May the Force be with you weekend report

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May the Force be...

Yes indeed, it was one of the busiest racing weekends of the year, and a whole bunch of people were out getting their vests on. I’m certain the weather looks good in most of the photos, but rest assured, in some places, atmospheric conditions were not good in the slightest. It was superb to see such a sea of Blue and Orange at Lantern Pike Dash on Sunday – excellent to get to chat to everyone in the presence of cake and beer, with the minor incidental run up and down a hill to interrupt proceedings…

Shining Tor

Before the weekend even got here, the Rescue Rangers were out over at Shining Tour.

The midge infested hell-hole showed no signs of being any less midgy or hellish this year, though it was apparently chip timed (which apparently went some way to justifying the quite incredible race entry fee). Mark Davenport was at the head of the Glossopdalers, spearheading the attack in 108th, with a very close run for the line happening a little further down the field between Wendy and Heather… that brutal uphill finish might have swung it in Wendy’s favour. Nick Ham, on his mid-week forays came up trumps in 127th while Mary Jeal and Lawrence Fennelly kept each other company on the way around… how much conversation there was is left up to the readers imagination,. Rebecca Smith fought her way around to finish 144th, and I bet the cake tasted delicious at the end.

108th Mark Davenport 54:55
124th Wendy Trelease 56:41
125th Heather Jansevska 56:42
127th Nick Ham 56:55
138th Mary Jeal 58:27
139th Lawrence Fennelly 58:35
144th Rebecca Smith 59:11

Ladies team 4th
Men’s team 12th

3 Days in May

Ah yes, the 3 days in May – just over the hill in Hayfield, 3 short races, a whole lot of hurt, especially if you do them all. It all kicks off with:

May Queen

Friday night – warm, humid, the hazy glow of Mid-May happiness floating in the air and 100 or so fellrunners standing around in a field waiting to be set off by (most probably) Andy Howie. May Queen is a short and challenging beast, with a single track lane on the way out and back – so overtaking is limited at that time… the May Crew took it in their stride, however, and 10 of them got out and gave the race a damn good go. Great to support these local races….

19 Jamie Helmer 23:38
43 Rob Murphy 26:08
57 Matt Crompton 27:35
64 Steve Pepper 28:02
90 Ezme Brack 30:20
102 John Stephenson 31:34
107 Andy Wilkins 31:58
110 Jo Brack 32:33
116 Rachel Walton 33:34
126 Claire Higgins 35:53

Mount Famine

Oh yes. Mount Famine. Easily the most mental start to a fellrace in the entire calendar. Stand next to a steep, overgrown bank, pick a line. Go.

And that isn’t all – across the Dragons Back waits the inevitable Dimpus Clough down and up. Not something to be taken lightly. It seems that Jamie Helmer put in a good performance, despite probably having fairly heavy legs from May Queen the night before. From the looks of the times people were coming in at, Dimpus Clough was particularly well enjoyed by them all.

31 Jamie Helmer 55:29
79 Darren Clarke 1:02:29
88 Rob Murphy 1:03:44
105 Bartek Verde 1:07:03
106 Jason Hart 1:07:08
111 Wendy Trelease 1:07:26.
114 Mary Jeal 1:07:36
126 John Stephenson 1:10:00
132 Pete Davies 1:12:03
133 Cheryl Stitt 1:12:12
145 Heather Jansevska 1:13:27
176 Alabama Breeze 1:29:43

Lantern Pike Dash

One of the shortest and purest fellraces in the calendar. Certainly the shortest around this neck of the woods. Stand at the bottom of a hill, look up to the top. Run up that line and then back down again. Lung Busting, Leg Busting, and overall Immense Fun. (maybe of the type 2 variety). There was an amazing appearance of all kinds of Glossopdalers out at this one. Proper good social credentials there!

Club out — Quite frankly, a ridiculous amount of people from the club who turned out at the Lantern Pike Dash.

No results out as yet – they’ll be up as soon as I see them.

Lantern Pike Kids Race

A couple of the yoof section were out and about on the Juniors race at Lantern Pike – not quite to the top, but still a considerable course. It was fantastic to see and cheer on Martha (7) and Merlin (4) Wallroth run around the course in stupendous style and finesse.

Hayfield 3 Days in May

Well done to Jamie Helmer, who with his placings over the 3 days in May, ended up a very creditable 3rd overall, taking after a very handsome devil that managed the same trick last year.

White Peak Marathon

Jayne Moreton was across in the White Peak, bashing around on the Limestone for the White Peak Marathon. Although she has only done one marathon in a Dragon suit, I think it will now be a fairly permanent fixture to ask – was this one in a Dragon suit as well, or did you decide that it’s too easy? Excellent running and a 5:10:45 for the day. I imagine there was a fair amount of ups and downs as well… although it ain’t the Dark Peak, they’ve got some pretty steep hills down that way.

Old County Tops

It rained pretty damn hard at the start of the Old County Tops this year. Essentially it was a softener for the rest of the 38mile day. Matt Huxford and Al Cowell didn’t have the best start to the day, having to rush around at the last minute in order to pay an entry fee which was still owing – and Al’s legs were still smarting a bit from a weights session on Thursday- done without the knowledge he might be doing the OCT less than 48 hours later.

DCIM102GOPROGOPR5900. — Chris and Tim somewhere up Wythburne

Although the temperatures and weather were relatively benign in the valleys, it was when the runners began hitting the higher ground that the freezing wind really made a difference – especially when combined with slashing rain.

Al and Matt reached Angle Tarn before deciding that Al’s legs unfortunately really stopped working. Al took the decision to turn back, while Matt was allowed to run on without partner, not competing in the race. He eventually finished in about 8 hours and 40 mins. A superb effort, and a real triumph of head over body.

Sue Clapham and Lins Palmer were also battered about by the weather, and having put on all their hill gear by Angle Tarn, were not at all confident of getting over Scafell without Hypothermia being an issue. They took the call to turn back at Angle Tarn and successfully returned to Langdale.

Paul Skuse and his partner the (former) Glossopdale Poacher managed to get past Angle Tarn and were on their way up to Scafell Pike when full body shivers, lack of feeling in hands, inability to feed themselves and inability to see straight meant the difficult decision to turn back was made a lot easier. Thankfully once they were back off the hill all faculties returned to vaguely normal.

Chris Webb and Tim Budd headed off at what was probably an overambitious pace, and despite rain and cold, managed to get around the long and demanding course in 7 hours 29, ending up in 4th place.

Despite there being a record number of starters – 129, there was not a record number of finishers, and at the end of the day when we left, there were somewhere around 30 teams that had dropped out.

Intelligent running and decision making ruled the day, and I, for one, am proud that as a club, we have no problem with making the right decision in mountain environments.

Parkrun corner

Because of the Glossop Car festival, there was no Glossop parkrun this weekend (shock! horror! So people made do with the somewhat sub-optimal alternatives. Perhaps the run of the weekend should go to one young Adam Crompton, who not only beat his Marple PB, but beat it good and proper by 5 minutes…. I don’t know if that means he wasn’t trying previously, or if it is a tremendous turn of form -whichever way around, pretty flipping impressive. Josie Swan also PB’d at Lyme Park, chasing her Dad around the course who (I might add), didn’t PB (work a bit harder Phil…) And somewhat quiet of late (ie. the past 2 weeks), David Chrystie-Lowe makes a welcome return to these pages with a PB at South Manchester Parkrun with an age grading of 77.5%. Nicely done. Consolidated report is here.