Another week of incredible running

The sun came out from behind the rain clouds for the weekend, inspiring a whole world of reccy-ing and social running plus a fair amount of racing.  Well done everyone!

Cressbrook Crawl (courtesy of Ian Crutchley)

After pulling out of the Hardmoors race, a shocking week at work, and still reeling from William Mather’s cruel campaign to steal the very few CRs I have, I decided to shoehorn a race in to this busy weekend.  With the promise of a free pint at the finish, Cressbrook Crawl it was, and securing one of the last places I found myself basking in the pre-race sunshine outside the Cressbrook Club.  Serving as race HQ, and the local watering hole for this extremely quaint and very small village, it feels like having a pint in a stranger’s living room.  This must be the busiest event of the year for the venue.

After exploring the first half mile of the route, gorgeous views down the valleys and across the dales, I was loitering at the start line, when I spotted John Pollard.  John had made a sat nav error and ended up in Baslow.  Not that far off, but far enough to bring him to the start on the very last minute.  Not much more time to chat, we resolved to have that free pint together at the end, and generally shoot the breeze.

At just over 10K, and 1100ft, this is a route that I should do OK at on paper.  Very similar to Joe’s Cup on Bank Holiday Monday – lots of running, one fairly hefty climb, and an uphill finish.  Actually, with the exception of this main climb up from Litton Mill, this is a trail race.  After a good start, it was on this main climb, less than 2 miles in, where I was struggling already.  Energy low and not managing to get enough air, I resolved to hang on as best I could, knowing that a long flat slog along the Monsal Trail was coming, and there I could make up some places.  But I just didn’t recover and even on the trail, I was struggling to keep a respectable pace.  Once on the long mile tarmac climb to the finish, I was done, even had to walk a few times, limping over the line in about 59 minutes.  And so continues my inconsistent form, but loving the races none the less.

I waited for John, snapping an action shot of him gunning for the line in around 1.08.  I hadn’t noticed earlier, but his shorts were impressively camouflaged against our green surroundings.  His shoes however, were certainly not!  We enjoyed that pint, and would like to have another go at this one.  Highly recommended for any trail runners or fell beginners.  Oh, and Mather, you’ll keep, mate. You will keep…..

Power of 5k (courtesy of Jeroen ‘Proud-Parent’ Peters and Paul Peters)

On Friday night, Paul Peters took a break from studying for his final year maths exams to participate in the Power of 5, a series of 5k races in Lancaster. He stormed home in a new PB time of 16.03. His second place overall (16 seconds behind the winner) put him ahead of all his uni-mates. Not sure how much longer they’ll remain his mates if they don’t get a look in any more.  Says Paul afterwards: “I’ve not been 100% recently and training’s been dire since April so I’ll take it”. Having told a certain Chris Webb back in September that he was going under 16 in 5k ‘soon’, Paul is clearly on track to remove those pesky few seconds in the not too distant future to achieve his (awesome) sub-16 target. 

Hardmoor Wainstones (courtesy of Tracey Robinson)

Ever since I was a little girl I’ve loved walking, skipping even cartwheeling over the North Yorkshire Moors!  So the Hardmoors series was top of my bucket list! After securing a place on the half Marathon (That’s 16:8 miles …. these are Hardmoors miles!!) I roped in:
– John “is there internet in this tent” Stephenson
– Tracey “Where is Cecil” Robinson 
– Kate “Chop Gate … Giggle Emily 
– Jo “Shouldn’t have had that last pint “ Brack 
– Charmaine “ I’ve done no training for this”
– Becky “always smiling “Smith 

With a couple of supporters: 
– Mark “Glossopdale one man cheerleader“ Davenport 
– Andy “Cheat on a bike” Brack 

The day arrived and the sun came out to show the North York Moors in all its splendid glory . We stood on the start line as one team with the aim to start and finish together! You could hear the whispers “everywhere we go people wanna know …. who we are “ I so wanted to sing …… “we’re from Glossopdale “  We were off straight into a brutal climb ..I love hills!!. We regrouped and ran along the tops taking in the breathtaking scenery! Then just like that, we were at checkpoint 1 …. wow so much food! Hello DR pepper.  Here is where the fun began and we commenced our climb up to Carlton bank. We got on the top and it was clear a few of us were struggling , My I.T band had started to pull and Jo’s hip was aching!

We were one team and we stayed together. We descended into Lord Stones country Park where Mark and Andy were waiting us and, of course, the gorgeous Cecil.  With my IT band playing up I ran ahead to try and massage it with Cecil’s hard ball much to everyone’s amusement!  Andy and Mark joined us on the beginning of what the locals like to call the Three Sisters.  We said goodbye to them at Lord Falconer’s Seat, then we turned and headed into the first of the three ascents left ahead.  Charmaine The Machine had picked up the pace and was in the lead followed by Becky who was never far behind.   We then had to fight our way through a swarm of flies that got into everyone’s eyes, nose and some were even passengers on John’s glasses!

We were now looking at the famous Wainstones rocks, the last of the big climbs.  Kate as chirpy as ever was keeping us all motivated and in good spirits.  John got to the top and decided to do a hill rep – lunatic! So, after our rock climbing expedition of getting through and over the Wainstones rocks, we were onto the final climb and the home run down into Chop Gate.  At this point I was in agony with my I.T , Jo was also struggling. At checkpoint we grabbed a handful of jelly babies and motivated each other …… 4 miles to go, we got this!  Those last few miles felt like forever. I knew the end was in sight when we turned down towards William Beck Farm and crossed 6 million cattle grids.  We re-grouped and  turned into the car park to thunderous applause, ok I’m exaggerating, a few claps. We ran into the church together and that was the finish line, Wainstones 2019 done and dusted! 

Brathay 10in10

The Brathay 10in10 started this week with GDH’s own Marie Williamson as part of the 17 runners completing the crazy challenge – running a 26.2 mile anti-clockwise circuit of Windermere (taking in Hawkshead, Newby Bridge, Bowness-on-Windermere and Ambleside) not just once but once a day for 10 consecutive days.  Huge good luck with the remaining 7 days, Marie – a great event for a great cause!

Other Stuff gleaned from Strava and Facebook

>>> Nick Ham took part in the Spire Ultra which, at 34 miles, is a flipping long way.

>>> Lins Palmer took her current obsession with all things steep back to the Lakes this weekend completing Buttermere Sailbeck Fell Race (a classic AM race, apparently) in 2h37m.

Parkrun Corner

With no parkrun at Glossop this week, GDH ranged even further and even wider than usual mainly at Hyde but also at Penistone, Aberystwyth, Delamere, Marple, Clitheroe Castle, Woodbank, Worsley Woods and Amager Fælled.  The consolidated parkrun club report is available here.

It was Marple junior parkrun’s 5^th birthday today (how time flies!) which, of course, meant that it was time to break out the running fancy dress.  Team Wallroth Jnr looked incredible!

Don’t forget, we love to hear about your racing antics at gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com  (and it saves us from having to make things up/ stalk you all on FB and Strava).  Have a great week, lovely running people!