Injury, Sickness, Glory – Anyone V40?? Its the Weekend Report!

Another action packed week, that’s had me tied up for, well, a long while I think. So engrossed have I been in your exploits, that my tea is in the dog, (that’s now begging to be walked) and I’m on the couch for the night. Well that’s nearly true, but its been worth it, so fill your glass, or just drink straight from the bottle, you’re in for another big one!

Withins Skyline

Kicking off with one which well and truly slipped under the radar last week, Mary Jeal was over in Bronte Country for Withins Skyline. Apparently, although the rain held off for the race, the recent deluge had replenished the bogs to their “maneating status”. Mary bashed round in a very respectable 1:14:46 to finish in 136th place (8th LV50).

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British Fell Relays

Our poor Team Captains Jude Stansfield and Matt Crompton had been put through the ringer this week. You would think it easy to each get 12 people over to Derwent, but with sickness and injury plaguing us last minute, there was some mild panic and a few reserves called upon. But they came through brilliantly and what a day we had. For some of us, this was our first experience of Fell relays, and I have to say it was absolutely fantastic. Just over the hill at Fairholmes, “race city” was situated at the foot of the dramatically overflowing Derwent Dam. GDH had 4 teams there this year, and we were up against THE very best fell running teams in the country.

The premise is, well yes, obviously relays, but there is slightly more to it. There are 4 legs, 2 solo and 2 paired. All take on different distances with a given “loose” route and e-dibber controls. Leg 3 being arguably the crux leg combining a hefty amount of navigational skill as well as the fast running. (cover boys Chris Webb and Tim Budd absolutely nailed this leg, coming 14th overall on it!). The routes were fantastic, bringing together the best the Peak District has to offer (lots of deep sloppy bogs, sheep trods and heather bashing). All routes seemed to follow the same descent line through the woods at the end, which was absolutely brilliant – very steep and very muddy, there were quite a few that lost the battle to stay vertical here.

Naturally, the results below do most of the talking, but its definitely worth mentioning a pre-race episode at the GDH tent. Whilst we were milling about before it all kicked off, a guy came over, demanding to know who was in charge of the GDH website. Uh oh, I thought. “How did I end up in your report!?!?” Turns out he is the guy from Buxton that featured heavily in last weeks report, pictured taking a classic nosedive in the mud at XC. Bless him, he was happy to achieve Glossopdale fame, and we all had a good laugh about it. Nice chap. Perhaps however, it’s testament to the quality our running and reporting, when we are being trolled by other clubs! Alright, perhaps that’s a bit far fetched….

Well done to everyone that raced, and a big Thanks to all those that supported too. Huge Thanks again to our Captains Jude Stansfield and Matt Crompton who did such a great job organising our rabble. Finally I have to say a big congratulations to our brethren from the other side of the hill. Dark Peak FR did an excellent job organising the event, the planning and hurdle jumping that went on I can only imagine. The logistics alone were quite astounding, feeding and ferrying 1,400 smelly fell runners from Bamford and back on coaches.

And here are the results, in order of overall position…..

Glossopdale Men	59th Place	4:41:59
Leg 1	Luke Holme	00:57:09
Leg 2	Lance Hamilton-Griffiths / Tim Culshaw	01:26:49
Leg 3	Chris Webb / Tim Budd	01:24:33
Leg 4	Robin Hoffman	00:53.28

Glossopdale Men V40	134th Place (29th Male Vets)	5:34:00
Leg 1	Rob Sheldon	00:59:03
Leg 2	Dan Stinton / Ian Crutchley	01:34:47
Leg 3	Julian Minshull / Andy Fox	01:53:09
Leg 4	John Stephenson	01:07:01

Glossopdale Women	207th Place	6:42:21
Leg 1	Cheryl Stitt	01:05:12
Leg 2	Emma Rettig / Rachel Walton	02:03:33
Leg 3	Sarah Andrew / Zoe Barton	02:15:47
Leg 4	Tracey Louise Robinson	01:17:49

Glossopdale Women V40	216th Place (12th Women Vets)	6:58:55
Leg 1	Jude Stansfield	01:03:51
Leg 2	Joanne Brack / Charmayne Brierley	02:08:26
Leg 3	Lins Palmer / Alison Holt	02:37:12
Leg 4	Rebecca Smith	01:09:26

Cross Country – SELCC

Thanks to Phil Swan for the following!

The South East Lancs Cross Country clash with the FRA Relays meant a diminished but determined Glossopdale crew sallied forth to take whatever Heaton Park’s neatly trimmed grass could throw at them. The mud levels were “medium to clarty” particularly through the woods but – against all the odds – the sun came out resulting in a very pleasant day.  We were thin on Juniors with Caitlin Swan our only entrant who took first to the course to battle it out in the Under 13s where she came 4th girl. A quick trip to the nice ambulance people confirmed an ankle sprain wasn’t too dire and following a humungus ice cream, smiles were restored.

Next up were the Senior Ladies (I’m sorry but the whole slightly shorter distance thing for women doesn’t half seem so “last century”). Anyway, rant over. Our four Ladies went off hard from the line with Kirsty Sharp flying down the hill with Wendy Trelease, Elanor Swan and Nicola Pennington in hot pursuit.  Kirsty glided serenely for first overall by a huge margin, Wendy stormed in to be second Glossopdale, nabbing 3rd in the V45 Category, followed by Els (an interesting choice of recovery run after her trip to the Lakes last weekend) with Nicola hot on her heels. Positions and times were:

1	Kirsty Sharp	1st Lady	31.03
43	Wendy Trelease	3rd L45	38.20
65	Elanor Swan	10th L45	40.52
66	Nicola Pennington	11th L45	40.54

The Senior Men piled off at 2.20pm with the blue and orange contingent comprising of Steve Crossman, Nick Lord, Alex Critcher, Phil Swan, Ian “are you really running those shorts?” Oates, Simon Toole, David Christie-Lowe and Frank Fielding.  Despite Steve trying to nobble other members of his own team with delicious biscuits just before the start, everyone had a good outing. Steve bagged 1st V50, Dave got 4th V60 and Frank “fresh faced at the finish” Fielding landed 2nd V60. Times and places were:

24	Steve Crossman	1st V50	40.51
58	Nick Lord		43.16
103	Phil Swan	16th V45	47.39
107	David Christie-Lowe	4th V60	48.08
126	Frank Fielding	2nd V65	49.32
141	Ian Oates	23rd V50	50.23
147	Alex Critcher	20th V40	50.52
150	Simon Toole	25th V50	51.05

Superb running everyone. Roll on the next one on 23rd Nov – also at Heaton Park!

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Calver Trail Run

Thanks to Pete Tomlin for sending this in!

Lucy Wasinski, Pete Wallroth, Kate Metcalfe and I headed off to Calver for the 2nd of the Dark and White Autumn Trail Series. Billed as one of their harder trail runs, it didn’t disappoint taking in parts of the routes of two local fell races, and it certainly felt tough in places; especially the seemingly never ending climb out of Great Longston. 

Lucy aced it, getting round in 1hr18 and was 1st placed female as we were leaving. Fingers crossed she stays there when they release the final results. Pete Wallroth pulled off an equally respectable 1hr24. 

Definitely recommend the Dark and White runs for a challenging, but not ball-busting trail race, in some excellent scenery. 

And its still not confirmed, but we think Lucy did indeed come first! Amazing effort, and great racing guys!

Wirksworth Undulator

John Pollard went Southward for this intriguing race…..

Glad I made the effort to get out of bed & drive to the southerly Dales for this mixed terrain race, and was pleasantly surprised to see Lins Palmer there, with Carl (‘Carlos’) Bedson, formerly of this parish.

The organiser characterises it as having “steep bits, flat bits, rocky bits(quarries, & Harboro’ Rocks, highest point at 1230ft) , fast bits (mildly technical descents), grass bits(lots of pastureland), trail bits, road bits(not many thankfully) and scary bits”, (not really).

But some fair climbing sections, especially at the start, though the Dales authority have thoughtfully erected a lot of stiles to afford the heavy breathers(me for example) oxygen relief in the queues. It’s pretty much all runnable & if you ‘give it beans’ who knows what time you could cover the 8 1/2 miles in.

Not sure how many took part, but on a lovely autumn morning it seemed to have attracted a good field, and value @ £5/£7 on t’day. I finished in 1hr 37mins, not having the legs after 3 weeks off to really capitalise on the fast bits. Lins was not far behind, which was a good run as she did the FRA relays yesterday & said she was lacking energy. A double at the weekend is worth three in the week Lins!

Though those slo-mo videos of the relays Jude did seemed like my natural speed today.

Stickle Grind

Chris Jackson made a guest turn out for Glossopdale to run his specialty – uphill racing. He sent this in!

I ran Stickle Grind, an uphill only trail race in Langdale. Was 2.4km and 650m of climb. Was good but hard to pace as a lot of it was steps. Sun was out but was windy. Everyone set off at 30 seconds intervals, so hard to judge how fast everyone was. Good fun though.

Well I hear Chris came second overall, which is just phenomenal! Brilliant Chris. You know, you always run better when you’re wearing blue and orange……

Langdale Marathon

Marathon Master Marie Williamson just can’t get enough of this distance, but chuck in >3,500 feet of climb and its more like a fell run! No official results yet but Strava suggests Marie breezed round in 5:32:32. Brilliant Marie (again)!

Limone Extreme Skyrace

Sneaky Kasia Osipowicz was out doing another crazy Skyrace, this time on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy. At 17.5 miles, and a dizzying 8,700 feet of climb, you certainly get a lot of bang for your buck! I am certain there is a much bigger story here, and I just wish I knew what it is. So all I can say is, massive congrats on this epic (and the other epic’s), and I’ll quote Kasia directly.

“An absolute privilege to run this race with 70 top of the world athletes. Even though I was the tip of the tail – last person! Rain, mud, wet rock and zero viability. I could have not wished for better conditions. Sprained my ankle at the end…Overall happy”!

Glossop Junior Schools XC

Usually this takes place at St Marys School, but due to the waterlogged field, the venue was moved to Glossopdale 3G. And it was a welcome move, as previous years have been frankly shambolic, with a overly complicated course, guide runner miles infront of the front kid, some going round twice, some not even making it once, and a chaotic finish funnel with kids swapping places before getting their number. Ah, them were the days, but no complaints this year, and Melissa Crutchley (St Marys) and Oliver Mather (Dinting) made an appearance. Oliver ran in the year 5/6 boys race, a 4 lapper coming in a brilliant 32nd place. This was a great race to watch, and there was a kid from St Marys who absolutely blitzed it, finishing a good half lap in front of the rest. Naturally, I suggested to his mum that he is a Harrier if ever I saw one! Meanwhile Melissa ran the corresponding girls race, coming in an impressive 6th. Well done both, and well done to Dinting, who won overall!!!

Parkrun

As always the majority of action in Glossop , and this week young Wyatt Barlow blitzed the course, just slipping in under 26 minutes with 25:59. Well done Wyatt, and an all-time 5k PB no less! Meanwhile Julie Eyre thrashed out a PB over at Sherwood Pines.

Some tourism happened, amongst others, with the Munday clan was out in force taking on the inaugural Millhouses parkrun just outside Sheffield. This should be one on the hitlist of our regular tourists!

The consolidated club report is HERE

Meanwhile Kate Emily was at Junior parkrun with grandson Arthur. The 3 1/2 year old hammered around the course without stopping. A GDH star in the making!?!

Activity Tracker Rant Alert!

Received an amusing email from our resident Ultra addict Nick Ham this week, and it made me giggle so much, it just has to go in!

No big races for me this week, just a few observations of a newbie GPS appliance owner. I hope it’s worth posting. Here goes:

“I think my Polar HRM GPS watch thingy is having a laugh. After last Saturday’s Round Rotherham it was in so much shock with the 1,054% day’s effort it accused me of overreaching. That accusation remained in force all week as I went about my relatively sedentary though by no means inactive working week.

After a month of racing elsewhere, yesterday (Saturday) I was back to Woodbank parkrun. I enjoyed the decadent toffee-cinnamon cake to soak up my cappuccino afterwards in the cafe. It makes the parkrun so worthwhile. 😉 In the afternoon I took the train up to Whaley Bridge to do a 4-dam bimble – 10.2 miles taking in 4 dams. Bearing in mind what’s on next weekend I’m sure you can guess the route (or else check up on Strava). Afterwards the pie and coffee shop opposite the station was heaving, with queue stretching out the door. I didn’t mind waiting for my luxury sausage roll and cup of tea.

Now get this, after two proper runs in one day, my watch was now saying de-training. What’s more, it even had the gall to warn me that such neglect to my physical activity will result in loss of fitness. The impudence. The audacity. As I’ve said before, it has much to learn.”

Other Stuff

Kudos to anyone who recognises these pins, making an appearance on the BBC this week…….

Did you get it? I’d be seriously concerned if you did, so here is that very story and the big reveal… https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-50071602

Spotted out and about, and not to be out”fox”ed (I know, I know) by our other wonderful GDH Juniors, young Fox Scholefield/Barton was out tackling some gnarly terrain on the hill. How cute does he look in that hoody!

Tim Budd now has 2 nav routes out, and plenty have had a crack. Do get up there and have a bash – day, night, solo, social. The latest route offers a nice Trigger line, for those taking the plunge in January.

The GDH weekly report is the highlight of everyones week (well, possibly), so please please please let us know what you’re up to. As well as the obvious entertainment, its unbelievably inspiring to read about all the bonkers places and races we find ourselves in. Anything you got, send it to gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com!