The full moon (lunatic’s) connoisseur report

I’d like to start by saying a big thanks to Steve Pepper who had the baton passed to him (thrust into his hand) for the past couple of weeks. Despite juggling baby care, revision and general bits and bobs he still managed to get a report out vaguely on time – Thanks Steve.

So what on earth happened this week in the world of the Greatest Running Club Ever? I’m not sure, as I don’t run for Yeovil Town RRC, so stuff wot we done will have to do.

Peris Horseshoe

Ah, what a glorious race this is. Wales. Hills. Rain. Wind. Whales. Dolphins. Terrapods. You name it – this race has it all. Our valiant Chris Webb headed across to deepest, darkest Llanberis, proving once and for all how to get 2 Whales in a car. (M56, A55 etc). (budum-tish). There was a pretty classy field running the entire Horseshoe, which involves a few of the 3000ft peaks, and a whole lot of other running. Not a lot of it flat. Chris excelled himself by ending up a rather decent 5th position, having decided that today was not a day for bonking. For those interested, his nutrition plan involved deep crust hawaiian pizza, fruit cake, 2 croissants and a bottle of Dom Perrignon. There goes a man who knows how to race.

Padfield (Plum Fayre) Scamper

The 3rd to last race in the GDH fell running champs took place this weekend over in

Padfield, and there was quite a crowd from Les Bleus (et oranges) who took part. The weather was a little misty, so misty, in fact there was little sign of the Plum Fayre – unsurprising I suppose as it is now defunct. That’s the problem when Sly and the Family Stone leave the area. From the off the racing was exciting, with plenty happening in the mid pack, which I was totally oblivious to. In fact, I don’t really know who was running… the main thing was that Steve “Im injured” Pepper had found enough energy and gumption to leave his poor doting wife holding the baby so that he could swan off up the hill to “take photos” (ie. hurl abuse) at passing runners at the top of the hill. I mean really.

If he’s got enough time to do that, he’s got enough time to write a club report as well.

 

As and when I get some kind of finishing order I shall enter it into the all knowing spreadsheet, screw it up, post it on the site, and then re-edit it in the time honoured fashion. It may be that you need to remember who you finished before and after… so please remember!

Marathon du medoc

Ah – La belle France. And the best marathon in the world. A party beforehand, fancy dress pretty much mandatory, a party afterward, and all the feed stations are vinyards handing out local plonk, bread, cheese, oysters and the like. Cut off time 6 hours. Most common finishing time 5:59. No wonder then, that Emma Rettig decided to give this monster a go. Dressed in a brazilian Samba outfit, she sashayed her way around the 26.2 miles in a thoroughly respectable time, knocking back glasses of red, white, sparkling AND rose (how very daring), and was heard to be quite disparaging about Chris Webbs feeding regime in races saying that only a commoner would eat Pizza, in fact – through a cornucopia of french delights she was heard to mumble “let him eat cake”. And caused a riot.

Redgate Coalsack race

For those of you who don’t know – or are too high class to know – coal is something we

burn to keep the house warm. There is an annual race up redgate in Padfield, where the runners have to carry a bag of coal. 25kg for the blokes, 10kg for the women. Why is that? Surely we need gender equality?! Any how. So we had a couple of brave GDH runners in the offing for the prizes. Zoe “mothers can do anything” Barton and Cheryl “the muscles from Cross Cliffe” Stitt battled it out in the womens race, with Zoe powering her way up the hill in 50 seconds, but Cheryl took the club, and indeed the race honours with a staggering 40 seconds dead. In the blokes race, there were a significant amount of GDH blokes “supporting” but precious few took up the challenge. Pete “the sack handler” Davis was one of those to give it ago, and came over the line, literally staggering at about 47 seconds. Well done to those to took part. We salute you, and look forward to seeing if you want to do it again next year!.

The S(c)illy Swim

Although it is kind of last weeks news, it took this long for the pigeon to fly from the Isles of Scilly to our humble abode on the top of Bleaklow. It would appear that our very own and very lovely Catherine Cleary took part in the Scilly Swim. An allegedly non-competitive event where 150 or so hardy souls swim from island to island in the Scilly, um, isles. They also have to walk across them. The longest swim is, um, flipping long (3 miles?) and the shortest is 400m. All in, it took about 10 hours to do, and according to her support team (consisting of team boss, Skip, and lackey, Tom) the icecream was fantastic. I have to say that swimming that length of distance and time has me, quite frankly, in awe.

Lake District Mountain Trial

Our trusty and trusted navigators headed over to the Lake Distric Mountain Trial this

weekend. Lindsay “magnetic attraction” Palmer and  John “animal magnetism” Stephenson pitted their wits against the brightest and best in the C class over some rugged and challenging terrain. The weather proved to be too much even for these hardy souls, and after completing the majority of the course, called it a day as the maps disintegrated in their hands, food turned to ashes in their mouths and compasses spun like clocks. They got back to the control point and spoke with the organiser, who realised that with such experienced and generation defining navigators not completing the course, the entire event should be cancelled. And so it was.

Here endeth the lesson.

Well. Not quite.

Parkrun corner

A glut of Harriers were at the slightly damp and grim Glossop parkrun this weekend. Only Mark Davenport was able to capitalise on the weather conditions to come in with a PB – only being pipped at the post by first lady – Ezme Brack with a 70%+ age grading. Consolidated report is here.

Other stuff

So there are a few bits and pieces to mention –

Al and Jules were off in Spain searching for pina coladas and sun loungers. Got lost and ended up doing 16000ft of ascent in the week.

22nd-24th September is the second Glossopdale adventure weekend. The premise is to go and do something during the weekend that pushes you outside of your comfort zone – be it a new race, a PB, a triathlon, climbing, scrambling, whatever. Take a photo or 3 of you doing it, and the “best/ most challenging/rewarding” challenge will get cake. Or something. Pub on the friday night and Sunday evening is optional, but it does make it easier for me to work out who is doing what… let me know if you are interested and what your challenge might be. For info about the last one, read here.

Sat 16th Next weekend! – Cross keys relay. 2 legs on road, 2 on fell. A good laugh, and you get to see Andy Burnett and Ian Oates, and whoever else they pressgang into it running around in bermuda shorts. It starts and finishes at a pub, what more could you want?

Cross country – if you want to enter either or both leagues, get in touch with Kirsty asap. She’s on facebook, despite all appearances of her being hammered and on a hen do.

Hodgson Brothers Mountain Relay is on Sunday 1st October. We have a team entered, and there are other GDH supporters staying at Patterdale YHA. I’m going up to support and cheer the team on. Consider going – tis a great day on the hill, even (especially) if you’re not racing.

Steve’s 11k Time Trial Trail Thing

If you’re still intent on getting races done for the road and trail champs, don’t forget to give the (perfectly normal distance of) 11k time trial devised by Steve a go. Times recorded up until the end of… oh, I can’t remember.. September? October? Go with September, it’s a safer bet… will count. If you don’t know the route, ask Steve. He does. There is probably a vague map of it on the facebook page somewhere as well. Get out and give it a go. What’s the worst that could happen?

(no, I don’t need a list).

Here indeed, endeth the lesson. And if I’ve missed you and your race/trip/wossname out, I apologise, but you didn’t tell me.