“Storm Callum can Do One”. Weekend report.

Steve Crossman has taken the reins of the MACCL XC reports this year – and here is his first missive….:

Well it’s that time of year again, when the XC leagues start again. First fixture up was the very competitive Manchester League at Wythenshawe Park, notorious for being flat and fast. Conditions had been ‘moist’ in the morning but that cleared away to leave an unseasonably warm day with what could only be described as a persistent ‘breeze’!!

Joanne ‘Big Hair’ Brack & Jane ‘Rocking the Blue & Orange’ Mellor, flew the flag for the mighty GDH Babes in the Ladies Race.

A great turnout from GDH Hunks, including a few newbies,  saw the team congregate around the newly acquired GDH Race Tent. We all agreed that it looked fantastic in its bag, agreeing that none of us could be faffed with putting it up! John ‘Keeper of the Tent’ Stephenson, seemed rather relieved with the decision.

The usual banter prevailed with tales of injuries, lack of speed training, too much beer etc….until Tim ‘I love Tarmac’ Budd, shocked the team with a confession of his love for the black hard stuff. You needn’t be worried, It turns out that this was only in XC races when he liked to see those in spikes suffer on road sections!

Making up the rest of the GDH Team:

Pete ‘Blue & Orange does suit me’ Daly
Andy ‘Sharpshooter’ Burnett
Frank ‘Ageless’ Fielding
Jamie ‘The Artful Drafter’ Helmer
Stevie ‘Never on the last minute’ Knowles
Nick ‘What have I let myself in for’ Lord
Steve ‘This is a bit late in the day for me’ Crossman

Ladies Race:

Jo & Jane stormed round the course, leaving many big name clubs in their wake, both recording excellent times.

Blokes race:

Tim, chased hard by Stevie K, ran an excellent time to finish top of the GDH pile.

Jamie, drafted off Steve C and then shot past with a lap to go!

Pete & Nick ran hard in their debut GDH XC and finished with creditable results.

John and Andy had a real battle with John finally taking the honours, as he steamed past Andy, who was just reloading his rifle to take down a few practice targets!

Results:

Jo Brack 10^th V50-55, 39:26, 140^th overall
Jane 27^th V50-55, 45:28, 250^th overall

307 ran

Tim 25^th SM20-39, 36:20, 49^th overall
Stevie K 12^th V45-49, 37:51, 82^nd overall
Jamie 34^th V40-44, 39:37, 138^th overall
Steve C 11^th V50-54, 40:00, 157^th overall
Nick 87^th SM20-39, 40:55, 197^th overall
Pete 22^nd V50-54, 50:34, 238^th overall
John S 10^th V60-64, 50:08, 389^th overall
Andy B 50^th V50-54, 50:34, 393th overall

437 ran

Team Result 15^th Senior Men (Vets) Counters: Stevie K, Jamie, Steve C, Pete

Special thanks:

David ‘Dressed head to toe in Hi-Vis’ Chrystie-Lowe, who volunteered to marshal and provided great encouragement as we all ran round, Chris ‘ Hop a long’ Jackson, who came to support and appeared at various points on the course.

Lakes in a Day

Dan Stinton survived hell and highwater up in the Lakes this weekend, and sent me this slightly drenched report.

Before we start, who on earth put “Lakes in a Day” in the club champs? And more importantly, where were they!?

Just 50 miles, many challenging climbs and a 100 million litres of water stood between Emma Rettig and myself to gain a club champ point.  I’d buddied up with my friend Michelle who’d been training on the flat in London so was well prepared for the event.  The race is a “game of two halves” with the first 30 miles to Ambleside bagging most of the elevation and the final 20 a long slog back to Cartmel (although don’t let anyone tell you it’s flat!)

It wasn’t long before Storm Callum was raging making the trek down Hall’s Fell and the steep climb to Clough Head and south to Helvellyn a huge challenge.  Somewhere before the Clough Head climb, Emma decided to sit down in a river to….er… cool down?  The checkpoint at Ambleside soon became the “Garden of Eden” in our minds with pretty much nothing else mattering but getting there and getting changed.  Emma arrived at Ambleside about 30 or so mins after us and unfortunately decided to pull out – I don’t know the full details but I imagine 10-11 hours on the hills with extreme wind and rain had taken its toll.  Michelle also decided to call it a day at Ambleside so I carried on alone.  The route was severely flooded with Windermere having broken its banks meaning you had to wade through many of the more runnable sections.  My watch with the route on it had failed, my battery back-up light was dimming so I just had to push on as fast as I could to Cartmel – eventually getting there in 16:16ish – which is officially the longest time I’ve ever been rained on. What fun we all had (it was actually a pretty amazing day)!

I understand that Emma was having a particularly fun time of it all, but was unfortunately bodily picked up by the wind and dumped in a river/rock/rock in a river/ any or all combinations of the above, and sustained a minor injury. Credit to Emma’s resilience though, she got herself off the hill and into the checkpoint (where I hope the race marshals thanked her profusely for not calling for a helicoptor) and then decided to wisely call it a day in Ambleside. Intelligence is a useful thing to have.

Langdale Horseshoe

Well, it seems that the horrendous weather over the weekend didn’t put off serial hardman Andy Fox. He lined up with the rest of the Lakeland mob and saw off the challenge of most of them, finishing the 20k 1300m AL in 3:36, 108th overall and 2nd V60… 8 of the 11 other V60s didn’t even make it back. I meant they retired. What did you *think* I meant? Great running Andy.

Pentland Skyline

Chris Webb managed to get a sneaky Pentland Skyline race into his “family weekend away” (which just so happened to co-incide with being in Edinburgh on the exact weekend the race is run…) hmmmm. Anyhow, he sent this in… 2hrs42mins and 16th place for the Pentland Skyline. Jackson challenged me to run under 2:50 so based on that I’m happy! Glorious day in the hills, cool and sunny. The Scots seemed to think I was mad for wearing a vest (I thought they were hard as nails up here?) but it was the right call. Very grassy, runnable hills-I was dying for a steep crag to climb! Anyway, good to explore a new place and it was a cracking atmosphere and well organised event I’d recommend. Saw Lizzy Leason at the start too, not sure how she got on. John Ryan was marshalling, not sure his legs fancied a fast, hard run out!

Manchester Half Marathon 2018

Apparently there were a few GDH out on the Manc Half this weekend, but beyond the names that were on Tony’s post, I have no idea what went on. I daresay they ran on the tarmac and had a lovely time.
Tony Hillier 1st V70 (quelle surprise! Nicely run Sir)
Steve Page
David Chrystie-lowe
Ian Oates
Jayne Moreton
Becca Coward

Night race Coed y Brenin

Lucy and Greg Wasinski were off down in Coed y Brenin for the night laps race at the trail centre. They teamed up with someone else (check out the amazing amount og research Ive done), and tag teamed around a 3k forest circuit in the dark. Supported excellently by Purple Moose Brewery, bevvies were flowing well. Greg managed 4 laps, Lucy only got out for 3, but overall they were 9th team, and 4th Mixed team. Jolly good running there.

Parkrun

No PBs this week – the weather was a little spicey for that, but Caity ran her 100th. Thats a lotta parkrunning. Full wossname here.