Winter miles, summer smiles. Looks like you lot are smiling.

Well then. I have to say that there have been a lot of winter miles going on over the past few months – and by crikey, GDH appears to be flying along both socially and in races. Fabulous to see so many people out at the midweekers, but it ain’t just about racing you know. If you’re doing something interesting or exciting, let me know and I’ll post it up on here in the weekly report. In fact, even if it isn’t interesting, but there is a nice picture or something, let me know. Yeah, racing is cool, but being out and about on your own, exploring and enjoying yourself is just as worthy of praise. I’d spout off about my runs, but recently they’ve all been bike rides, so that wouldn’t quite be the same….

Anyway, if its bank holiday monday and you’re inside reading this, you’re in the wrong place. Get out there and do something.

Buxworth 5

The midweek racing carried on in fine style this week, with the classic roadie/trail Buxworth 5. Not, as some might think, a 5k route… no, no. This one is a 5 miler. With Teeth. (well… hills). The Blue and Orange crew evidently had a pretty good time at it last year when it was a club champs as a crowd of GDHers joined the serried ranks of

runners in Bugsworth basin. The racing was fast and hard, as you would expect it to be- the first hill was the main seperater, and there were a lot of sore calves at the end of the race – a testament to the hard racing on hard surfaces. There were some excellent results coming out of the race, I won’t go into a massive amount of detail as the numbers below speak for themselves. To be honest, the greatest thing was to see all the smiles and excitement of all the runners involved. Yes, it’s grand to win something, but if you had a good time – that’s just as much cause for shouting about.

4th Stevie “I look good in Blue” Knowles 31:40 (1st v45)
7th Paul “lurid rollerskates” Skuse 32:04 (1st V40)
11th Chris “getting back to it” Jackson 32:52
12th Danny “altitude training” Oldham 33:02
20th Steve “another turn of the” Page 34:42
24th Lucy “I don’t do hills” Wasinski 35:03 (1st Lady)
40th Ian “gotta beat my kids” Crutchley 36:43
46th Matt “I only train in London” Crompton 37:18
67th Luke “what is this tarmac stuff” Holme 39:06
77th Heather “comes out to play in the summer” Jansevska 39:47 (1st LV35)
78th Pete “saving myself for the weekend” Wallroth 39:55
90th Dez “Suns out guns out” Mitchell 41:08
98th Mary “smiler” Jeal 42:09
127th Charmain “XC has a lot to answer for” Brierly 44:54
140th Malc “warm up for Debdale” Brown 46:48

What’s more, GDH were 1st male team. Nicely run guys and gals.

Cake race

As you might expect for a club champs race, this one was fairly well attended by GDH. Unfortunately there were a number of people who initially entered that couldn’t make it, but hopefully they all managed to get their numbers transferred to others that were. The sun was out, and the race took place in the heat of the day – with more than one of us feeling the effects. Ben Tetler was imperious at the front, leading from the off and bringing home the bacon (well, cake, actually) in fine form. Immy Trinder ran so hard and fast on her way to victory that she actually broke one of the other competitors who ended up nearly collapsed and had to be escorted to the end by Mark Davenport. It wasn’t that she wanted to win, but rather wanted to get back to the dog who had taken quite a shine to her at the start. Danny Oldham had his eyes on the prize, and set off hard with the express intention of exacting revenge on Skusey – who was complaining about his calves after Buxworth and decided that he wasn’t going to race. Until he saw Steve Crossman heading off into the distance, and realised that maybe he DID have enough in him to give chase. Joe Travis is on fine form, having been putting in the miles for the Rock’n’roll marathon. He assures me his kareoke rendition of Ace of Spades is coming along just fine. Steve Page had a great second race of the week, soaking up the beams on the way around, while Guy was focussing on the fact that the cake race had better live up to its name. Mark Davenport was indeed the hero of the hour, giving up a number of places to make sure that a somewhat heat exhausted runner got to the end. That’s what running is all about…. having one person on the team run someone else into the ground, and then have another one to pick up the pieces. Ian Crutchley and Luke Holme were “battling” all the way around. If, by battling you mean having a yarn and generally pointing out items of interest on the route. Ian Oates was at the pub before anyone really saw him finish- so I’m unsure if he actually did the race. Rising star Ellen Quane is picking up speed all the time, and blasted down the track to be first U23 Female winning some wine and some socks… Simon Toole could be heard cursing Steve Crossman for getting him into this running lark as Des Mitchell pushed him (mentally, not physically) for the entire race. Emma Rettig was relishing her new category, though not the heat, while John Stephenson was not relishing the heat, even with his “ventilated” running vest. Marie Williamson was just out for a short training trot before her next marathon, and was chased for the entire time by Jo Brack and Lynne Taylor who had a right back and forth through the whole course. Becky Ashworth and Ali Holt ran around together, ensuring they were looking appropriately glamorous for the cameras at all times, and looked simply *fabulous*.

Cake was indeed served afterwards. Lots of Cake. In fact, so much cake that some people failed to finish the amount of cake they put on their plates. Chip butties and beer could also be found for refreshments, and the results were on the new fabian4 system – and were up on screen as we finished. Pretty good tech. Great weather, great race. Oh – and ANOTHER Mens team prize.

1st Ben “the bear(d)”Tetler 1:10:34
2nd Tim “I can’t really make up my own tagline” Budd 1:10:56
14th Danny “I don’t live in” Oldham 1:18:57
16th Paul “Im not racing today. Oh go on then” Skuse 1:19:55
17th Steve “done in the final straight” Crossman 1:19:58
29th Joe “always listens to” Travis 1:24:55
33rd Immy “Howzat for descending?” Trinder 1:25:52 (1st Lady)
44th Steve “Im doing this for the cake” Page 1:27:57
50th Guy “there had better be cake” Riddell 1:29:50
62nd Mark “Id best get to the cake before Ian” Davenport 1:33:18
73rd Ian “Should I take the kids any cake?” Crutchley 1:36:05
74th Luke “take me” Holme (country roads) 1:36:10
87th Ian “gatecrasher” Oates 1:38:33
90th Ellen “speed queen” Quane 1:39:38 (1st LU23)
93rd Simon “its all crossmans fault” Toole 1:41:16
94th Des “fine day for it” Mitchell 1:41:46
108th Emma “new Category. Oh yeah”. Rettig 1:44:11
121st John “what, no nav?” Stephenson 1:46:19
135th Marie “the metronome” Williamson 1:52:53
139th Jo “smackdown” Brack(down) 1:53:31
140th Lynne “call this hot?” Taylor 1:53:52
158th Becky “looking good for the cameras” Ashworth 1:59:59
159th Alison “dislikes untidy numbers” Holt 2:00:00

Oh – and again… 1st male team!

Dark and White Trail Series

Pete Wallroth was down in, um, somewhere, doing the final race in the Spring Dark and White Trail Series. I don’t have any real clue of exactly where he came, but needless to say, it was HOT. He got around in a time which gave him a Silver bracket placing (this sounds suspicously like a sportive to me)… ah – it was Bradfield. Apparently that is in the Peak district? I shall have to check with my local expert. Anyhoe. He had a lovely time, even if he did apparently wear the wrong shoes.

Ras y Moelwyn

Ah – once you’ve been in wales it keeps drawing you back. Chris Webb decided that he would have a quick go at the fabulous Ras Y Moelwyn. It is a classic AM race that takes in a lot of up, a lot of down, some bog and a long horrible slatey path. It being a welsh race there are some pretty sneaky lines that the locals take… it isn’t a simply point and shoot, take the wrong line and you end up, as Chris found, at the top of a rather large and unrundownable (yes, thats a real word, even if spellcheck doesnt think so) crag. Despite being the faster runner than a number of locals, Chris found himself being outwitted (or out route founded) by them a number of times. Ah, it’s always the local knowledge that helps… despite this, he had a fine run with excellent views (yes, he stopped to look at the views – though failed to get me any pictures) and stormed in a rather well deserved 8th in 1:32

Oldham 7k

Tony Hillier was out in Oldham (nothing new there), and was running the slightly unconventional distance of 7k – heck – even if you co imperial, its 4.3miles, so it is a little on the strange side. However, you will be astonished to hear that he stormed around the teacup in a mere 35:44 coming in 1st V70. Nice one.

Great run local Debdale

Malc Brown, thoroughly warmed up from the Buxworth5 on thursday headed off to Debdale for the great local run. He’s really been working on his speed and stomped around in 26:58.

Big Rock 10k

Again showing that once you’ve been to Wales you just keep going back – Laurie Barlow was out at Penmaenmawr (I think that’s how you spell it) doing the Big Rock 10k. With the heat, her target of 70 mins was always going to be a bit of a tough ask – however, she rocketed home in 1:09:41, smiling pretty much the whole way.

Parkrun

Did we spot juniors at parkrun this week? I dont know? Please let me know and I’ll write it up. PB’s on the hardening up mud in Glossop went to Sarah Leah and Wendy Mcmahon – and I should most certainly mention a 5 min(?) PB over in Conwy as Wyatt Barlow appears to have been either picking up his training or doing some serious recovery…. whichever way it is, it seems to be working.

Other stuff

Im sure there were other things people were doing this weekend. Send me pictures, I’ll upload them. (I can’t rip anything off strava… it doesn’t let me)!

Get out there and do stuff.