New Years Day 2010 - Giants Tooth Fell Race

Giant's Tooth Fell Race CS, 3m/400ft

There are other ways to celebrate your birthday, and clear a hangover, but I like this one. There is usually a pretty good turnout for this race, and there seemed to be more than ever this year. The number of Spen runners was up this year too, with Michael making a welcome return, and Tim making his first appearance in this race.

The weather was good, although it was pretty difficult underfoot because of all the snow. In places, it was like runnign on polished glass, whereas in others, it was quite heavy going. I suspected times would not be as fast as last year, and in my own case that prophecy was true.

I was a bit worried about Matthew getting the better of me, since I'd had trouble closing him down at the club handicap a couple of weeks back, and was just recovering from a mother of a cold that I'd had over the Christmas break, so wasn't feeling at my best. however, I managed to overtake him before we got to the first stile, and didn't look back until we were climbing up through the woods before making the run-in to the finish. I could see that he was not too far behind me, but I had a comfortable enough gap to know that I'd managed to hold him off for this year at least.

I think my time was about a minute down on the previous year, which I can attribute to the conditions, and being a bit under-the-weather. Matthew was pretty pleased with his run, Michael looked suitably uncomfortable at the end, having made the same mistake as me in conveniently forgetting about one of the hills. Tim claimed not to have enjoyed it too much, so we'll see if he's there next year!

Windmills Whizz (BM, 7 miles 800ft)

Saturday saw a record turnout for the Windmills Whizz fell race at Odgen Water near Halifax. Spenborough runners spotted included Gareth, Tim, Chris Jones and Chris King.

Tim and Chris J have run this race for the last two years, both times following a Friday night out on the beer. In the interests of providing accurate comparison against previous years timings they followed the same pre-race preparation, and as such were running with a 6 pint handicap.

The race starts from the edge of Ogden Water with a steady climb up onto the moors. Any cobwebs were quickly blown away by the fresh westerley winds. Chris J and Gareth set off near the front of the field and managed to gain quite a few places thanks to some of the front runners taking a wrong turn at the road junction and heading off in the wrong direction. From this point the route is largely on tarmac, but does include a sharp rise up to the wind farm and around the windmills.

The final stretch follows a fast track back down to the edge of the reservoir. Chris Jones was first Spen back beating his previous time by a couple of minutes, with Gareth close on his heels. Tim and Chris K followed them in a few minutes later.

Spen Results (somewhat skewed by many front runners taking the wrong route)

18 CHRIS JONES     48:45 V40
19 GARETH PATCHETT 48:49 V40
49 TIM WRAGG       52:28 V40
67 CHRIS KING      53:43

122 finishers

Full results here

Ovenden Fell Race (3rd january)

3rd race in 4 days for me, and after a grand total of 260 miles running in 2008, I was about to clock up my 17th race mile (assuming I finished) getting me off to good start for 2009 (ok, so 6 of them were in 2008).

I tried my best to talk some of our Spen team mates into turning out, but in the end opting for freezing your nuts off on a Saturday morning seemed less attractive than alternative options to everyone else, and on the day, I was the only one from the club who turned up. "You're all a bunch of softies" I say ;)

I was quite surprised at the number who did turn out though, 137 in all, boosted by the race being part of Bingleys internal club championship series. It was pleasing to see a couple of my friends from other clubs, both who had run at the Giant's Tooth 2 days earlier, and one of whom had also done the Auld Lang Syne.

John (my Rotherham buddy) said he'd run along with me, but wasn't fit (hah) and told me not to go off to fast otherwise he'd just drop off (hah, hah). Whilst I had to warn him that I'd had 6 pints the night before (always good to get the excuses in early eh)

We got chatting with Nigel (Halifax buddy) at the start, and then all set off from the embankment, and up the hill side towards the Withens. Despite John's lack of fitness and his warning me about not going off too fast, I was struggling to keep up with him, and by the time we reached the top, he was a good 20 yards ahead of me and Nigel was some way behind.

To cut a long story short, I never caught John, although I came close a few times, and Nigel passed me after about 3 miles (as usual) but I later pulled him back (less usual). I think for him it was too many races in a short time especially since he was coming back from a fractured ankle injury, so I expect it will be the last time I beat him this year!

The ground was frozen hard, which made it more runnable, and the times were generally pretty good. I finished 53rd from 137, which I was really happy about. Probably my best race of the 3.

Results

I really enjoyed the race, nice route, location and good organisation.

Race information

New Years Day 2009 - Giants Tooth Fell Race

What better way to clear your head after ringing in the New Year than running a short fell race? For me, running on New Years Day has become something of a tradition over the last few years, and I particularly like this race since it's nice and short at 3 miles, and you still get that feeling of starting off the year by doing something positive.

Sadly, it was a pretty poor turnout from Spenborough, just Gareth, Matthew and Chris (me). Although Michael and Frank turned out to support (always appreciated) and I dragged Sue and Sarah along for extra support and to take some snaps of the event.

I led the Spen boys for 60% of the race, but Gareths superior flat speed proved to be too much and he passed me on the reservoir embankment and maintained the lead until the finish. Matthew gave a good account of himself as one of the younger entrants and finished in a respectable position.

It would be nice to have a few more red & gold shirts in the field, as we are always outnumbered by the other local teams like Halifax and Holmfirth. So come on guys let's try to get our act together and show up in numbers!

And here are the results

All photos courtesy of Sue Jones.

Gareth finishing with Chris a couple of places back (you need to look carefully or double-click the picture)...


Matthew mixing it up with the adults...


The runners...

The runners + team mangement & support crew...