The “Half Cut, who gave me this responsibility?” Weekend report

So here I am at home, after a lovely run on the hills this morning with the Sunday morning crew… and now the wrong side of a number of beakers of mulled cider. The rest of this might not make a whole lot of sense.

It would seem that our Alps based contingent of Chris, Jen and Izzy have been out and about in vast amounts of snow, having a lovely time and generally continuing to get in the snowy miles and metres of ascent. This weeks Webbinar featured some tasty Paarlauf loops, but degenerated somewhat into a car-key hunting session due to Andy Burnett deciding that he REALLY didn’t want to do another rep and “lost” his car keys somewhere on the loop….

The GDH thursday run went off well as far as I understand (meeting them in the pub afterwards was my main contribution) there seemed to be a social group, a grough bashing group and a surreptitious road group with Dan and Mandy heading along the tarmac. This week also saw the return of strava runs entitled “HPM girls”…. oooh, could we have a HPM team on the cards ladies? And it seems from strava that Alice in Kigali has gone mental after last weeks half marathon and is spending her free time running round and round a roundabout in the middle of the city, and a bunch of us went on the hill this Sunday to have a wander in Dark Peak territory. As ever, Julien found a waterfall to scramble up. Is that even news?

XC

Cross country was across at a ridiculously flat course down by Wythenshaw this week. As expected, Chorlton were out in force. The GDH ladies acquitted themselves marvellously, the chaps were out as well, but not quite in enough force to get a team on the cards. Yes, it might have been a bit claggy over in Glossop, but the sun was almost shining as we hit Kenworthy woods. As luck would have it, when the blokes ran the mist came in, so at least we had some form of cooling for the run…. the results went like this….

Babes
Ezme “I did pretty well” Brack – 9th U17 25:12
16th Kirsty “fix up look” Sharp 11th Female 27:42
150th Jane “Blue and orange certainly suit me” Mellor 9th V50 34:39
151st Emma “I’m chasing you down” Rettig 22nd Senior Female 34:51
171st Jo “Nearly beating my daughters age plcaing” Brack 10th V50 35:34
205th Charmayne “last 100m sprint like a demon” Brierley 14th V50 36:47
27th Ladies team
27th Vets team

Nice work ladies.

Blokes
67th Tim “hills? what hills?” Budd 45th age cat. 37:59
117th Steve “aaah, finally, a road runners XC course” Crossman 6th V50 40:13
154th Chris “Don’t worry, I’ll beat Crossman tomorrow” Jackson 86th 41:03
268th David “best flapjack provider in the world” Chrystie-Lowe 6th V60 44:59
366th John “most delightful lift provider of the week” Stephenson 14th V60 50:28
Unfortunately there were not enough running to count for any men’s team. (sad face). Hopefully we’ll get some more out for the next one.

Full results here.

Silva Dark trail race

Claire Campbell (who is apparently really rather excited about the new Stars Wars film) was off running in the dark this week, by choice, not because she got lost. It was the Silva Dark trail race, which essentially is a trail race in the dark. (yep, I’ve done my research). Claire, being on the mainland rather than the Isle of Wight made sure that she really nailed the run. It was apparently mostly on fire roads, but the dark made it quite a challenge…. she came in 12th female of 26 in 1:39. Great practice for the Santa Saunter next weekend – Can’t wait to see you up here Claire.

Stockport 10

Yes indeed, it was Stockport 10 today. The 10 miler. Not the 10k. I wonder how many people enter it expecting it to be considerably shorter than it actually is. Pretty much all I have is an email from Jeroen detailing the results…. and it went down like this…..

Results from today:
178th Richard “If Crompton isn’t here, does that mean I beat him?” Martin 1:10.47
197th Jeroen “I’d rather be holding a stopwatch” Peters 1:11.39
385th Tony “I’ll fight you for that trophy” Hillier 1:17.53
436th Nick “the Ultra” Ham 1:20.13
707 Jayne “dragon woman” Moreton 1:30.27
708 Alison “Where did I put my reindeer jumper” Holt 1:30.31
893 Dan “clandestine thursday road runner” Ellingworth 1:42. 33
967 Susan “I’ll pretend to cross with Dave but I’ll beat him really” Moore 1:54. 30
968 David “I can’t believe my sister did me on the finish line” Munday same time. (Crossed finish line hand in hand)
995 finishers.

Perfect weather conditions.

(By which I presume Jeroen means it was pishing with rain, blowing a hoolie, the fog was down and the rain was turning to sleet in the second half – though he has yet to confirm).

Gravy Pud

XC was not enough for some people, and the Gravy Pud race seemed the perfect antidote

to tired legs. Others decided to forgo the amusement of running around a park in order to save themselves for the hill….

Paul “Top of the tree” Skuse 25th 42:55
Steve “chasing paul would be easier on less tired legs” Crossman 29th 43:56 1st V50
Dan “shorter, but harder than an ultra” Stinton 46th 46:56
Anthony “just down from town” Johnson 67th 49:25
Ezme “nails” Brack 73rd 10th lady 50:12 (1st under 18)
Ellen “would recommend” Quane 89th 15th lady 51:28
Ian “jaipur. There are no other words” Oates 90th 51:30
Rob “more hungover than oates?” Sheldon 91st 51:34
Guy “this seems short” Riddell 110th 53:44
Des “local race for local people” Mitchell 113th 53:56
Rebecca “getting my fell legs back” Smith 141st 57:27
Rachel “I’m FREE!” Walton 151st 58:30
Charmayne “XC makes you faster” Brierley 159th 1:00:15
Jo “Bang on the same time as Char…” Brack 160th 1:00:15
Clive “just mooching along” Smith 170th 1:02:16
Marie “is this one in the champs?” Williamson 205th 1:08:38
Malc “I’m here for the beer” Brown 1:12:37
Alabama “always better than last year” Breeze 220th 1:14:02

parkrun

My word, I think special mention needs to go to one Josie Swan who PB’d at Glossop this week. Not only that, but her PB is now faster than her Mum’s. Go Josie! Consolidated report is here.

So that’s pretty much all I can find about what you ‘orrible lot did this week. Up and coming this next week:

Tuesday – Coached session- look out for whatever it is that jeroen is planning on facebook. There is also bound to be a decent paced fell group on the hill.

Wednesday– XC Webbinar in Bankswood park. I’m sure that Webby will keep us up to date with whatever amusement he has lined up for us this week.

Thursday -Pub run. I’m thinking it will go from the Prince of Wales (again… but only because it is being refurbed….) If it is still not open on thursday, we’ll go from somewhere else. I’ve planned out a Street-Orienteering course. Could you let me know if you want to come and run it and then I can print out the appropriate number of maps and score cards. The idea is that you get an hour to bimble your way around the streets of Glossop, navigating as you go, to find specific items around the town. It’s pretty good practice for map orientation etc. I’m sure there will be a fell run going on as well, and there might be a few roadies out for a linear run as well. Keep your eye on Facebook for definite location. If you can’t make it for 7pm, that isn’t a problem, I’ll be around all evening and can send you on your way with a map at any point. All welcome to socialise in the pub afterward. (or during).

Sunday – Shittern Santa Saunter – fellrace from the Brewery in Old Glossop. Organised by Steve Pepper, ably helped out by a motley pack of do-gooders. Come and run. Come and have fun. There’s chilli and bread and beer and a hot jet wash and all those good things.

Right. Where’s the rest of that whisky?