Howard 50 at 50 Jo Hughes - 4th May

I had the lovely pleasure of running out with not just one, but four lovely ladies this weekend. The ladies all members of my 2nd claim club West End Runners were in the area having run in the Cake Race the previous day. One of their members Jo, a research nurse is one of life's great characters and is effectionately know as 'Mad-Jo' due to her myriad of costumes and even known to wear a little less!! A stunning run around the Castleshaw Valley nr Delph for a 5 mile run on drying out moorland.

                                                       Jo Hughes (Mad-Jo to my right)

Jo and I covered how she got into running, weight loss, her work/life balance and what drives her to improve. An avid park runner and all round lovely person

The Cake Race 3rd May

Once again our Saddleworth Cake race at weekend was a runaway success with 152 runners heading over the East Pennine Moors towards Marsden. This 10 mile fell race (was originally created as a trail race) and is fast running all the way round, bar the one exception of the Cricket Club on the way home.

Another bright sunny day, and although numbers well down on last years record field was just about right for our venue (Diggle Church) The start is a mile and a half up hill over 'Boat Lane' once used to ferry the barge horses over the Standedge Tunnel.

From Standedge, the route joins the Pennine Way and takes the runners over stone flags to Black Moss Res before dropping into the Wessenden Valley and a long hot run down towards Marsden. At just about the furthest point of the course come the dreaded steps, sixty or so steps down, followed swiftly by a cruel return up the reciprocal steps to the toughest part of the course round Marsden Golf Club.

After the Golf course a tough uphill section back onto Mount Rd and Boat Lane on the return home. Once this initial section is out of the way, its a fast mile and a half sprint to the finish...and the cakes.

Well worth a trip Up North if you ever get chance to take in this fantastic race

If Carling organised Road Races…

It think this is the 3^rd time that I’m aware we have chosen the Coniston 14 as a Club Championship Race, and to be honest it could be one every year for me. This is the 33^rd year of its running, bringing in much needed funds for the local community. Pretty much perfect conditions greeted an impressive host of Sadd’s for this our 2^nd Club Counter, the ladies once again making a fair proportion of our team. As routes go, you cannot get much more in the way of stunning views, as the race follows the Lake to the south, undulating as it goes, the return route by the quieter side of the Lake has a few more undulations just when you thought you were nearly home. A great Saddleworth Support contingent were in evidence and much appreciated by our twenty-odd team. Coniston Old Man winks at you for ages as you near the finish, with a run round the top end of the Lakes going on longer than it should.

 

First back (awaiting a Stewards Enquiry ;-) was late entry Shaun Willis, having a storming run placed in 16^th place in this top quality field in 1.28. Chambers, Platt and Gladwin all coming in around 1.37/1.38 made up a strong quartet. (Jon Platt despite this amazing run was only 2^nd V65 by 6 minutes!!)

The ladies had a storming result, finishing 2^nd overall with Helena, Alice, Tanya and Sandrine all running superbly. 

Results: http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/race-results.php?event=1528&page=1

A salutary Tale - Take the right Kit

A salutary tale: Today was the annual Edale Skyline Fell Race running since 1974 and a true bog-trotters classic, a race I have completed some 12 times or so. I took the gear that has stood me in good stead for many years, including waterproof top and bottoms, hat a buff and two pairs of gloves. Enough en-route food and some emergency food and a full bladder...I had even secreted a bottle at Mam Tor. At registration I was refused to run as the bottoms were not taped seamed. Of course I could have done the old trick of borrowing some from somebody else and pretended mine had miraculously turned up!! But rules are rules, had I thought to bring my heavier tape-seemed pair instead of chancing my luck I would have raced no problem. The kit-checker was very apologetic, but I had no qualms, I should have known better, I did not have the full stipulated kit with me and did not take part in the race. As it was I had a great run round while Roy Gardner and Ben Wolstenholme enjoyed mixed conditions on the route, with ample amounts of sunshine, hail and strong freezing winds. Lesson Learned

Chris Martin H, It takes a bigger man to accept the race organisers rules and bow out gracefully. Many a lesser, would have not, and argued the toss and therefore spoilt every ones day. The rules are in place for the safety of competitors and not for rules sake. A great post H, even the most experienced can get it wrong at times. A fine ambassador for our great little club! Just a note to all - FRA rules state 'full waterproof body cover with taped seams and a hood' .

Gareth Evans Agreed, well done Ben & Roy. And credit to you Howard, many of the very experienced runners like yourself would have argued the toss with the organisers instead of using that very experience to appreciate the situation as you did - you may not have run the race but you gave a good account of yourself none the less. Shame so many others don't quite see it that way. Well done

 

Haworth Hobble (and she did ;-/)

Saturday saw the longest run/race for a few years, the 32 mile Haworth Hobble. This is a classic in the fell runners calendar going back some 40 year or so. For many years it was a unique event in that it was pairs only and the best runners from around the North came to pick not only their wits, but also test out their partners! I recent years it has become part of the rapidly growing 'Ultra' scene and is regularly part of the Run Further series of events and is now open to singles too (though many still seem to stick with the traditional set-up)

Once again I was out with Gaynor Keane my friend and clubmate attempting the 24 Bob Graham Round in July this year. I had suggested this run as it's good not just for the miles in the legs, but also the mental building block of going through ups and downs over a number of hours. We last attempted this race in 2012, but were scuppered by Gaynor having stomach issues more or less from two hours in. Quite how she finished, running on empty as she did I will never know, but a time of 6 ours was clearly well within our compass this year.

An ungodly start time of 8am meant an even earlier get up time and traveling with another club mate Monica we arrived in the literary Yorkshire town at just after 7 to massive queues waiting to register. Cool but dry conditions greeted the 500 or so runners who headed up these famous cobbled streets and out onto the moors frequented by Heathcliffe and Cathy.

A fast  start is a must with an unfortunate log-jamming placed stile at around the 4 mile mark. We were off and running, all feeling good and picking up as many places as we lost in the early parry's. The route consists of a mixture of good paths and tracks with a smattering of slippy paving stones and a good bit of road thrown in, a good running course....Oh and about 4500' of ascent for good measure.

First few checkpoints down and all going well, keeping up with past Mixed Team winners Kate and Craig as we head to the highest point of the course Stoodley Pike. In  a bid to encourage Gaynor, I let her run ahead to set her own pace, but within a few moments disaster struck as a misplace foot twisted resulting in full length sprawl cutting knees hand and the obvious shake up of confidence and belief, we were only just around half-way with still a lot of miles and hills ahead of us. We took it steady for the next few miles and a number of other runners slowly came by as we looked to consolidate our position. By the YHA at Mankinholes we were both ready for the fuel input and walked the next half mile with drink and biscuits along London Road and up the steady climb to Stoodley.

As the top was reached, I remarked how well she was looking considering our last attempt, it must have been this that set off the memory of that grim day and within five minutes G was off looking for a place to ablute...poor girl. Not only was her ankle causing her much pain on the descents, but now her stomach was up to it's old tricks. We now entered a period of running on our own, neither catching or losing places, a positive sign things were stabalising. As we hit Hebden Bridge and the long climb to Heptonstall we actually started to gain on those ahead who had gone off way to quickly...and it's still a along way home from there ;-(

A good descent through to Midgehole and a steady jog/walk over Hardcastle Craggs had us catching even more stragglers and cramp victims as we headed the final checkpoint at Lane Head. Yet more tea and donuts on offer galvanising us for the penultimate climb over Sun Hill. We were moving well again here and managed to run all the way up to Pennistone Country Park, catching up yet more runners. Our final descent was a great one, knowing the route, we could navigate those tricky 'in-town' shortcuts that kept us ahead of possy of chasers.

We stopped the clock at the community centre in 5.37, a really great time considering the obvious discomfort Gaynor was suffering. I think a time of 5.25 would have been more realistic, but happy all the same. A great effort all round and the training plan move onto Edale next weekend

Results

8th/9th Mar - A stunning few days in the Lake District

A number of us had a great weekend just gone up in Borrowdale in the heart of the Lakes. We used Borrowdale YHA as our base and had two great days in settled weather on the high hills around the Langdale Valley. The plan was to do some reccying of the hills and route of the Bob Graham Round, a 24 hours Lakeland round of 42 peaks with a combined height gain of climbing Everest.

Gaynor and Yvonne, both strong long distance runners from Saddleworth and Leicester respectively are independently attempting this toughest of long-distance challenges, and two long back to back days are a great way to stack the miles and test the body and soul. Although a windy weekend, the weather was generally clear, with some punctuated sunshine for the 16m on Sat and the 20m on Sunday.

                                                                        Alan Keane and I

The YHA hostel is a little oddly named, as we brought the average age of the Hostel down to around 60!! but this is a fantastic location, more a small hotel with good quality accommodation, low cost meal options and even a bar. The night stay over with breakfast was just £23, a real bargain.

My first Paid run

Today I had the pleasure of undertaking my first ever PAID run today with an English guy Peter Armistead, who lives in Whistler Canada. Peter a keen ultra distance runner over there has a bit of form coming an amazing 3rd in his first ever 50m race. Of course the manicured paths and highly marked trails of the Whistler are not a patch on our own moors and Peter wanted to have a run out and some advice on fellrunning. Having found nobody, he turned to me

Meeting at the unGodly hour of 7am at Ogden Res we ran and talked for over an hour over just 7 miles, a stunningly still morning and apart form a yapping dog and the hum of the M62 perfectly quiet.

I did inform Peter he was the first bloke I had ran with in about six years and he should feel honoured, or at least dress for the occasion, he muttered something about being a metro-sexual? so we left it there...

A really nice chap, good company and just in case the Tax man or James Sheard see's this payment was a bottle of wine, a running book and a banana.