“That week in the middle of summer when it doesn’t really feel like summer” weekly report

Not huge amounts of stuff going on this week, but thanks muchly to contributors Luke Holme and Lynne Taylor. Not a whole lot of photos either, so I’m afraid you’re going to have to put up with pictures of Luke, Will and Pete. Yikes. There is loads going on in the next few weeks and I’ve put a few reminders at the bottom of the page. There it is. A short one. 1500 words.

Whitworth Trial marathon/ultra

Pete Wallroth and Luke Holme ran the Whitworth Ultra. – Thanks to Luke Holme for sending this in:

We started off comfortably until hitting about 19 mile marker and then eased off the pace. Pete said its the furthest he has ran this and started to feel a bit tired (however I’ll come back this part later).

6 miles left and slight down hill of pure bog. If anyone knows me I spat my dummy out out at this point as its not runnable.
3 miles left which seemed to take forever. Up and down a small trod of a disused quarry to get to a point with no flags. I’m going to blame Will Mather as he was suppose to be proof running the course. (yes Will its your fault) The best ascent was saved to the last with a rocky scramble out of the quarry. Lots of fun.
About 50 metres from the end and Pete decided he would go for a sprint finish which I was a little surprised at considering he was feeling it at the 19 mile marker. Think he would have given Usain Bolt a decent race how quick he sped up. Joking aside it was top day and lots of laughs. Pete ran brilliantly considering it’s the most distance he has done this year (Bullock Smithy next for you). For anyone doing their first ultra this is one to consider.

Pete 8th 6 hours 35
Luke 9h 6 hours 35

Special mention to Sue Clapham who stormed in with first lady on the marathon route, not sure of her time as I’m not a Strava stalker, however she possibly overtook Guy who was proof running the marathon route. Well done Sue. Thanks Guy Riddell for proof running the marathon course and Will Mather for proof running the Ultra.

Fleetwood half

All I have to go on here is Strava. It would seem that Paul Gately had a bit of a fun run, blasting around a single lap of the pan flat course in 1hr7 though says that he isn’t quite ready to enjoy the second lap just yet. I suspect Icecream was a good reward at the end of that. Alan Byrne was also there but had a bit of an altercation with the “calf Fairy”- which is a bit like the tooth fairy, except it doesn’t wait for you to go to sleep before nicking one of your calf muscles. He got around 6miles before being the unwitting victim of aforesaid sprite.

Pendle 3 peaks

Again, the only information I have here is the glorious Strava. Harshan Gill appears to have picked up his racing mojo from the dry cleaners and is having a bit of a time since blatting around Cracken Edge last week. This week Pendle was his aim, and got up and down the Pendle 3 Peaks in about 2hrs. Considering that Pendle really has only one peak, and the route goes up and down it 3 times I’m not convinced by the name, but whatever. It’s 15k and about 880m of ascent, so whichever way you cut it, that’s still a pretty good day out!

PicaPica

Don’t worry if this one wasn’t actually on your radar. It’s in the Pyrenees and involves a ridiculous amount of distance with an equally (or even greater) amount of ascent. Chris Webb (who else?) was over there on his holi-bobs and had a bit of a bash at it but unfortunately came unstuck 32 miles in. Consider that by this time he had already climbed more than 3000m, and wasn’t even halfway through the race. Quite.

In his own words:- Just felt terrible! Had a couple of decent hours in the middle but the heat, rugged course (read: very hard) and dehydration (where’d all the streams go between Izourt and Refuge Fourcat?!) did for me.

Hard luck Chris. Damn good effort though. I suspect you’ll be back stronger next year.

Eccles Pike

It would seem that the mid-week racing season is gradually drawing to a close. There are still a few classics yet to come, and Eccles Pike is (not) one of them. That being said, it is a beastly little race that runs you ragged up and down the hill with the main excitement being the final dash through the field towards the open arms of the pub. (kind of). There was an excellent turnout over in Bugsworth Basin for this little ripper- and here are the results:

21 Tim “who’s the daddy?” Culshaw-Willson 27:28
27 Chris “Harry” Harrison 28:07
40 Liam “satur?”Dey 29:47
47 Andy “the wily” Fox 30:26 (1st V60)
55 Rich “on the comeback” White 30:52
118 Nick “cameraman” Ham 35:59
153 Lindsay “altitude training” Palmer 38:58
157 Neil “on a race roll” McGraw 39:42
165 Charles “Quickdraw Better Watch Out” Weighley 40:29

Hathersage Swim Social

Thanks to Lynne Taylor for this report:

Early evening on Saturday a massive gaggle of harriers descended upon Hathersage open air pool for a fun hour splashing about in the pool and trying to tame The Challenger Aqua Run inflatable. Much hilarity and splashing ensued, with adults and kids having multiple attempts and successful traverses of the inflatable obstacle. Many thanks to Dan E for a superbly organised club event.
Some club members decided an hour in the pool wasn’t enough exercise and ran over from Glossop beforehand – I believe there were a couple of groups including Lins, Jude, Becky S, Ali, Charlie, Julien, Paul Skuse. Lynne and Kate Bee opted for a shorter run before swimming, heading up onto Win Hill and around the forest tracks back to Yorkshire Bridge. Dave Palmer also enjoyed a delightful bike ride over from Glossop before joining the party. Apologies if I’ve missed anyone’s additional runs/rides, that’s all I can find via strava stalking
NB – there’s some lost property with John/Sheelagh – “Stuff left behind at the pool today. 1 x navy towel, 1 x lady’s cozzie, 1 x waterproof jacket and 1 x small bag containing sunglasses. Shout quick and claim or they will be taken back to Hathersage and put into lost property. “

parkrun Corner

And thanks to Lynne for compiling this as well: Tourists this week were Nick Ham and Chris/Sue Clapham at Woodbank; Tony Hillier at Hyde; William, David and Holly Munday took on Lincoln; Claire Campbell ran at Medina IOW; and Marie Williamson dashed over the hill to Marple. A whole load of us ran at Glossop, too many to mention individually, but there are congratulations to Michael Greenhalgh on your new PB. The Munday juniors also did the double this weekend – running at Alexandra Junior parkrun today, well done Holly and William.
Glossop parkrun has a new storage area for the signs/cones etc which is being shared with Friends of Manor Park. It’s handily located right by the finish area but before we put it to use it needs a bit of attention to spruce it up. There’s a painting party happening this coming Wednesday so if you are around and can help out at any point in the day please let the parkrun team know via facebook. If you have any brushes or rollers spare they’d be very much appreciated; paint has been kindly donated by Steve Crossman.

Bullock Smithy

I understand that there have been a load more places released for the Bullock Smithy- A club Champs race this year. If you fancy running a long race in September and getting some champs points, don’t delay, stop reading further and get your entry in (especially if your surname is Walton). There are loads of recce runs going on at the moment, so get involved!

Call for South East Lancs XC entries-

Please make it easy for Kirsty- If you would like to enter the SE Lancs XC league for the upcoming season, please send her your entry details by Friday 27th September at the latest. – See her post on Facebook!

Fellrelays

The teams have been announced on Facebook. Have a butchers. Look at the link for the maps. Respect the fact that Dark Peak have asked locals not to recce.

MPM

Got a screw loose? Fancy joining Dan Stinton and a load of others runninga marathon around laps of Manor Park next weekend, finishing with parkrun? Well, have a look at his post on the Facebook page. I’m sure he’d love the company.

Shelf Moor Race Volunteering!

If you haven’t volunteered to help out with the Club race yet, and are free – drop Emma Rettig a line. She is organising it and the more people that can help, the better.