Late Summer Madness

It is a relatively short report this week due to an apparent lull in the racing calendar however, never fear, the lack of official races did not put a complete dampener on the club’s running antics.  Many thanks to Phil Swan, Dan Stinton, John Pollard and Simon Toole for their contributions.  

Trunce #8 (courtesy of Phil Swan)

Four intrepid Glossopdalers met up in sunny Penistone for Trunce #8 and the penultimate opportunity to bag Trunce points in the Club Champs. Caitlin Swan came first in the junior girls, completing her 6^th Trunce junior race this year with a target of a top 3 placing in the series. Working out your position is not easy though as competitors get bonus points for PBs in each race so it takes more than just high placings.

In the seniors, Phil had a typically “credible” race but missed his PB by two seconds because the great doofus still hasn’t found the watch he ‘put down’ somewhere in the house at Easter.  

As the starter shouted “Go!”, Zoe “still talking in the sprint finish” Barton suddenly flipped her race strategy from “just jog round” to “full beans” after clocking that a good placing was needed because other Glossopdalers might do other Trunce races and bag better times than her. A stonking effort ensued with her barrelling down the final straight into a close 6^th place and 3^rd Vet Female placing.

Marie “I thought this was just the warm up” Williamson cruised around the course in fine style and joins the select few with Trunce points this year. Here are the results:

• Caitlin Swan 17m23s (junior course)
• Phil Swan 31m12s
• Zoe Barton 34m59s
• Marie Williamson 45m24s

The last Trunce of 2019 will be on Monday 9 Sept, 6.45pm sharp!! http://www.trunce.org/2019-race-dates/

UTMP/ MPM/ Parkrun and umpteen permutations in between (courtesy of Dan Stinton)

Round and round the garden…. What started as a stupid idea remains a stupid idea, but that hasn’t stopped more and more people giving it a go.  What a glorious spread of blue and orange at Manor Park on Saturday as the Harriers came to run parkrun laps, and more importantly, eat lots of food.

It all started at midnight on Friday when Guy Riddell, Bartek Verde and handful of GLOATURS set off on the Ultra Trail Manor Park (UTMP).  I have no idea what happened overnight, perhaps a few scuffles with some local drunk youths or an altercation with a sleeping duck, but one thing is for certain there was a lot of laps going on.  Various people seemed to turn up during the night and disappear, their names on the official whiteboard the only indication they’d ever been there.  Elanor Swan gave a solid excuse with “Hair Appointment” written next to her lap count [Ed: 🙂 ].  Tracey Robinson was there early-doors as she’d just flew in from Corfu and was heading back out on another shift later on Saturday!

As the sun was rising, the aid station started looking more and more appetising as more MPM’ers brought supplies and started running.  Steve Crossman, Kirsty Sharp, Caitlin Rice and Tim Culshaw also started early but risked disqualification by flouting the rules and changing direction every five laps presumably so they would see more people.  Joss was everywhere.  Clothes were coming off (it was that kind of race) and the pressure was rising to keep pace and get the target laps in.  A fully-laden Immy Trinder was spotted powering through the park hideously early heading to meet Mark Davenport for some tough hill training before coming back for some laps.

As a more sensible hour approached the numbers started increasing much to the confusion of early-morning dog walkers, the people setting up the fairground and that bloke in the shop who is always moaning.

I’ve cobbled together the results table, so congratulations to Bartek Verde who took the UTMP crown with 49 laps and Steve Page picking up the MPM top-spot.  Of course, there were a few fantastic marathon times by Steve Crossman, Sean Phillips and Richard Martin but they just couldn’t stop lapping and pushed themselves into the UTMP category! Caitlin Rice and Kirsty Sharp also completed the marathon distance with Kate Bowden, Ian “New Shoes Again” Crutchley and Alison Holt closely behind.  As you’ll see from the results, there were loads more runners who did fantastically with half-marathons and double-parkruns a ‘plenty.

There was loads of food afterwards with brownies from Lynne Taylor (also celebrating her 50th parkrun) and bacon sandwiches that had taken a trip up to James’ Thorn earlier (thanks Immy!).  

It was great to get so many Harriers together but at the same time with everyone taking on whatever they fancied!  Whilst I didn’t do any official surveys, I’m going to believe that everyone enjoyed it ….. same time next year?!?

NOT the Manor Park marathon…. Morecambe Prom marathon!! (courtesy of Simon Toole)

Unable to join in with Saturday’s parkrun related madness in Manor Park, Simon Toole created his own crazy at a parkrun in Morecambe …

Once the date came out for this year’s manor park marathon I soon realised we were away. Shall we go Saturday afternoon instead of Friday night so I can do the marathon? I tentatively asked my wife….. ‘No!’ was the resounding answer. No point arguing, so plan B it was and on to Morecambe, only 10 minutes from where we are staying.

To my surprise when I got down there at just after 5 am I was the only competitor, bad advertising this Dan, so off I set just me a road sweeper and the occasional dog walker.  A beautiful morning and for the ducks at Glossop swap with seagulls and the duck pond  the Irish sea which was like a duck pond at the time with great views across the bay.

8 and a bit laps would complete the marathon but I got my timing wrong and had to do another lap after the park run to complete it so as I came in to have my bar code scanned and told the marshals what I was doing Idiot and pillock were mentioned followed by good luck messages as I set off for the last lap.  Finally finished so here are the results: Marathon time 5.07 hrs; parkrun time 38.08; 1st v 50;  1st overall …in a field of erm ….1 oh well it’s still a 1^st.

Very enjoyable and I could have inadvertently started marathon park run tourism…..just an idea. 

Pilsley Fell Race

Nick Ham was the only Harrier to take part in the mid Pilsley Fell Race on Thursday.  Nick completed the 9.8 km course (with 245m of climbing) in just less than an hour. Nick’s brief summary from Facebook says it all: “I love this race”.

Black Combe Country Fair Fell Race (courtesy of John Pollard)

I could tell you all about the route, the route options, the terrain, the climb, the heat, the competitors, the lovely country fair in Bootle…but I can’t tell you I finished as I had to give it best and turn around….was the right decision after making a wrong choice and having to fight through fierce bracken, falling, doing my Achilles in again. Really disappointed to DNF but I live to fight another day.  Oddly only 28 or so turned out for this, nearly all Black Combe club runners…maybe too much competition in the Lakes this weekend. I was third last when I pulled out!

Reuben’s Retreat C2C Cycle

Cheryl and Paul Stitt appear to have spent the bank holiday weekend cycling coast to coast ( 170 ish miles from Morecambe to Spurn Point) in the sunshine to raise funds for Reuben’s Retreat.  Great effort Team Stitt!

Parkrun Corner

As Dan and Simon have already mentioned most eloquently,  Harriers were in various stages of parkruin at Glossop and Morecombe this week.  Entering into the spirit of things, John Stephenson  also tried to ruin his appearance at Livingston parkrun with a 9 mile warm up. Elsewhere, Harriers were in action at Pollok, Woodbank, Lyme Park, Hyde, Medina IOW, Oakwell, Cranleigh, Whinlatter Forest, Penrhyn, Swansea Bay, Chasewater and Marple Juniors.  The consolidated club results can be found at: https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1491

Other News….

The deadline for pre-entering the South East Lancs Cross Country series is fast approaching (Friday 27^th September).  XC is a great way to make friends / maintain winter running motivation/ justify wearing shorts and a vest in winter/ play in various types of mud/ wear spikes and look cool / go completely numb in all your extremities  [delete as appropriate]… so, if you are interested, check out Kirsty Sharp’s recent message on FB.  I understand that Chris Webb will be co-ordinating GDH’s participation in the Manchester League XC again this year and will be messaging about this soon.

We are still looking for a few more volunteers for the John Hewitt Memorial Shelf Moor Fell Race on 1^st Sept.  If you are able to help, the RO (Emma Rettig) would be delighted to hear from you.

As the summer starts to draw to an end (boo!) and as our thoughts turn to the joy that is winter racing and the cross country season (yay!), there is still chance to take part in the final few midweek races.  Some of the races in the Harriers’ collective sights over the next few weeks are Barrel Inn, Eyam (Tuesday 27 Aug 6:30pm), Longstone ( Friday 6 Sept 6:30pm)  and the final Trunce (Monday 9 Sept 6:45pm).  Why not give them a go and then tell us all about it at gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com. Go on, you know you want to.

Have a good week and happy running!