The “Wettest Tuesday in Coached Session History” Weekly Report

That’s right.  Tuesday was the wettest coached session ever! Excuses were handed in to coach Jeroen on the Facebook page one after another, but still many brave souls turned up to bash out a speed session!  Just one of the myriad of things happening to the Harriers this week, but before we get into all of that, let’s talk club champs!

It’s Cracken Edge on Wednesday, the seventh of ten fell race counters.  I ran this as a recce once and I seem to remember a steep slippy concrete bit towards the end, which probably isn’t the best bit, but other than that it was a great route! Get out there and get the points in!

Without further ado, here is the report!

Jersey: Round the Rock Ultra

Jersey, tiny isn’t it?  I mean, you can barely even see it on a map.  That may be the case until you decide to run around it, and then suddenly it becomes huge.  Kate Bowden ran the “Round the Rock” ultramarathon: a 48-mile jaunt around the coastline of Jersey.  I’ve heard you can do this as a relay team, but who wants to end up halfway round Jersey waiting to see if a bus turns up?  Kate obviously didn’t and looking at Strava got round in under 11 hours – epic running!

Chunal Fell Race

Paul Skuse is like a jack-in-the-box at the moment.  The merest whisper of a race and his head springs into view, bouncing around rallying the Glossopdale army to get out there and win some races!  Here’s his report on the Chunal Fell Race:

I don’t like this race and this race doesn’t like me. The weather wasn’t as bad as expected, the race seemed to fit perfectly between very heavy downpours (didn’t help me much, I was sodden running over to the start). This brief dry spell didn’t do much to help conditions underfoot though and traction came more from tussocks and reeds wrapping themselves around shoes and shins. It was a bushwhacky, bog trotty, uppy & downy and almost no running kind of race. It was almost Lantern Pike-esque in the uppy & downy parts but spread over several sections. Only two GDH’s were racing (with the ever cheerful Jo Brack helping Des at registration). This was a blessing as there were fewer people to see my woeful efforts on the descents. Get a bell and cry “Shame!” when you see me pass. Mark D, Ben N, Immy and a whole host of GDH real fell runners would have done well in the small field of racers. No idea about results as I had to run home to miss the next downpour.

York 10km

A fast and flat course passing loads of the city’s historic gems.  What’s not to like? Paul Amos ran the 10km today and whilst I don’t have an official report Strava tells me it was hot.  Great work Paul!

Turner Landscape Fell Run

John Pollard was in the Lake District again this weekend taking on the Turner Landscape Fell Run.  He gives us the full tale below:

Recommended to do this by a few folk including Chris Jackson, and glad I did as it’s a great route and though tough with a 1000 metre of climbing to 6 different summits on a muggy 25C day, it was the most memorable and doable race I’ve done since trying to get back to the fells.

Made even more enjoyable by bumping into a frisky Andrew Fox sometime of this parish, just before the start. Andy reminded me the last time we locked horns was also in the Lakes at a Hodgson relay, but that could’ve been almost 20 years ago…and we still instantly recognised each other’s grizzled features of course.

Didn’t see Andy again until after the prize-giving, he’s a lean machine, running like a man who’s been intensively hiking the Alps (he has)…while Andy was changing in his campervan Post-race I stumbled over to hear..”1st v60, Andy Fox of GDH”. Nice medal and socks, and nice work Andy.

Think he was back in 2hrs 6..only 44 minutes ahead of me! But I ran ok and was not last for a change. The first climb up to Grey Friars after the fields from Turner Hall farm was pretty attritional in the fierce sun, a midday start meaning the mad dogs were let loose as the heat began to flare. 3 and a half miles to there up past Seathwaite tarn was the longest climb of the day, and sheltered from what westerly breeze there was it proved a sweatfest.

Followed by a good mile track up to Swirl How CP2, mercifully missing Prison Band, but also foregoing the lovely, expansive views in favour of getting my head down, then a wee pull onto Brim Fell before the steeper 1/2 mile climb to The Old Man CP3, where it was best to contour below the ridge line to avoid the tourist hordes enjoying their Saturday stroll. But nice to hear some encouraging comments, so often it’s the loneliness of the long distance fell runner which is both the pleasure and the challenge of the adventure. (There’s a book & film there somewhere.) No chance of solitude on a sunny August Saturday.

Retracing from the Old Man, it was a cut across to Goat’s Hause on awkward terrain but missing the stonier path, and then an inevitably rocky ascent of Dow Crag CP4, past the climbers, who were ascending at my rate. (I exaggerate).

I caught up a group of female runners on the easy 1/2 mile track to Brown Pike partly as I can descend many times better than I climb, and partly due to them somehow taking a wrong line off the Old Man. Then it was down to cross dusty Walna Scar Road for a trod along to White Pike CP5, a top I’d never scaled, and was relieved to find we were going up the shallow side and descending the steep side, as I was tiring now.

Finally, back to Walna Scar Road again- CP6, and on the grassy descent I picked up a couple more places and it was judderingly fast downhill for much of the rest over a mix of bog, grass and rocks to the welcome sight of the flagged finish.

That’s the route, and well worth a trip up, maybe next year some more Glossopdalers will have a crack at it. Nice atmosphere, based as it is in the sumptuous Duddon Valley, with essential tea and cakes to follow. I assumed it was called Turner Landscape for artistic reasons, but it’s run from Turner Hall Farm, so maybe not.

Just a shame you have to drive up the narrow Seathwaite road, avoiding the huge Range Rovers &MPVs exploring the valley or going over to Eskdale on the Hardknott Pass. But I guess we all leave a carbon footprint.

Hong Kong Hash Running

Hash and running were two words I’d never put together, but it is actually a thing, and not in a “let’s sit down and talk about how cool running is” kind of way.  It appears to be some kind of group trail run where the group try and find the route which may include short cuts and dead ends with lots of looping back to work out the route.  I don’t really know to be honest, but it sounds pretty sounds interesting! Emma Peters reports from Asia:

For those of you who don’t know, I have spent the past 2 months in Mongolian hospitals on elective placement as part of my university degree. Since hearing that I was going to Asia, Jeroen put me in contact with Rachel Sproston (a Harrier who lives in Hong Kong).

My friends and I met up with Rachel and her parter Mike and friend Mitch when they were also in Mongolia, where Rachel invited us on a Hash House Harriers run in Hong Kong.

Today my friend Emma and I went on one of these famed Hash runs on Lamma Island, where we had a lot of fun and were made to feel incredibly welcome.  We ran for around 8km along a marked trail including dead ends and checkpoints to keep fast runners looping back and therefore keep the group a bit more together. We then also had a few drinks and a lovely meal out. I just want to thank Rachel for the invite and encourage other harriers to always make the most of the surprisingly global network that we have here at GDH.

Long Mynd

Not satisfied with the hills here, Zoe Barton and Rachel Walton took a trip to Shropshire and sent in this report: 

Me and Dr Walton did a little Long Mynd excursion on Saturday. We were camping in the area and it’d have been rude not to. Plenty of wimberry picking and admirage of views. Oh and I found a farmyard bog to sink into. 

 

Prudential Ride London

Ok, ok, this isn’t about running, but when I reviewed the official “Glossopdale Harriers Report Writing Manual” I discovered that covering other sports isn’t banned, other than chapter 8, paragraph 17c) which restricts any mention of mud-wrestling.  Apparently, this is because of something that happened in 2002, but no-one who was around at the time is willing to talk about it.

Mandy Beames was in our Capital this weekend on the 100-mile closed road sportif – the Prudential Ride London.  I’m not sure on the outcome but the tracker shows 86 miles, let’s hope  it all went well!

Brompton World Championships

I’d also taken the torturous trip down the M1 to take part in another part of the Ride London festivities.  I’d managed to get a place in the Brompton World Championships – not by any cycling skill of course, but through a reserve ballot.  You have to do a short sprint, unfold your bike and then do 8 laps of the 2km course as fast as you can.  Lycra is banned and a suit jacket, collar and tie is compulsory – so it’s all very serious!

Don’t be fooled though, there was some serious racers here and it turned into quite an adrenaline fuelled half-hour (hot work in a wool suit jacket).  I absolutely loved jostling and weaving around the course and when the elites comes whizzing past at breakneck speed it was very exhilarating!!  I have no idea of the results but the race is over when the first person finishes and I think I managed 7 of the 8 laps in around 27 minutes. Who needs hills and the countryside eh? (me, me, me!)

Parkrun Corner

A good turnout at our parkrun this week with 14 Harriers running and Kirsty Marie Sharp the first harrier home.  Check out the consolidate club report HERE

Many of you will have noticed a couple of our very own Harriers featured on the main parkrun page advertising the milestone t-shirts.  Fantastic to see Harriers and Glossop taking a spot on the main stage!

Whilst we’re talking about loops around Manor Park, now seems like the ideal moment to mention the Manor Park Marathon (#MPM) on Saturday 24^th August along with its big brother, the Ultra Trail Manor Park (#UTMP).  It’s all a bit of fun, so come along and do as many laps as you feel like before the parkrun!

To claim a coveted MPM title you need to complete 27 laps (including parkrun), just let me know your exact start time and number of laps and I’ll juggle it all into some kind of “official” results.  It would be great to see a load of blue and orange scattered around the park all morning!  Whilst most people’s first reaction is that this sounds horrible, official exit polls last year confirmed that an unconfirmed percentage of runners didn’t not feel like it wasn’t something they would maybe never not do again.  So there you go.

Top Mileage and climbing

As of 19:20 Sunday, Tony Hillier takes the top spot bagging 89km, but it also looks like someone has measured Chris Jackson who is officially 3,890m.  Or maybe that’s the elevation he took on this week, who knows?

Anything Else?

There will be a (probably drier) session on Tuesday with Jeroen and a run into the hills or around Glossop on Thursday and don’t forget Cracken Edge on Wednesday!  For something different, let’s finish with a caption competition!  WiIliam Mather found something unusual in the hills this week and here it is! Captions in the Facebook comments please! (this is only a test to see if anyone reads to the end of this report!)

As ever, if something is missed then let us know in the Facebook comments and keep sending in your Harrier shenanigans to gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com