“It’s the end of July as we know it, and I feel fine” weekend report.

Rain. Shine. Rain. Shine. Rain. Hail. Rain. Shine. And that’s indoors. Only goodness knows what it is like up on them there hills. Looks like a fair amount of out and about-ness has been happening this week. As ever, if you haven’t told me about it, then unless I was doing it, it won’t get written down. Thanks to Mark Davenport for making me aware of the Chinley 3, Tim C for pointing out the fact he might drown this weekend, and Julien for having a birthday this week.

Chunal Fell Race – mk II

For those of you who are confused, yes, Chunal fell race did indeed occur a few weeks back, however, Des decided that he could make it bigger, better, badder and b… b… um. anyway. So he ran it again. (as in, it was organised by him, and other people ran it). Again it was a day of sunshine and showers, though from the photos, it looked like the weather stayed pretty decent for the whole race.

As tends to be the case more often than not these days, I have no idea who ran, so I’m extrapolating from photos and Strava files, and I certainly have no idea who placed where. What I am sure of is that Liam Amos used this as his first fell racing experience – and what an experience it was. Chunal ain’t one of the easy ones, fella. Good on you for rising to the challenge. Mark Harrison was out in the lead pack for a while at the beginning, charging off down the hill like a whippet after a rat, but unfortunately did not keep the 2nd place for the rest of the race. It looks to me like Paul Skuse was there as well, trying his legs out against the young guns, as was Matt Crompton. Frank Fielding was out to give them youngsters a bit of a thrashing, but I have no idea if he was in his GDH guise or not. It looks like the hill doesn’t get any less steep, and the running just gets more fun every year this little cracker is put on.

Elsecar Skelter

Who else would be heading to this fabulous LDWA event, but the man who still hasn’t started fraying at the knees – Nick “The Ultra” Ham. He bucked the Lakeland 100 this year for the run hosted by  the Vermuyden Group. and ended up with a rather maginficent PB over the 27 miles course. 5:09. 5:09! Nicely done sir.

Millbrook Monster

How many GDH ran at Millbrook Monster? I have no idea…. 7? Right, I know that Guy posted the results somewhere… let me find the pdf on their website. My word. Can someone please get on with beating Paul Skuse please? It seems like he waltzed away

from Caity and Stevie Crossman and gained a full 45 seconds or so on them. In doing so, he still managed to drag them along in his wake, and Caity did rather a fine job of coming home with the Ladies trophy AND a course record. Rob Murphy came home 34th in what looks to me like first MV55, Guy Riddell was practicing his ultra speed work and finished in 58th, just about managing to hold off a late charge from the latest man-on-a-mission, Frank Fielding – who looks like being 1st MV65+ in 64th place overall. Rob Sheldon was a mere handful of seconds behind, clearly losing out to Franks superior guile and racecraft (mainly consisting of going “yer laces are undone, youth” as he sprinted for the line). Liam Amos is obviously testing his racing wings, doubling up the races this week, and coming in 125th. Beccy Smith came in at 127th, clearly teasing John Stephenson (130th) throughout the entire race by running around just out of reach going “chase me, chase me!” in a very bad imitation of Ian Oates, and Claire Higgins was 189th enjoying the weather the course and the cheers of the spectators along the way.

14 Paul Skuse 43:23:11
17 Steve Crossman 44:02:82
18 Caity Rice 44:08:31 (1st lady – + course record)
34 Rob Murphy 46:59:55 (1st MV55)
58 Guy Riddell 48:58:04
64 Frank Fielding 49:33:33
67 Rob Sheldon 49:38:98
125 Liam Amos 55:11:02
127 Rebecca Smith 55:36:21
130 John Stephenson 55:51:34
189 Claire Higgins 1:07:01:30

3 peaks of chinley

This rather charming race was run at the weekend and involves going up the 3 huge peaks around Chinley. Don your oxygen masks and break out the methamphetamines. I believe the course takes in Eccles Pike, South Head AND Chinley Churn. (though I might be wrong. Dez Mitchell was the only Harrier brave enough to take this challenge on, and thus was the First Harrier to finish. Good running Dez. I hope the weather was decent while you were out. Also – it should be mentioned that Mark Davenport was out marshaling on the hills for the race. These races don’t get run without volunteers, so thanks to Mark for sitting on the hillside drinking cocoa for a few hours. Sterling work!

Salford Sprint Tri

I talked to Tim Culshaw the other day and he mentioned he was doing a Triathlon, which was going to be amusing as he hasn’t properly been swimming in quite a few years (ie. 15 of them). He doesn’t really look like the kind of person that floats very well either. Fortunately, Alice was going to be doing the race as well, and was starting 15 mins ahead of him, so any potential handicap that he might have in the swim was probably going to be overcome by the fact he was furiously going to to be trying to catch her up. Drowning, although a possibility was not necessarily a foregone conclusion. For much the same reason (not the not having swum thing, more the fact that her husband was in the chase group), Alice was somewhat spurred on to not let him catch her… and ended up with a swim time of only 4mins longer than the fastest lady. Not only that, she ended up 11th lady out of 135. We have a budding triathlete in our midst. (oh, and Tim didn’t drown and apparently enjoyed himself )

Parkrun corner

Holy Smokes Batman! Rachel Walton has only gone and got ANOTHER PB at Glossop parkrun. a 24:48 this time around. I swear she is chipping away at her times simply to get a mention every other week…. Consolidated report here.

Jules’ Birthday bash

A few people were out on the hill, and more of us were out in the pub – on Thursday to celebrate Juliens Birthday with Chips, butties, Chip butties and beer. Twas grand to see John Hewitt out and about, and fantastic to see Dave Hogg back in his age old Smelly Helly, traversing the hills.

New Nav course

Skusey has been out putting up a new Nav course on the hill – it’s bigger and better than the last one. Or maybe it’s just better, I’m not sure, I haven’t done either. However, Joss has, and he LOVED it. So get out on the hill, get some nav practice in and enjoy yourselves.

Things happening!

This Wednesday is Cracken Edge Fell race. It is another one in the Glossopdale Fell Champs, so if your name is not Jamie Helmer or Paul Skuse, get yourself over to Hayfield for some Champs points. If your name is Jamie or Paul, go and buy some chips and beer and sit in front of the TV for the night. Your body’s need calories. Don’t deprive them!

August 19th – if you don’t know, this is John Hewitt’s Birthday, and there will be quite a significant amount of partying going on in Glossop because of it. I believe it should be portrayed thusly: BEER! FOOD! VEGAN FOOD! DANCING! CEIDLHING! (or however you want to spell it), AMUSEMENTS, JOLLITY and other stuff. I’m not going to say much more, but basically, keep the date in the diary open, and if you haven’t got space in the diary, make some.