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Nowadays you don’t need to wait for Michael Fish’s weather report, you just have a scroll through Strava. From the titles I can reliably inform everyone that it’s been a warm one, sunny, humid and in some cases brutal. Of course though, now it seems to be raining again…
Here’s the weekly report.
Kinder Trog
Don’t have a fight with rocks on Kinder. That’s the take-home message from the Kinder Trog today. Immy Trinder (who found out the hard way) gives us this report:
GDH lineup for Kinder Trog was John S, Jo B, Alison H, Charmayne B, Matt C, Dan S and myself. It was nothing if not an eventful day. Dan and I chugged round together, and it was all going well until we were heading towards the Downfall where I decided it was a good time to have a fight with the floor. Following a moment of bemusement I worked out how to peel myself off the gritstone, shouted at Dan for trying to help me (classic, sorry Dan) and after a wobbly-bottom-lip moment and being overtaken by Matt, we cracked on. It has been suggested that I might call this kind of a disagreement with the floor a ‘John Stephenson’, although as far as I’m aware he managed to stay on his feet today for the duration!
It was lovely to see Tracey R, Cecil and Mark D out on route. It was especially nice to see Marco’s big box of Haribo! Meanwhile, Matt had a hot date with a PB but unfortunately it wasn’t to be, as we discovered when we caught him up in the final few kilometres. A knee problem, which had something to do with a gate that I didn’t quite grasp, was to blame.
Alison had a great race and put her HPM demons to rest. She encountered a minor nav mishap but got round without fighting any inanimate objects. Jo, Charm and John ran together, the report from Jo being that they ‘all enjoyed it but it was bloomin’ hard work!”
Fight for 1st GDH came down to a sprint finish between Dan and myself, which I won, although I’m pretty sure if it hadn’t been for the variety of mitigating circumstances including Matt’s knee, and Dan sticking with me after my face-plant, it might have been very different!
I knew I didn’t stand a chance on a sprint finish with Immy but it made it quite an exciting ending in around 2:44. The results don’t seem to be out yet so we’ll get them posted on the facebook page. Great local long racing…. well done all!
(Also to add Chris Jackson and Frank Fielding were out there for Pennine)
Buttermere Horseshoe
The Lakeland Classics Trophy started back in 2002 and has grown ever since. It covers six classic Lakeland races and the best three performances count. Chris Webb took on the Buttermere horseshoe and sent in the report below:
Tim Culshaw and I headed up to Loweswater on a glorious day to run the Buttermere Horseshoe fell race. At 22miles/9000ft it’s statistically the toughest of the Lakeland Classics and the heat spiced it up even more this year. Finlay Wild turned up so the winner was never in doubt (he broke the course record I believe, unsurprisingly) but for the rest of us we were trying to get round without the wheels coming off!
I was going well until Haystacks when a nav error cost me a few mins; that combined with the sun really beating down at that point made for hard going over Red Pike and High Stile. I rallied on the descent of Scale Force (despite another minor nav error) and managed to climb Mellbreak without too much suffering.
Tim meanwhile was smug with his controlled effort early on, “feeling great” he said over Grasmoor. It’s still early in the race though and he had his fair share of suffering and minor nav mishaps on the way back. Still, with Edith only 3 weeks old and off the back of very little sleep Tim finished strong, storming past the Kirkstile Inn beer garden like a man possessed! I can highly recommend this race for anyone wanting a long, challenge fell race on a beautiful route.
Final results:
Chris Webb: 12th in 4hrs 51mins
Tim Culshaw: 27th in 5hrs 29mins
The Spine Flare
The summer version of the Spine Challenger (108 miles) is happening right now. I’ve just looked at the tracker and Sue Clapham finished in 36:04:04. I don’t have any details, but absolutely epic running – I hope we can hear all about it!
A Trio of 10kms
Why just run one race in a week, when you can do three? John Pollard took on Marple, the Hawkshead 10km and the Shirgley Stag fell race, and tells us below how it went. It seems Lance Hamilton-Griffiths also made an appearance:
To complete a trio of 10k races in 7 days, starting with Marple trail on Sunday, I first ran the Hawkshead 10k road race around pretty little Esthwaite Water in the heart of the Lakes on a gorgeous Wednesday evening.
Now I did intend to do the Langstrath fell race in Borrowdale (honest guv) but didn’t leave enough time to drive down the valley, a pity as it’s the most beautiful route up to Watendlath tarn, but I thought I’d let Ricky Lightfoot win that for the umpteenth time.
So instead I mingled among the assorted Kendal AAC & Eden road runners to do what is truthfully quite a tedious undulating metalled loop, views notwithstanding, around Esthwaite. Good hard running though and getting me fit to finish in 51.02, with a burger and beer reward provided by the slightly chaotic organisers in Hawkshead afterwards.
That was a road and trail completed and on Saturday afternoon it was the Fell run, a new race at Pott Shrigley, tucked away by Shrigley Hall in the local village Rose Queen fete.
Charming Cheshire. A varied route, supposedly 10 k, pretty much all runnable, touching on Lyme Park at the Bow Stones and the most enjoyable run of the week.
I was short of concentration on one downhill section in the woods and went a*** over t*t, a reminder not to be so careless…but felt I ran ok to finish 3rd v60 in 57.25.
Lance Hamilton-Griffiths appears to have finished about 36th in 47.12 but I didn’t catch sight of him at that pace. Well ran sir.
Whether this all means I’m going to have the stamina for next week’s Ambleside trail half marathon I’ll have to see.
Kingsway Track 5km
Rochdale? What happens there? I have no idea usually, but earlier in the week Immy Trinder and I attended a chip-timed track 5km at the Kingsway track. It seems to be a collaboration set up by the Rochdale Triathlon Club, Royton Road Runners and Rochdale Harriers. There are three separate races (sub-20, 20-25min, 25+mins) and a junior 2km.
I somehow managed a PB of 18:43 and Immy came over the line in 20:30.
It costs £4, you get a print-out of all your lap times and you get to feel like a proper athlete for a bit – highly recommended!
Colshaw 10km
Alex Critcher provided an in-depth review of the Colshaw 10km on Stava. How was it Alex?
“Awful”. So, there you go.
Parkrun Corner
A load of Harriers enjoying a warm Parkrun yesterday with 17 on the start line. Caitlin Rice was first GDH followed by Sean Phillips. Perusing Strava it looks Sean did an extensive warm-up of 18-19kms, nothing quite like getting the legs ready for a Parkrun, eh?
Luke Holme, probably powered by a vampire-bite from T100, bagged a PB at 20:34. No other PBs from GDH at the home course, but David Christie-Lowe is just two runs away from the 250 milestone. Top running!
Check out the consolidate club report HERE
Top Mileage and Climbing
Who has been out there grinding out the miles and powering up those hills? On the GDH Strava group, this week Steve Knight has clocked up an impressive 91.8km but Jenny Ross takes the elevation crown with a whopping 5,278m.
Anything Else?
As is the Harriers tradition there was a summer solstice run out into our lovely hills. With fast-paced and busy lives getting out into the hills is always a joy, but this one has the added benefit of whisky. A perfect time to enjoy our magnificent local playground and think about our friends old and new.
There has, of course, been a Tuesday speed session and a Thursday fell run, but it also looked like a splinter group set-out to run loops around the reservoirs. We all know what that means! That’s right, it’s “Round the Resers” on Wednesday! This year the race will be supporting Tinttwistle Children’s Gala, a local charity providing activities for young people in the community. I’m sure a good bunch of the blue and orange army will be there!
Guy Riddell is beating the drum for the Chester Marathon in October – get your entires in! Chatter of Bullock Smithy recces seems to be all over the place. The Manor Park Marathon looks likely to be happening on August Bank Holiday… I’ve spotted a recce of “Lakes in a Day” out there on Strava – have fun on that one! Basically, it’s all going on Harriers!
That’s all i’ve spotted or been sent this week – if there’s anything missing then please let us know what happened in the Facebook comments!
Keep flinging the reports and pictures in to the GDH report-writing-crew at gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com