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- A day of sun,...
So I’m sitting here feeling sorry for myself as the general malaise of the past week has given way to full blown snot fest. Annoying as this week is apparently going to be gorgeous – and as far as I can see, I shall be mainlining lemsip and being generally pathetic. Not so much for you lot, apparently. Vast amounts of running and cycling and rattling around the Peak and further afield… An impressive array of accomplishments from all around the area. Now all I need to do is work out how to download photos from strava, and we’ll be all good.
Chicken Run
The recent addition to the Hayfield fell race calendar proved to be a bit of a draw, with apparently more than 100 people coming from all over to enjoy the glorious day on the hill. One wonders if they were there to enjoy the run, or in fact to enjoy the cakes at the end, which were apparently plentiful and delicious. As far as I know it was only Ben Tetler who ran in Glossopdale colours (the reason for thinking this is that no-one else has told me anything, and I can’t see anything else on Strava). His winter of discontent and hyper-ballistic training has catapulted his speed along the way, and Ben finished a rather grand 2nd overall, beaten only by some bloke from Totley. Good running Ben, great to see you’re on form.
Aha- I see that Cheryl “the machine” Stitt and Wendy “That’s not a hill” McMahon were also out there enjoying the good weather, blasting around the course with abandon. Fabulous to see the local races getting local support.
Aha – and more information has come in on the telex machine via our eye on the ground that is Jo Brack. She also ran with the Chickens, managing a broadly similar time as last year, while Ezme decided to head off towards the front of the field and chance her arm amongst the bigger hitters. Mary “a smile is part of your running kit” Jeal was also there, starting out her assault on the spring and summer of racing… a V50 prize there, perchance? Rich White was apparently out there strutting his stuff- evidently getting a day pass out (or morning?) from the kids and the cats? Or maybe he has trained the cats to look after the kids? Or vice versa? As was the indomitable Andy Wilkins – always up for a local race, even when it is on the Isle of Wight. (which, in this case, it wasn’t).
Calderdale Hike
Nick Ham has been at it again… on the Run Further (or Fun Ruther as I nearly wrote it) champs. This week it was the turn of the Calderdale Hike, which takes place around Calderdale. As for the word “hike” I suspect that it was less of a hike and a bit more of a tempo challenge. Nick sent his report via morse code, and as far as I know, it hasn’t been intercepted by anyone yet… oh, no, Zuckerberg has it, and it’s been splashed on facebook. Oh well – here it is for posterity anyway…
I’m back home, squeaky clean and splinters (thorns) extracted after today’s Calderdale Hike. I’m buzzing from the physical challenge and the camaraderie. It was an honour and a privilege to have some running company for much of the event (until my body said “no more” as usual). The ~40 miles turned out to be tougher than expected, so I’m quite pleased with 8hrs 51mins and the highest Runfurther championship points so far this year by a long way. Well chuffed.
What’s more, I have serviceable pictures thanks to my late Dad’s ancient Panasonic Lumix just pressed into ultra-running use.
(ancient panasonic lumix. Lol.).
Chunal Fell Race
Ah – Chunal Fell race, that race where you know it’s going to be in Chunal, but are unsure as to quite which route Des is going to decide on this year. Records don’t matter because I don’t think the route has ever been the same twice…. last year I think it even morphed into Wormstones at the last minute…. however, what is assured is a vast amount of climb in a short space of distance. Lung burning ups, leg shredding downs and a feeling of having been put through the wringer by the end of it. Ian Crutchley thought himself up for the challenge and duely wandered off into the maw of the beast, and definitely survived – though I don’t know where he finished. He said it was “horrible”, though there is evidence of him smiling on a photo at the end. … oh, and news just in (as in I’ve had another look at strava), and it would appear that Ben Tetler doubled up this weekend and also raced Chunal as well, 5th this time around – proving his mettle… or is that metal legs?
Ah – He is alive…. Ian just sent me this….
Old Gals
I have to put this bit in here – technically neither of them are “old” as such, but they are both alumni of the Bleaklow bashing brethren. This week at the first British Champs race in Donard, Jasmin Paris led the ladies field through the clag and came in 1st lady, while Caity Rice put in a sterling effort, not knowing what place she was in until the final checkpoint… and ended up 2nd. Some mighty fine running and navigating there. Good work!
NRAMM (not really a mountain marathon)
An elite field of 6 people ran an event that wasn’t exactly a mountain marathon from Glossop to Hope this weekend. I won’t go into too much detail, but basically fun was (apparently) had by all. The evening meal was a little more luxurious than normal MM standards, by the fact we were in a pub. Special kudos goes out to Catherine Cleary for running further than she has ever run before, whilst being horrendously hungover. (At least she admitted that for perhaps 30 mins of the day she did actually feel on top of the world). Great to see Al Cowell back on the hill again even if he did spend much time faffing at checkpoints. Matt Huxford, the sole A-class runner took the event very seriously as you can see from the photos, Lynne Taylor did a fantastic back to back distance weekend unrivaled in her Strava profile for at least a year previously, Paul Skuse certainly needs to be mentioned as he was the only person stupid enough to carry his entire MM kit for the weekend, and Mark Davenport was the stoical lynch pin of the whole lot, whilst treading ground he has never previously run on.
Parkrun
An absolute ton of Harriers at Glossop park run this week, but only one PB – and that from Alan Byrne. Good to see the young Minshull out on home turf for his first official parkrun as well. Consolidated report is – as ever, on this link.
Other stuff
Yup – there were people off doing social runs and stuff, and this is one of the few pics that I could find on facebook… makes Clough Edge and Torside look properly epic….
This week
This Wednesday it is Herod Farm. If you aren’t running it, volunteer. If you haven’t volunteered, um… run it.