse – 30:43
26 Steve “turned a new” Page – 33:02
35 Rob “just warming up” Murphy 33:50
39 Rich “2 kids no sleep, still got it” White – 34:05
57 Rob “beat yer coach” Sheldon 35:32
58 Jeroen “Sheldon is going down” Peters 35:36
64 Luke “take me” Holme (country roads) 36:12
69 David “I prefer XC” Chrystie- Lowe 36:31
87 Joe “and” Gavin 38:05
101 Emma “eye of the tiger” Rettig 38:59
103 Jo “tester for saturday” Brack 39:04
104 Steve “where’s my bike (and wetsuit) France 39:08
105 Nick “can’t believe I brought a bike (and wetsuit) Ham 39:10
132 John “the don” Stephenson 41:22
140 Char “you just wait Brack” Brierley 41:58
145 Marie “finished already?”Williamson 42:18
153 Emma “can’t believe he talked me into this” Chrystie-Lowe 43:04
157 Malc “steady away” Brown 43:53
173 Ruth “which resers?” Westbrooke 45:47
201 Alabama “dance til youre winning… or is that wining?” Breeze 51:38
220 Mandy “my house has got” Beames 55:17
221 Jon “mmm. midges. Protein” Haggart 55:32
Trail marathon/half/5k Wales.
The trail marathon thing took place in Coed y Brenin this weekend. There was a lot of “buzz” and “vibe” as you might expect from something that was very Salomon backed. Despite the Welsh “sunshine” it was a very enjoyable time, hooning around the forest tracks, single track and fire roads. There was a very impressive attempt by Greg Wasinski to gain a leg up on all the Bombed out trophy claimants this year by locking his keys in the car, having to wait til 1am to find out that no-one was coming, then wait again on the day of the marathon, only to get a lift down to the race once he found out no-one was coming to help him (again), missed the marathon (for the second year running) and ran the half marathon (for the second year running) – and returned to his car to find that someone HAD turned up, broken into his car and left the key with the people he was staying with…. We *think* the people that broke into his car were legit, though being in mid-wales, I was wondering if it was just some local scrotes that wanted a bit of pocket money….
Lucy Wasinski decided that intelligence was the best option for someone who had sprained their ankle recently and opted to not run the marathon – she settled for marshaling the race on Saturday, fuming at Greg for locking the keys in the car and winning the evening 5k race on Friday.
General positions below…..
Marathon
13 Tim “I should have done the half” Budd 3:46:14
91 Zoe “great way to start the holiday” Barton 4:29:40
170 Wendy “well… that could have been easier” Trelease 5:05:29
191 Beccy “It’s not a race if you don’t get scars” Smith 5:14:56
DNF Mark “non-digestable food” Davenport
Half
49 Greg “keys? what keys?” Wasinski 1:54:14
199 Alan “training? what training?” Scholefield 2:17:27
277 Jo “pootle and a chat” Brack 2:28:18
278 Char “chat and a pootle” Brierley 2:28:18
287 Lynne “give me my bloody lungs back” Taylor 2:29:34
Evening 5k
2nd (1st Lady) Lucy “glass slipper ankles” Wasinski
Tour of Tameside
Right, I’m not even going to try to give everyone here nicknames. The main thing I know about the Tour of Tameside is that it is 4 races around Tameside, you have to do all 4 to qualify for the final result, and the races range from short to half marathon, mostly being on a mix of trail and road. There is a load of stuff on facebook about it, but as there is no general overview, I’ve trawled through and put the results in below…..
Race 1 – Xtrail
10 Steve Knowles 37:48
19 Dan Oldham 39:07
23 Chris Jackson 39:56
28 Steve Page 40:22
46 Rob Murphy 42:34
60 Guy Riddell 43:36
79 Ian Crutchley 45:19
186 Tony Hillier 50:30
262 Jon Pollard 53:09
433 Claire Higgins 1:01:10
Hell on the Fell
5 Steve Knowles 38:52
11 Chris Jackson 40:32
17 Dan Oldham 41:25
19 Steve Knight 41:50
32 Steve Page 43:28
39 Rob Murphy 44:07
61 Guy Riddell 36:38
70 Ian Crutchley 47:41
197 Tony Hillier 55:32
Hero Half Marathon
11 Steve Knowles 1:24:12
17 Craig Leith 1:26:21
21 Chris Jackson 1:27:40
24 Dan Oldham 1:28:32
45 Steve Page 1:32:15
51 Rob Murphy 1:33:34
82 Guy Riddell 1:39:18
120 Ian Crutchley 1:43:25
157 Tony Hillier 1:47:48
275 Wendy McMahon 1:58:50
Hyde 7
12 Steve Knowles 42:43
32 Chris Jackson 45:12
37 Kirsty Sharp 46:02
44 Dan Oldham 46:20
52 Steve Page 47:01
66 Rob Murphy 48:56
83 Guy Riddell 50:01
121 Ian Crutchley 52:00
218 Tony Hillier 56:35
366 Malc Brown 1:02:18
383 Wendy McMahon 1:03:49
569 Susan Moore 1:16:12
584 Mandy Beames 1:18:33
591 David Munday 1:18:52
Overall
6 Steve Knowles 1st V45 3:23:37
17 Chris Jackson 3:33:24
20 Dan Oldham 2nd V45 3:35:27
31 Steve Page 3:43:22
38 Rob Murphy 1st V55 3:49:10
55 Guy Riddell 3:59:52
67 Ian Crutchley 4:08:31
141 Tony Hillier 1st V70 4:30:03.
So – there you go – totes kudos to all those who ran, especially those that managed to finish all of the races. That’s a pretty decent amount of running and distance over the 4 days. Awesome work from Stevie Knowles for winning V45 cat and Dan Oldham for giving him a run for his money, coming in 2nd V45. Rob Murphy really was just warming up at the resers, coming in 1st V55, and Tony Hillier, as ever, being the most stubbornly regular V70 winner. Grand work by Jacko, Pagey, Riddell the monster and Crutchley the supervillain for their sterling running through the entire series.
Marple Carnival 10k
Marple Carnival 10k this morning for me, and for one other GDH vest whose occupant I’m afraid I didn’t recognise, and they disappeared into the crowd before I could go over and say hello. Perhaps you’ll get two reports!?
My run was thrown into disarray before we started as we were reminded no headphones were allowed, so I had to mentally soundtrack the opening 3k myself. It was Yazz & The Plastic Population, because the only way was up as we climbed out of Brabyns Park. After that start I was in my familiar isolated back position so with only the odd person nearby became one of those annoying people you get on the train and turned my tunes on the phone speaker.
The run was a real test because you never seemed to get a long run of flat ; absolutely deserving the billing of ‘undulating’. There is a really cruel hill on 6km, which you get to the top of only to have to climb more, up some steps up to the canal. My legs were pretty unhappy at this point, reminding me that they’d only recently seen me through Round the Resers.
Nevertheless, a canal-side patch including over the stunning Marple viaduct calmed them a little before dropping back into the park for a 1.5km stretch to the finish that Marple Parkrunners will be familiar with.
It’s a good run, probably the most difficult 10k I’ve attempted so far. A pity is clashed with 
, as I think plenty of GDH runners would enjoy it. Excellent swag too, including a copy of the Beano!
(Oh, That crying icon was supposed to be Tour of Tameside, the acronym of which appears to an emoticon!)
I didn’t end up getting 2 reports, but the results page tells me that John Pollard was 102nd in 53:27 and Jon was 230th in 1:13:56
Baslow Boot Bash
Nick Ham and Marie Williamson were across the way in Baslow…. though it appears neither of them knew the other was there… From Nick – That’s another marathon added to the tally: Baslow Boot Bash. 5:24 gave me my 2nd fastest time out of 4 completions, just like Round The Resers 3 days ago. There’s life in the old dog yet. It was a perfect day for running, and the Derbyshire Dales are the perfect place to do it.
From Marie:
We’re you there too?! 5:46 finish for me. Loved it.
For anyone that doesn’t know…it starts at the Chatsworth kissing gates & 1st couple of miles are through the estate. You’re given 7 checkpoints…& can choose your own route (they do provide a suggested route, also) it takes you through lots of lovely countryside & little villages….& there’s pie & peas waiting at the end for you.
Ah… pies and peas. What more could you want at the end of a run?
Dark Peak trail run
Simon Toole sent me this missive via a cat carrying a mouse, holding a small scroll.
Parkrun
Dez Mitchell is going from PB to PB at Glossop, coming in at 22:32 this week. Clive Hope is enjoying the hard ground too, PBing at 23:54. Wyatt and Naomi Barlow continue on with their consistent PB gains at Glossop. This week Wyatt hit the giddy heights of 26:45 and Naomi 42:09.
Consolidated report here.