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- Records tumbled, PBs smashed...
Well where to start! Actually, I reckon that’s fairly easy, because whatever camp you sit in (he’s amazing/it was too artificial with too much technology), it’s pretty awesome that we saw Kipchoge not just break, but pretty much smash the 2h mark for a marathon on Saturday morning! Saw a stat that only 5 parkruns have been run quicker than he was doing 5kms – now that’s impressive whatever your opinion on the whole thing! Think it left a few folk feeling inspired…he’d barely finished and Pete Wallroth was lacing up his shoes and rallying the troops for a run! Back on home turf, cos we ain’t all in Vienna this weekend, GDH had our own records to beat…and that you did! Read on to hear more about the mud, the hills, the flats, the miles, and the fun that was had!
Langdale Horseshoe
Thanks to Chris Webb for sending in this report from the Langdale Horseshoe, a bit of an epic race 21.1km with a mammoth 1450m climb!
” Langdale marks the end of the big Lakeland races for the year and always draws a great field. This year there was a record turnout of over 400 on a lovely autumn day (it did tip down for the first 20mins, and Bowfell and Crinkle Crags were in clag….but it was sunny otherwise and I class that as lovely!) with 4 Glossopdalers on the start line. It’s a great route with a long climb out of the valley up and round Stickle Tarn before summit inn Thunacar Knott; from there is either fast, boggy descents or rocky climbs and traverses with some sneaky nav around Bowfell and the Crinkles (obviously, that’s where the clag was). I was having a decent race and fancied myself to break 2:30 despite the ropey conditions (I think my best is low 2:20s) but made the mistake of following Paul Tierney off Crinkle Crags. The guy’s done the Wainwright’s and lives in Ambleside, he’s a safe bet to know a good line was my thinking…not so – cue a lot of swearing on his part. It only cost a few mins but that did for the 2:30 target. Alice was running whilst Tim looked after Edith and by the sounds of it had a cracking run, spending plenty of time on her backside (if you’re not falling you’re not going fast enough) and romping home past Team Culshaw at Blea Tarn. Robin and Sarah were there too but I didn’t see them, sorry! Their results are below, it looks like they had a romantic run round together. A quick plug for those thinking about Lakes races for 2020; Langdale was the final counter in both the Lakeland Classic Trophy (a great series of the best longer and harder races in the Lakes: https://www.lakelandclassicstrophy.org.uk/) and also the Lakes Grand Prix (shorter, slightly less arduous races but all great: https://www.peteblandsports.co.uk/dept/lakes-grand-prix_d011213.htm) – both series are worth considering or using to choose good race options in the Lake District.”
Chris Webb: 41st in 2:33:01
Robin Hoffmann: 186th in 3:15:28
Sarah Andrew: 187th in 3:15:36
Alice Willson: 328th in 3:52:14
We’ve also had a report in for a very advanced for age Edith- On Saturday mummy (Alice Willson) ran Langdale Horseshoe. Me and daddy started a walk but Joss Naylor thought I was a boy and told us it was too rainy for him so we stopped. I told mummy that the best way to move around is rolling, so she rolled most of the way. Now she has a purple bottom. Chris Webb (41st, 2:33), Sarah Andrew and Robin Hoffman (17th woman, 186th, both 3:15) did very good running. Mummy finished a very tough fell race 47th in 3:52.
Manchester Area Cross Country League – Match 1 Wythenshawe Park
No intro necessary as the write up says it all! Big thanks to speedy Steve Crossman for sending in this brill report!
“XC returned this week meaning that Winter is just round the corner! Conditions for the first race of the season were pleasantly mild & dry, although underfoot was a touch ‘sticky’!
Wythenshawe is renowned as the fast & flat venue, a gentle introduction into some of the more traditional venues.
Wendy Trelease, running her first XC, was the only GDH female competing. Wendy waded, & waltzed round the 4.5 mile course in 41:02, finishing 145th out of 283, in 21st position in her age category. Judging by the comments on Strava, Wendy indicates it’s the ‘hardest thing she’s ever done’………we’ll check on that after the remaining venues!!
The magnificent 7 GDH Hunks that turned up to race the 5.5 miles, all performed admirably in a tough and high standard field of 402 runners.
Simon Toole, popped his XC cherry, finishing with a big smile in 48:27, 341st & 35th MV50
Pete Daly, running on his home patch, cruised round in 43:22, 238th & 22nd MV50
John ‘The Rocket’ Stephenson, steamed round in 51:54, 373rd & 11th MV60
The evergreen Frank Fielding, sporting his GDH retro vest, glided round in 46:14, 301st & 5th MV65
Steve C, 38:19, 103rd & 3rd MV50
David Chrystie-Lowe, chauffeur to most of the team and designated bag drop car, demolished his rivals to run an impressive 44:13, 257th & 3rd MV60
Alex Critcher, now utilising the infamous Beetroot Diet, put his worries that he was haemorrhaging behind him, to beet (Ed: *eye roll*) round the course despite IT band issues in 47:04, 319th & 54th MV40
It was great to see Start2Jog at the race, complete with a tent and a strong showing from their runners in both the female and male races.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Julian Goater in his book The Art of Running Faster, ‘Racing XC can help you become a better runner on any surface by pushing against your limiting factors: It is enormously effective in developing strength, skill, stamina and psychology – mental toughness and stickability are improved too…’
With that in mind, hopefully we can drum up more support for these cracking events. I believe you can enter on the day for the South East Lancs League (1st match at Heaton Park on the 19th Oct) and also you can come and dip your toe in at Chris Webb’s Wednesday Evening XC Training Sessions, starting soon in Bankswood Park”
Absolutely cracking GDH, great work! Well folks, if that does not leave you inspired…then I dunno! I’m sure Kirsty Sharp will be able to give any more advice/help if you’re tempted with South East Lancs League. Keep your eyes peeled on the FB page where Chris will post details of his Wednesday sessions. Alex C —Daily Mash said Kipchoge credited beetroot shots with his impressive performance, so look forward to seeing how XC round 2 goes 🙂
Lakes in a Day
Given the conditions of last year, and Dan Stinton’s tales of the event, i’m surprised anyone would want to ever sign up for this 😉 but it obviously didnt deter 2 of our hardened runners – or perhaps they just didn’t speak to Dan! Big thanks to Els Swan for sending this in – hopefully written from the comfort of the sofa with her feet in some snuggly slippers.
“Lakes in a Day (LiaD) is a 50 mile traverse with ~4000m of ascent starting at the very top of the Lake District at Caldbeck and finishing at the very bottom, in Cartmel, taking in Blencathra, the Helvellyn Ridge and the western shoreline of Lake Windermere on the way.
Rich Martin and I were the only Glossopdalers in attendance this year. The race is a tough one with the vast majority of the climbing in the first half. Happily the conditions were much kinder than last year’s Day in a Lake with minimal wading and only light buffeting on the tops.
The official results are not out yet however based on the event tracker, I finished as 14th Lady (4th vf40) in 14:46 and Rich finished in 16:47, a big PB in comparison to his reccie timings. There was some great racing at the front of the field apparently with Ricky Lightfoot taking the overall course record, finishing in 8:47 – about the time some of us mere mortals were coming down into Ambleside with another 20 miles to go. He also bagged £2,000 for the course record – or about £222 / hour. Nice if you can!
As always, I need to say a massive thank you to Phil and the girls for their support on the day and also for their tolerance of my increasing levels of catastrophising over the last few weeks; encounters with angry cows; complete nav failure; falling off Halls Fell etc etc. Interestingly, there was a possible catastrophe which wasn’t on my list – getting between a low flying goose and the lake on which it was planning to land. I will know for next time.
Many thanks too, to Dan Stinton and Emma Rettig for their advice (Ed – ah so they did speak!) based on having done this race before: don’t scrimp on kit, eat lots and keep going til the finish (all wise words) and to Rich and his running partner, Matthew, for letting me tag along with them over the Fells.
The race is really well organised with brilliant feed stations, live tracking and the option of changing into dry shoes and socks at Ambleside as the terrain changes from fell to trail – bliss, briefly. As the organisers say “a day never to be forgotten”. “
Absolutely brilliant Els and Rich (and Matthew) – incredible achievement. (and well done to all the supporters – not always an easy job in itself!). Perhaps if you’re after your first 50 miler, this is one for you with a good number of GDH veterans there to give advice!
Wiggle Manchester Half Marathon
Now this has been the talk of the town for some weeks, a bit like Chester marathon there were a good number of GDH targeting this race, all hoping for a PB on this fast course. Happily, today dawned not exactly bright, but definitely not p*ssing it down like it seems to have done the past couple of weeks. Thanks to Paul Peters for sending in this report:
” I’d set myself a pretty ambitious target of 73 mins, and while I’d had a few setbacks in training I wanted to give it a whirl, so I “merrily” set off at target pace. It was all going well for the first 12km or so, almost too well… As I was making my way through Sale my watched beeped for another km, and I did a double take when it was suddenly 10s slower. It woke me up and the next one was on track, but from then on it was a losing battle.
The last 7km or so was just a mental battle, stuck running by myself, overtaking one person for every 10 that went by me (all wearing their new Nike shoes I might add…), and gradually drifting slower and slower. I finally crossed the line in 75:11, initially a little disappointed. After actually looking at the splits though, I didn’t actually fall off as badly as it felt, and I just overestimated where I was at, and I’m new very happy with my new 4 minute PB!
Massive thanks to coach J for the pep talk and personal bag drop duties, and to Wendy (I think?) for the on course cheering! And well done to all the other gdh runners out there today.”
Wow fast running Paul! Great work – meanwhile minutes later, others were battling it out and smashing their own PBs!
Jessica Camp – 1h 32m 48 (massive 5 min PB!)
Mike Greenhalgh – 1h 34m 29
David Munday – 2h 45m 32
Susan Moore – 2h 45m 32
Alison Holt – 1h 53m 43
Ian Oates – 1h 44m 59
Steven Rea and his mum- 2h 47m 30
Looks like Coach J’s tuesday sessions are paying off – PBs a plenty! So you know what you gotta do – buy some Nikes, and come on a tuesday and you’ll be flying 🙂 I’m sending my Brooks back…who recommended those?! no, i’m not getting into that conversation again haha.
Rowbothams Round Rotherham
No report from this one, but Strava shows Nick Ham did this 81km epic trail – his 13th go on this. Sounds like the weather was better than normal, but it was …unsurprisingly muddy!
Petzl Night Trail – Coed y Brenin
No report from Claire, but having spied something on FB, and having manned the feed station twice, and ran it once, I can defo write something about this fab event!
Set in the beautiful forests at CyB, this 3h night event starts at 6pm in the light and finishes in the dark at 9pm. Running solo, or in teams of 3, you run 3k laps of the forest with the aim to do the most in the 3h. There’s music, beer, food, fairy lights, glow sticks…it’s seriously good fun! Claire Campbell, feeling brave, entered as a solo which is no mean feat as the temptation is to shoot off quick like the team runners do, but with 90m ascent per lap, it soon saps the legs! Anyway, she clearly paced it perfectly, and i think was 5th female overall and bagged 2nd V40!! Nice one Claire. I reckon this would be great to get a bunch over for this next year – it’s brilliant.
Go Big More fell race
Thanks to eagle eyed Ian for spotting this for me – Steve Knight was out racing this 13 and a bit mile fell race – and pretty darn speedy he did it too! Just over 7 and a half min miles with 500m elevation – that got him just outside the top 10 – well done Steve!
Parkrun corner
See here for the consolidated club report. https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/
We also had this report from Emma Peters travel the long journey south!
“Exciting times for parkrun in the North East with the addition of yet another new parkrun in Newcastle. Jesmond Dene parkrun had their inaugural run this week, making it my closest parkrun at less than 1.5km from my house. Joe Travis was up in the area for work again so the 2 of us ventured over to check it out. There’s some nasty climbing in the first couple of km, followed by some flat loops at the top of the park before a long descent to the finish. Joe finished 10th place in 21:30 and I was 2nd lady (21st overall) in 22:51, setting this as the SW20-24 age category record to beat. Would recommend as an alternative to Newcastle’s Town Moor parkrun if you’re ever up here and missing the hills of Glossop.”
In other news
Hopefully you all saw this on FB – big thanks to Tim Budd for setting up this self-timed nav challenge thingy with checkpoints, where you make your own route between them (that’s kinda it right?!). He’s sent in this :
“Update on Winter TT (FrostbiteTT/nav)10 people had a bash at the first of the routes- “huts and springs”. Times ranged from just over an hour to just over 2 hours.
All were done in daytime, and there weren’t too many navigational howlers. Almost everyone ended up getting the bonus nav point of Hazel’s well.
So well done to (in attempt order), Dave Hogg, Mark Davenport, Ant Walker, Catherine Cleary/Ann Shackleton/Lynne Taylor- joint effort, Andy and Jo Brack, and John Stephenson.
I have a number of the gpx files to look at the different lines people took overlaid on each other, which makes for quite interesting viewing I’ll put a link to it on the facebook page…. because there is a new course out tomorrow. “
Good effort guys -and there’s something to look forward to on a Monday – Cheers Tim!
That’s all for now folks. If you haven’t already, get your torches charged cos it’s definitely that time of year. Jeroen has put the details of the next 8 week cycle of sessions on FB and on the website, so you’ll find all you need to know there. Early bird entries to Manc mara close this week if you fancy a fast and furious spring marathon – there are already a good number signed up. Recces – there are various Trigger recces, and 4 inns recces going on over the next few months, so look out for those (Zoe Barton) – you don’t have to be racing to join them, sometimes a good excuse for a long run with company! And a good chance to have a dabble in the fells if roads are more usually your thing – Wendy M and co looked like they were having fun on Paul’s 4 inns tour.