November Snow weekend report

Some stuff has happenned. I made up some other stuff. It snowed. Mark H and Skusey went for a run in the snow and took pictures which are quite nice, so I nicked one… (thanks Mark). Im sure there are other things going on that I havent picked up on sorry if I’ve missed any of it.

Mystery race

So I got a race report today from Paul Skuse with some fantastic detail, the only minor issue was that he neglected to mention which race it was. So apparently there was a relatively low GDH turnout, however despite there being snow on the ground and a load of Pennine runners dressed up like it was the middle of Siberia, Cheryl Stitt decided to show them how it was done by heading around the course in a t-shirt and vest. Skusey was nearly as brave, but decided that an extra hat and gloves were indeed needed. Most successful person from our lot on the day was probably on Andy “the sly” Fox, who ended up wandering away with the V60 prize. I wonder if he hung around to pick it up, or if someone had to take it away to give to him at a more appropriate juncture. (ie. when it gets warmer). Matt Crompton was out taking photos because he reckons he is more of an artiste these days, and enjoys shouting at people more than running away from them. (Rich Martin… your time has come!) Mary Jeal was apparently running around the course as well, but I have no idea where she came (one suspects 1st in some age category or other), but I have no delightful photos of her smiling as she emerged out of the mist. The picture that Matt took of Paul and Chris (who may or may not be wearing Pennine, GDH, Dark Peak, Sale or Carnethy colours-  you couldn’t tell because he was wearing MORE LAYERS than Skusey), shows that Paul is indeed leading… he said to say that we must ignore everything Chris says about his back and coccyx pain because, and I quote directly…..

Wilmslow 10k

Tony Hillier and Kirsty Sharp ran the 10k over in Wilmslow today. A little less snowy and a little more flat that the Famous Grouse. Kirsty was gunning for a PB, but decided that she would stay with tradition, which dictates that you must throw up about 300 metres from the finish line. Well. I suppose, not just anyone, but tradition for her, anyway. She duly did and hit a 38:17, which is pretty damn good, all things considered. YOU try running 10k in less than 39 mins WITH a stop to be sick in… that’s pretty hardcore. Mr. Hillier had a fabulous run, coming in 45:45…. 2nd V70…. though there may be some dispute about the bloke that beat him. I’m not saying anything about level playing fields etc, but there have been rumours bandied around and aspersions cast, though I shall not write about them here. All I can say is, Tony… EPO is cheap these days. Excellent effort from both of them. Other rumours that one or indeed both of our runners today are pregnant is pure facebook speculation.

Kigali Blu Half Marathon

So Paul Skuse sent me a race report with no name…. Tim Culshaw sent me this missive….

“Good morning. Al and I did a race this morning, so I thought I should send you a report”

Which is all very nice. But that was it. So in the absence of an actual report, and as Alice is apparently hogging the laptop to do her work on (the sheer cheek of it), I shall have to make something up.

The race started in the dusty outskirts of the town. Tim and Alice, front centre on the start line of this hugely important and influential 10k race. Locals around them were all shooting sidelong glances at the pair as they laced up their Walsh PB’s. What magic is this? Shoes that look like they come from the 80’s? These guys must know their stuff… At the whistle all nervous energy turned to the task. Immediately, Tim and Alice lifted their shot glasses, chugged a tequila and shot off into the distance, leaving the locals for dust. Blue and Orange vests lit up the road as they streaked (no, not like that), down the road. At the first drinking station at 2.31km down the road a pair of Sambuca’s had been set up for the hard drinking pair. Drinks were lit and chugged, with a pint of Carling Export as a chaser. The locals were hard on their tails by this stage, so they decided to split up in order to confuse things, Tim headed left into China town, while Alice split right into the italian quarter, agreeing to meet up again at about mile 12. Tim spent the next few shops getting as much Wonton soup down him as possible, with extra fortune cookies, while Alice raced through a vast amount of pizza and pasta, basically completely going down the stereotypical route of food because its easy to think about and I’m feeling lazy.

At mile 12 they met, having confused everyone else in the race as to what the heck was going on. Runners were everywhere, eating all kinds of local and regional delicacies as they pounded down the street. The race organiser was in tears trying to see if ANYone had actually followed the normal route. Together they forged their way through the rambling markets of Kigali, carried on north to Shangri-la, then east over to the Hanging gardens of Babylon before heading back south through Dakar with a minor shopping tour of Lima as a bit of a diversion before finally, from out of the chaos and carnage of food and drink based ramblings, our hero’s Tim and Al broke forth, guzzling from a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne as they weaved across the finish line, somewhat the worse for wear. Final times… no idea. But the important thing was that they enjoyed their time running it.

Benidorm 10k

Not to be out done by those in far off foreign climes, Neil McGraw was out there getting his tan on, battering around the Benidorm 10k. Excellent to hear that he is out and about again, speeding up those legs and getting more used to running in hot temperatures. As tends to be the case in a)10ks and b) benidorm and c) GDH, Neil took the opportunity to visit one or two of the local taverna’s on the way around, sampling the local equivalent of mead. He still managed a rather respectable 53 mins to the finish line, which in those temperatures, is pretty hot stuff. As it were.

Barnsley 10k

Not to be out done by those in far off foreign climes, Paul Drury was out there getting his…. hang on a sec, I’ve written that already. Yes, Paul was over in far flung Barnsley. I suspect that he wasn’t getting his tan on, so much as trying to stop the locals from nicking his wallet as he stood freezing on the start line. Just getting over to Barnsley must have taken some doing considering the snow on the tops at the moment, so give him a cheer for that. I’m fairly sure that his run is up on Strava…. let me check….Yup, there it is. Apparently he had Man Flu as well, which didn’t entirely help his attempt. At least he didn’t puke in the last 300 metres though. He came in just under the hour at 57:something, so it was probably a good thing he didn’t throw up…. nice one Paul. Hope you managed to keep your wallet.

(and thanks to Nevs sleuthing as well).

Silva Dark trail race

Dan Stinton was off in the dark again this week. He went South (as some of us are indeed wont to do) down to Surrey for the Silva Dark Trail race – which is pretty much what is says on the tin…. It’s sponsered by Silva, its a trail race and, you’ll never guess…. It’s in the dark. So it looks from strava (coz that is all I’m basing this on) like he ran about 14k with a strava segment somewhere in the middle that is encouragingly called “exploding heart hill”. So I guess he finished and didn’t end up exploding his heart. Oooh, there are some nice pics on Strava as well, but I can’t copy and paste them so you’ll have to look at that instead.

Parkrun

Parkrun in Glossop was cancelled this week because of snow and ice and other stuff – some people still ran it anyway, and others still ran parkruns elsewhere… consolidated report is here

Other stuff

I believe that Paul Peters out did himself in the most recent Lancs XC. Technically not as a GDH, but as a GDH runner – well done Paul!

I understand that there might have been one or two of us doing the Kong MMM over in Hayfield today, but having had no information from them I’m assuming one of these 3 scenarios… 1) they did it and survived but haven’t been bothered to tell me. 2) they did it and didn’t survive, we’ll find out soon enough or 3) they stayed at home and snuggled up with a hot chocolate and a dog. More information as and when I get it.

This weeks social run looked fun on strava. the 30th November looks to me like Kasia is going to be leading it – I would imagine if you’re going on that you’ll definitely need fell shoes and a decent torch etc. Will there also be a roadie group out? I have no idea – someone post something up on fb if so.

The week after (7th) is going to be a pub run again. I’m ostensibly leading it… The pub that we finished in last time (the Prince of Wales) is apparently going through a refit and should theoretically be open by then, so it might be nice to go and get their new upholstory wet and muddy. I was also thinking of doing a short Street-O thing if anyone wants to take part? Just a Score event. Turn up, get a map and pootle around the local streets trying to find numbers on hydrants and lamp-posts etc… its a good intro to map reading and orienteering if you’re not all that confident…. I’ll hopefully be doing a few more Street and Hill ones in the future if you lot are game?

Um. That’s about it really. Now go out and run in the snow.

Oh – a final thing – if any of you have any nominations for The Bombed out award, or the, Oh, I can’t remember the name of the trophy… like “achievement of the year” award thing, please send them to secgdh@outlook.com with the subject line “awards” We’ll be collating them until 7th December and then the committee will decide on who wins. (send it after the 7th and it won’t be looked at). and no, you can’t nominate yourself Matt Huxford.