“its a funny old world” weekend report

Well, what a funny old week. Various bits and pieces have been happening, as tends to when we get to May and the whole racing thing really kicks off with a sha-bang. A fair few people out and about over the past 7 days, so quite a bit to read. Grab a cuppa and try to extract the truth from the gloss.

Howgills Half Marathon

The Glossopdale El(e)anors were both racing on Sunday at the Howgills Half Marathon. The course was amusingly brutal, starting, as it does with a little bit of a climb (!) up the Calf. The Swan and the Duck(worth) exchanged places (and

food, water, tips and bets) as they screamed around the course. In the end, one of the El’s got to the end before the other one. Chip times have yet to be confirmed, however Eleanor Duckworth completed in approx 3:10 whilst Elanor Swan sashayed across the line in  2:44.

Wilmslow tri

Sunday was Wilmslow triathlon day (a new bank holiday?) Mandy “laser” Beames and Paul and Cheryl Stitt all had a go at the classic Swim, cup of tea break, Bike, Cup of tea and a cake break, Run.

Whilst Cheryl is an old hand at the whole 3 sport thing, Paul and Mandy were both debuting at the discipline, Paul particularly not liking the swimming, and Mandy particularly looking forward to the pints at the end. All that being said, Paul romped around in 1:33:27, with Cheryl closing him down in the later stages as he stopped for an ill-advised bacon-barm stop – Cheryl finished in 1:39:25, saving the barm for afters, having surprised herself by not getting lost on the bike ride. Mandy excelled in the water, cutting through the slower swimmers like a knife through butter. Her technique of stopping for a pint of Guinness at each transition drew some surprised looks, and she finished in a haze of glory in 2:07.

Mad Hatters Trail race

In a sudden fit of excitement of all things 5 miles long, and on the road/trail, a bevy of Glossopdalers set out for the Mad Hatters Trail race last week. Easily outdistancing the rest of the Blue and Orange field, Shaun Boatwright cruised around, barely a well coiffed hair out of place in 25th. Chasing hard, and only a couple of minutes behind were a gaggle of hard running GDH. The leader of the group was Tony Hillier, 1st M65 by a good margin – but only 2 measly seconds ahead of first Glossop Lady – Heather Jansevska who fought every step of the way, but was outdistanced by the cunning, guile and treachery of the elder generation. Also in with a shout was Lawrence Fennelly, who was but 4 seconds behind Heather – and only 2 in front of Mary Jeal. In fact, I wonder if it was actually all that hard fought, and in fact they all ambled around chatting about the weather, and just decided that a 100 yard dash for the line might add a bit of amusement. Jayne Moreton was next over the line, I am unsure if she ran in the marathon Dragon suit, or if it still needs to be surgically removed, but the 5 miles proved that her legs still have something to give. Marie Williamson astonished everyone with an early dash, sprinting the first 4 miles in 4.5min miles, but was waylaid by a pub, had a leisurely couple of jars, before jogging into the finishing area having thoroughly enjoyed the evening out.

25 Shaun Boatwright 33:34
90 Tony Hillier 39:54 (1st MV65)
91 Heather Jansevska 39:56
94 Lawrence Fennelly 40:00
95 Mary Jeal 40:03 (1st LV55)
152 Jayne Moreton 45:27
217 Marie Williamson 52:06

Hardcastle 6/12

The long distance krew were out and about this weekend

as well up at the Hardcastle hills. Details are sketchy at this point, though we do know that Will Mather somewhat excelled himself in the 12 hour race, while Guy and Melanie Riddell completed the 6 hour race in good spirits and good form. I understand that many cakes were eaten, porkpies may or may not have been consumed, Coke might have been on the menu, and a stupendous amount of miles were covered. Excellent work from all 3 runners.

Cressbrook Crawl

Mary Jeal has taken on her vow to run as many races as possible in a year very seriously indeed, and got along to Cressbrook crawl this weekend as well. Although there are no official results out yet, we have the unofficial result of a garmin time (63:03) and a completely made up race report from my head, which runs along the lines of an epic heroic poem in iambic pentameter and lasts for at least 2 hours. I shall spare you the details, but woe-betide anyone who runs with me in the next week or so as I’ll recite the whole thing with additional actions and subtitles.

*update!* Andy Wilkins also ran Cressbrook! He was 107th 1:09:49 & Mary was 82nd 1:03:34.

Fairfield Horseshoe

The dynamic duo of Chris Webb and Rob Webster were out in force at this classic Lake District Tour de Force. Chris having helped out with a Leg2 BG a few hours before, found that his legs were still in surprisingly good shape, and only really managed to lose any places on the final descent, coming in 34th in 1:38:48. Rob was not far behind, getting his Lakeland hill legs into full swing, not even 10 places behind in 41st, and 1:40:45. Superb under the radar stuff.

Tea and cake expedition society

Charlie, Andy O and Julien went up north to enjoy the Cleveland way this weekend. It

was a sterling effort to complete the long distance footpath with as many tea, cake and beer stops as possible (possibly with the intention of ensuring that Julien had some kind of sustenance in his mouth at all times in order to stymie the flow of “jokes”. Unconfirmed reports detailing 4 quarts of tea, 2 gallons of beer and 2 cubic metres of cake being consumed are being looked into.

Tim and Alice’s Wedding

A few of us got down to Wales (how dyou get t(w)o w(h)ales in a mini? – straight down the M56)… to celebrate Tim and Alice’s Wedding. There was a short and a long fell race,

one of which was marked, the other was kind of made up as we went along. Needless to say, Tim won the Fell race to great acclaim, we didn’t lose anyone on the hill, and vast quantities of Purple Moose beer was then consumed whilst a ceilidh occurred.

Parkrun

My word. Once again the serial PB-ers strike again… Matt Kieras, gradually knocking time off his best, Rachel Walton – in the new PB section AGAIN!, Ezme Brack, building up her speed every week, Claire Oates, overhauling her nemesis on the parkrun rounds also in the PB list this week, and who can forget Naomi Barlow – paced to a new PB by Wyatt. Consolidated report here.