Whernside Fell Race

Postman called to day and left me one suspicious parcel in my mail box (could it be the medical kit ordered for my chickens some weeks ago or just another mail order package for Sandras expanding wardrobe), No it was a kind letter from the wernside fell race anouncing that although we didn't stay for the presentation i had won 3rd vets place and they had posted it forth -with.
This prom ted me to write a short account of this very well organized race, as chris as said this race starts with 5miles of uphill but the views are great.The first part once you get out of the field is road and reminded me of the start to the james herriot 1/2 marathon still took my time settling in to the climb to come which is part of the fellsman but in contrast to that the sun was shinning down on us as we entered the moors and the climb i started to feel confident of finishing in good form the ground around hear is very boggy but once you reach the approach to the peak it seems to get easy and it becomes easy to run up to the trig point, the down hill is great and you hit the road and on to the lane then its climbing all the way up to great coomb, from hear you have some great views of the dent valley. The next part is all down hill with the finish coming into view when you get past flinters gill, The last field ,and I could see Chris waiting for me and shouting encouraging remarks(well that's what I thought he was saying) age dose funny things to your hearing.

Netherthong 10K

I did this race back in 2004, about a year after I‘d started running. I’d previously done the Abbey Dash and Wakefield 10K, both fairly flat, and finished them in around 46 minutes. Netherthong however is quite a hilly course, and I ended up recording my Personal Worst of 52:53.

So I thought it was about time I gave it another shot. The only other Spen runner that I could see was Dan Stewart, who finished last years race in an impressive 4th place, although due to some injury concerns he was not expecting to improve on that this year. My main aim was to stay under 50 minutes but was hoping for around 47 or 48.

The race starts with a fairly steady climb. I went through the first mile in 8:11 which was a bit worrying as I knew the worst bit of this hill was still to come, however I was hopeful that if I could keep a decent pace on the downhills I could make it up.

My recollection of the course was that there was a long climb at the start, followed by a long down hill section, then a steep climb in the last mile to the finish. Unfortunately the middle section was a bit more ‘undulating’ than I’d remembered.

As we went through the 5 mile marker I could hear people finishing being announced over the tannoy. Then we started the final climb which became quite steep as we approached the village.

I finished around 48:25 by my watch which I was quite happy with, and Dan was equally pleased to finish unscathed about a minute down on last years time.

Overall I’d say this is good, well organized race in a really pleasant location. Well worth doing if you fancy a challenging run out, but not one for chasing a PB.

Whernside Fell Race

Whernside Fell Race BM, 12.1m/2972ft

My fell running guru and mentor Steve Moss convinced me at fairly short notice that this was a race not to be missed by enthusing about the great run-in to the finish area and all-round good course. Despite some misgivings that I was stepping up the distance a bit too quick, I decided to give a go.

The weather was glorious, no need for multiple layers, or long sleeves today! For £5 entry fee we received a full colour marked map of the route, and some excellent organisation and great marshalling. Most of the route itself was unmarked, but there was good visibility, and it was quite easy to follow.

The first half of the race was climbing, climbing and more climbing, finally reaching the summit of Whernside, where I looked at my watch and saw that it was just under the hour, That's a lot of uphill. I'd employed my tactic of walk 50 steps, run 50 steps and pretty much kept pace with those around me who were running it all. I wish I could run it all, but I can't and just have to do what works for me.

Approaching the Whernside summit from the North, the route then goes over a stile and drops down the west face for a fast and steep descent. Here I was able to gain back a good few places by using the well known "disengage brain" mode, and running like hell, but I slowed up on reaching the road, and was back into the run-walk again for the climb up Great Coum.

Once the summit of Great Coum had been reached, it was downhill almost the whole way to the finish, and Steve was dead right about the last mile or so, where the finish was constantly in sight, and the ground underfoot was good. Racing into the finish, I just managed to dip under two hours with a time of 1:59:03 (unofficial) and Steve came in a few minutes later, knees bleeding (deja vu) at around 2:12.

Great race, thoroughly recommended!

Jackie's Nottingham Marathon blog

Not being satisfied with just the one blog, Jackie creates an entirely new one for every race she enters, and has asked me to post a link to her dedicated Nottingham Marathon blog here, so here it is...

Jackie's Robin Hood Marathon Blog

4 peaks, but not a Viking in sight!

Viking Chase Fell Race BM, 8m/1500ft

Slowly I'm starting to get back into my running after the summer lay-off. Although still suffering from some lack of motivation, I'm gradually getting the better of it, and this week I returned to the fells following Matthew on the final round of the FRA Junior Championships.

This was my second outing at this race, as I also did it in 2008, when we had glorious sunshine, and this year we were lucky once more, and there was no question about stripping down to just the the vest (shorts also of course). I remember from last year, I was a bit unhappy with my run, as I'd faded badly at the end, but with my lack of training over the summer, my expectations of doing much better were realistic.

The race is run at Carlton Bank in North Yorkshire, and takes in 4 peaks on the Cleveland Way. The start is uphill, and follows a loop around and over the first peak before descending towards the HQ and finish area, then past the spectators, and more or less in a straight line over the next 3 peaks. It basically follows the Cleveland Way track on the way out, then a contour alongside the final 3 peaks through a forest on the return. The descents are tricky, those sort of "steps" cut into the stone, but hard to descend at speed, and the final 3 miles is very much a lot of short sharp up and downs which really break the rhythm.

Today was one of my good days descending-wise, and I was able to make up ground on all the descents, however, as expected, I faded badly towards the end, and lost a couple of places, and quite a bit of time. The distance was just a bit far for me at this point, and my legs felt battered at the end (a sign of some good descending usually). But overall I was pleased, because my time was approximately 2 minutes faster than the previous year at 1:15:12 (unofficially)

lake distric mountain trial

Hi everybody! For anyone thinking about starting to race mm, this is the one to start you off. This year the venue was Eskdale and the weather was wall to wall sunshine in a splendid lakeland setting, with mountains galore, lots of boggy ground, heather and bracken. I had an over-night stay at the very good youth hostel, with a good evening meal laid on. Out of the window on the lawn, was the starting gate for all catorgories. The mens 16 miler looked awsome, and the ladies course although only 2 miles longer than the short course (designed for us oldies) looked to be, on the map, more than 15 miles and several 100 ft more climbing. An 8:45 start and 1/2 mile run to get the map, and I was off first check point some 5 kilometres away, and one of those silly re-entrants. The first kilometre was just a boggy uphill to get you nice and wet, and warmed up to 19 degrees. Already going past Stoney Tarn as a first route check, then navigate over to High Scarfe Crags looking on the North East side for the re-entrant. Lucky for us it was manned, and easily found when you are in close. This took 1h 8mins. Second check was to be 2 kilometres away and involved some steep descent. A lot of climbing up to 550 ft to the summit third check took us over the steeple and Hard Knot to a tarn check point 3 time of 2h 10 mins in total. Check point 4 was 4kilometress away, taking us over Harter Fell and to Crook Crag to a knoll ch 4 in 1h. A good route choice helped me knock of 20 minutes on most other runners (must be getting good at this). To get to last checkpoint - 5, took me 34mins with a some good descending skills of sliding down on ones bum, the last run in was on track and lanes. Overall time 3h 55 mins, and possibly third vet over 60. This is a very well organised event with lots of help on offer if you should need it and a welcome meal at the finish. The sport indent timing gives you your result when you finish.

Yorkshire six stage road relay championship

For the first time in a few years the Spenborough men manage to turn out a team for the annual Don Valley event.

Looking at the entry list it was disappointing to see so few teams entered (18) and we knew it was going to be a long hard afternoon as only the top teams were there.

Dave Lane got us off to a decent start coming in at around 14th (23:54).

Ryan Dransfield followed on the second leg on his first outing for the senior team (24:11) only slipping a couple of place.

Next Dan Stewart a last minute repacement (thanks again Dan) ran an excellent leg on return from injury (24:01)

Chris Jones put in a strong performance running at a pace well above expected finishing in 26:12.
Unfortunately as the afternoon wore on we appeared to be slipping backwards as incomplete teams dropped out.

Gareth Patchett took up the challenge on the penultimate leg scything through the field (well passing one person!) and running a fantastic time of 24:55. Well beyond expectations, especially after a heavy night on the beer.

I finished off on the last leg with one of my worst recent performances - outside 28 min but managed to hold position so we finished one place from the back. Probably about 14th.

Overall a positive performance and nice to see Spen start turning teams out again. Especially as so many other races were on the same day.

Thanks also to Kevin Ogden for coming down and supporting after competing in the Spen 10k that morning.

Lakeland Trails - Derwentwater. 15k

A jolly good route

This June me and some of my colleagues did a walk for Wateraid. The plan was to do Blencathra via the famous Sharp Edge. Sadly the weather put paid to this so when we saw this trail race from Keswick it seemed a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

The weather was only marginally better, but fortunately the wind wasn't quite as bad so Saturday saw me clinging to a mountain side.
















Sunday was the race and a grand affair these things are. One of a series of 4 and over 500 entries. A samba band lead the runners through town and then the race was started by the famous Kenny Stewart. Not a fell race but still a climb up a boggy hillside. Great fun, although my ultimate speed was hindered by the heavy legs caused by a day of walking on the Saturday

http://www.lakelandtrails.org/derwentwater/results.htm

Spen Road Records - Now Official!

Good news!

Last Friday I attended a club committee meeting and proposed that the road records we have been accumulating get accepted as the official club records. It was seconded by a couple of people and accepted by the committee.

So next step is that I clean up the document and send it for posting on the official web site. I will continue to update the document, and hope that we can improve it over time by verifying some of the results that have so far eluded us.

In the meantime, thanks are in order to all those who have contributed towards the verification and collection of records, especially Vic (who planted the idea in the first place) and John Henry (for scouring the Athletics Weekly archives), without whom....

And...John managed to find the results of the 1998 Abbey Dash, verifying Steve Moss's V50 time of 35:00 (not 35:01 as Steve's own record showed) so the next update will reflect this.

Spen Road Records - Draft #11

It's been a while since the last update, partly due to my procrastination, but also because I suspect we are getting somewhere nearer to having a fairly accurate set of records, and the input of new entries is drying up somewhat.

However, thanks to Vic, who discovered some new results on the Askern & District RC web site, we have new records in the V50 and V55 category for Keith Williams over 10K and 10 miles.

I've also received an incredible V50 10k time of 35:01, from Steve Moss at the 1998 Abbey Dash, which would beat Keith Williams' time, but so far I have been unable to ratify this time with any official results.

Does anyone have a copy of the 1998 Abbey Dash results? With luck, it will have a mention in Athletics Weekly, and John Henry might just have a copy .

I'd like to take the current results to the next committee meeting to try to get the "rubber stamp" and make them the official club records if possible.

Spen Road Records - Draft #11