Bang! Bang! Brrrr. Weekend report

As October turns to November, the leaves fall from the trees and the temperature plummets to the ridiculous, races are still happening and runners are still out there doing their thing. The first of this seasons snow fell on Bleaklow today, it was blinking cold up there, so if you’re going up there be prepared with your clothing etc and take a torch, coz its getting dark proper early now.

The Peak Raid went from Old Glossop this morning. As a champs race, it was interesting to see who would turn up and brave the chill, the mud and the navigational perils of our back garden. Lindsay Palmer, despite having a bit of a cold and getting involved simply just to “run round” the course, came in 22nd overall, which placed her as 2nd lady and 1st V50. Sterling work. Darren Clarke was also there, evidently having been goaded on by someone else who didn’t end up running – (Sgt Pepper)- and ended up acquitting himself quite nicely by coming in a respectable 72nd. Charlie Eaton was also out on the hill, but unfortunately got a bit turned around on the top of Bleaklow. Apparently as the weather came in and got worse he decided to abandon the race, figuring that his priority was to get off the hill as soon as possible. An eminently sensible decision that we would all do well to emulate in similar circumstances.

A few of our number took advantage of the cold weather to run 100miles. As you do. Guy Riddell, Jason Hart and Andy Connell were across the way, in and around the Oldham kind of area doing the White Rose Ultra. Andy Connell, who was allegedly singing “we are the champions” for 19 hours, came in 24:17:19 which clinched him 9th place, whilst Guy Riddell, even lacking the power of Ant’s Vest still managed a superb 15th place in 27:54:38. Jason Hart continued through the grim weather and the general horrendousness of the terrain (somewhat more than the apparently advertised “undulations”) for 70 miles

before quite sensibly bowing out to fatigue and overwhelming coldness. Considering his previous longest run was 20 miles, I reckon we can count that as pretty much a win for him. To enter an Ultra takes a lot of guts – to enter a 100miler as your first ultra and get 70% of the way there is more than a fair undertaking. Flipping well done! A stonking effort by all of them.

There was no Park Run in Glossop this week – the Bonfire Night preparations put a bit of a stopper on things – but there was still a fair amount of Park run tourism from the club with Dez Mitchell at Heaton Park, Nick Ham at Woodbank, Emma Peters at Newcastle, Paul Drury was over in Oldham, Jamie Helmer continued his quest for a Number 1 spot at Marple, but missed out by 1 place and about 15 seconds. He was joined there by Carl and Beryl Buckley, Phil Swan, Becky Smith and Heather Jansevenka. Sikobe headed to Burnley, Wendy Trelease was at Fell Foot in Newby Bridge, Lawrence was at Stamford and David Chrystie-Lowe was at Stretford.

Whew. I might end up just linking to the Glossop consolidated report in the future and noting anything that appears out of the ordinary for Park Runs…

Elsewhere this week there was the rather marvellous Pub run on Thursday – we had 5 on the Fell and about 10 on the road, and a convivial beer in the Beehive afterwards. It was good to catch up with a load of people we hadn’t seen in a while, and it would be great to have even more people at the next one. It will be on the first Thursday of December – The 1st. I haven’t decided which pub it’ll be from yet, but that will be published in due course. If you have a preferred establishment, ideally in Glossop with access to the hills and the roads, drop me a line.

Did I mention that it snowed?

And John Stephenson apparently had an amazingly Rock n Roll surprise 60th party where the central heating and the kettle got broken. Too much tea and not enough beer?!