The thing with the middle of summer is all these Mid-week races….

Whats going on this week? Mid week racing appears to have taken hold, and Paul Skuse, Luke Holme, Pete Wallroth and Alison Holt seem to be racing every single race they possibly can (or at least, appearing in as many photos as possible….) The sun still appears to be shining and we have had 2 GDH club champs races this week. Lots of stuff has indeed gone on, and I have to say a massive thanks to Paul Skuse, Emma Rettig, Will Mather, Marie Williamson, Els Swan, Lynne Taylor, Matt Crompton, Ali Holt, Lucy and Greg Wasinski and Emma Peters for contributions this week – it really does make a huge difference to the amount of time I spend looking at a screen.

Calver Fell Race

Mr. Skuse wrote this on the back of an envelope (yup- a red gas bill) and posted it through my door….

What a great little race. It felt as though it was a full community event as pretty much all of Calver seemed to be out watching. Pete W drove the GDH contingent over (including team photographer/mascot/snuggle monkey Luke H.) I had an interesting start, full beans from the whistle, leading the pack for 10m till I went the wrong way (in front of the whole village) -My excuse is I’m sure I heard someone shout “Left” so I duly did as I was told. Pete had an equally interesting time at the finish. Assuming that once in the finishing funnel he had indeed finished, he was passed by several runners as the actual finish line was the end of the funnel. Guy seems to be continuing his good form overtaking several runners in the last 100 yards. Great finishing as well from Alison and Liam, both giving it some welly and pushing up the leaderboard with strong final sprints. Highly recommended.

Results aren’t out yet…. So unless someone took a photo of the board at the end of the race, well, make up yer own stats.

Castleton Fell Race

Paul then wrote another note to me on the back of a final demands envelope…. I felt I had to do this as I work with organizer. GDH had Luke Holme, Pete Nicholson, Alison Holt,

Greg Wazinski, Des Mitchell, Dan Olham and yours truly flying the blue and orange colours with pride. It seemed a huge field of runners with some proper fast lads out and about. Conditions were perfect for fast running. The route starts fairly flat for a little less than a mile then ramps up taking you up to Lose Hill. Even though it’s a climb, it’s all runnable. The next section is pretty flat along the ridge to the last climb up to Mam Tor (via the Back Tor descent -a personnel nemesis of mine. I missed the “easy” line again so had to revert to the old mincing and cursing down the steps.) From Mam Tor it’s simply turn 180 (is there a degrees sign on a keyboard? -can’t find one) and then back down a pretty technical descent back to the road, the finish line and eternal glory. Okay, not eternal glory but a drink of orange squash which is almost as good. I had one of the tightest races I can remember with Dan O, Chris Jackson (in his other vest) and me just constantly vying for position and encouraging each other. Loved it, even though the boys got the better of me on the final descent. Another one to stick in the calendar for next year.

Edale Fell Race

Matt Crompton is a little more classy than Skusey and used the back of an official White Paper from Parliament to scribble me a missive this week…. Hi Tim. A quick write up from today’s Edale Fell Race. Three Harriers (I think) from the village fair took races up the Nab and Golden Clough on to the southern edge of Kinder until the steep descent off Grindslow Knoll back to the village. Conditions were hot, hot, hot. Since receiving this from Matt, it has become apparent that it was Emma’s first official fell race, which is pretty damn classy, not only that but we also have pictorial evidence of a final overtaking manouvre by Crompton himself to get him in the top 100….  Check out the race face…..

100 Matt Crompton 50.55
145 Pete Wallroth 55.24
171 Emma Kane 59.34
223 ran in total.

Not only that, but thanks to Greg Wazinski/Wasinski/Wasinzki (I swear he changes the spelling every other day), we have a video of the start and everything!… however, as we don’t have a paid for plan on wordpress, it won’t let me upload it, so you’ll just have to watch it on facebook instead.

Race the Train

Emma Rettig drew the short straw from the lot who ran the GDH club Champs counter- Race the Train, and sent this to me attached to a rather tasty bottle of Dark Beer, dropped off by a friendly passing husky….

I was tasked with the Race the Train report so here you are! 5 intrepid GDH’s ventured beyond the Peaks to Race the Train. For the uninitiated it’s a 10.5 mile trail race from Bury to Rawtenstall with runners competing to make it to the finish ahead of the steam train. We all lined up at the start, excuses duly made (tired, raced earlier in week, too hot, niggles etc) and waited. And waited. And waited. It seems in this era of train chaos there was issue with the train – cue jokes about racing a bus replacement service! We eventually set off 25 minutes late but our patience was rewarded by a lovely, predominantly trail route through woods, fields and little pretty villages. The weather was HOT so the water stops were gratefully appreciated, as were the kids firing water cannons at the runners. Everyone raced hard although I struggled due to too much overindulgence in the week (2 hen do’s!!) and not enough running. However post race euphoria set in and we all thoroughly enjoyed the event. Results aren’t available yet (or I haven’t found them!) but will update if I spot them before the report comes out. Finish order was Paul Skuse, Daniel Stinton, Luke Holme, Emma Rettig, John Stephenson I’m assuming the 3 beat the train but not sure about John and I.

Well, I’m about to hit publish, and no word if forthcoming, so we’ll update at some point in the future about the results. Or I’ll just make it up.

Roman Wall Fell Race

Another Emma, (Peters this time) has been sending me stuff this week as well. No beer this time, but she did send me a lovely bunch of flowers….

Afternoon! Joe and I did the Roman Wall show fell race yesterday. 7km route that goes out along part of Hadrian’s wall including Sycamore gap, and then back through some fields parallel to that. We did it last year in a field of 20 runners, however somehow the field yesterday was nearly 70 strong! Possibly the lovely weather contributing to that. Joe came 24th and I came 38th, winning a prize for 3rd lady! My first ever senior lady prize so I’m really chuffed with it. I was behind 3 ladies from my uni club at the halfway point and managed to catch them, and 2 of the men, on the way back. One of the ladies I only caught with about 400m to go so it feels well deserved. With the weather being lovely we stayed to enjoy much of the rest of the show which included a range of from ‘best carved walking stick’, to ‘best fruit animal’ for the kids and even ‘Cumbrian Wresting’ which was brilliant to watch. Only problem is that I’d come very well prepared for bad weather (3 x waterproofs, 2 x waterproof trousers and a towel in my bag in the car), but did not anticipate needing sun cream so I am now sporting 2 red shoulders and a red neck. Great race though, and the organisers suggested trying to make a uni competition out it next year including Lancaster, so maybe next year Paul can be included in this write up too!…

To be honest, I’m a little disappointed that neither Emma nor Joe appear to have participated in the Cumbrian wrestling… though I suppose what happens in Cumbria stays in Cumbria…

Passing Clouds

Another in the ongoing saga that is the GDH club Champs. So far no-one has sent me any information about this one, but luckily there are provisional results up on the web. It would appear that Ben Tetlers Beard is still dragging his reluctant body around fell races at a distinctly fast speed, despite his loud protestations as he ended up the fastest of the GDH crew on the day. Self confessed race hater Andy Oliver somehow picked himself up and ran around the delightful area of the Roaches and Hen Cloud and came in 2nd GDH, hankering after a litre of vegan custard (if you don’t know the story about that one, ask him), Dan Oldham was next back, with his legs presumably feeling pretty well warmed up from his racing at Castleton the other day. Nick Ham– the man of the many 100milers was next back, enjoying a relatively short stroll through the fabulous rock formations of Ramshaw etc. and Alison Holt was first GDH lady, completing a rash of races this week, and getting a justly deserved score in the Champs. Good work y’all.

7 Ben Tetler 78:14
17 Andy Oliver 83:49
21 Dan Oldham 87:02
86 Nick Ham 109:20
113 Alison Holt 139:17

Man v horse.

I was passed this race report in a furtive manner recently- think spies and dead letter boxes…. thanks to Marie Williamson & Jayne Moreton.
We arrived in Llantryd wells Friday night. Went to collect our numbers then went to the pub for the pasta party (food included in the entry fee). Arrived at start in plenty of time for 11am start. The 60 (ish) horses trotted through town on their way up to their starting area before we got underway. We started at 11 & the horses 15 minutes later. A few miles in and the horse route went slightly off ours rejoining a few more miles on. There are some single track paths (think that’s why the horses did a slightly different route for that section) where you just ended up in a line of runners. Runners are asked to stick to the right while horses were passing… Some on fairly narrow tracks..so they got really close & you had to stand to the side to allow them through. There were water stations every 3 miles..great in the heat (although, apparently, it’s usually a lot wetter). The terrain was on tracks & trails & across streams, up & down with lovely views across the hills. Plenty of marshals & route arrows/tape so didn’t need to think about directions. It was a very close finish for the winner…horse winning by 24 seconds (or so). It was a very beautiful & friendly event….we even managed to make it back before 2 of the horses.

Running against 60 odd horses… on single track paths… well, it takes some fairly brave runners to take that on -well done Marie and Jayne.

Last one Standing

This arrived on my desk by paper aeroplane. I was admiring the handiwork for a while before realising the race report was written inbetween the folds…. thanks to Will Mather for the report… hi Tim don’t know if I’ve missed deadline for report but here’s a brief one. I took on Last One Standing a 4.1 mile loop where you start each loop on the hour every hour. I managed my best distance of 106.6 mile finishing in 6th place in time that 26hours. as I send you this there are 2 people still going (30hours) if that makes any sense I’m doing well as I’ve been awake 36 hours

Well, the report makes sense. The race, though. Well. Flipping well done for getting more than a century in 26 hours, that really is some going. Maybe get some sleep now, eh?

Parkrun