Have a good one y'all! It's gonna be a great day. I'll be at Newlands... Any requests for food or drink. I'll have water, jelly babies, fig rolls, jaffa cakes, apricots...oh, and some cold beers and deckchairs just to test your willpower! . Anything else?
Last edited by Bobster; 22-06-2018 at 02:02 PM.
Ooh.. cold beer at Newlands.. that is going to seriously test my willpower!Originally Posted by Bobster
"And the winds blow and the sky looks cool / So I make my home in the clouds"
A Brief Request for Help at the Darren Holloway Memorial Race this weekend.
My son, Chris Richards, a former FRA junior Champion & now studying sports science at Bangor University, is doing some research for his Uni on the psychological benefits/effects of fell running, principally in terms of emotional management.
To collect the data he needs he is visiting a number of fell races this summer, starting at Ennerdale and tomorrow at Buttermere.
He is looking for runners willing to volunteer to fill out Three short questionnaires;
- pre-race,
- post-race (before you go home) and
- an online questionnaire 2 days later.
Each questionnaire will take approx 5-10 minutes.
He would really appreciate your help, the more data he can collect the better (if you completed one at Ennerdale could you NOT complete another one please, it would skew the data)
Paul said he would set him up in the hall on some tables with his questionnaires & some refreshments, if you see us please pop over.
All information is confidential and all questionnaires destroyed after the data has been coded & input. He will be sharing the results on here when completed.
He is providing free snacks & refreshment to encourage taking part in the study, plus on completion of all 3 questionnaires your name will be entered into a draw to win a £50 Pete Bland voucher (47 so far after Ennerdale).
Many thanks in advance for your time & good luck with your race.
Duncan Richards
"You have brains in your head, your feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose". Dr Seuss.
Good luck everyone, weathers looking pretty good, gonna been a classic race today with all the big guns out in force. Dead jealous I can't be there, even though I would only bringing up the rear. Have good one.
What a fantastic day today.. absolutely perfect conditions, bright and clear, but not too hot. Fantastic support at the checkpoints and out on the fells.
Carl Bell... absolutely awesome... by the time we'd done a couple of hundred yards and the road straightened enough to see how it was shaping up, he already had 20 metres lead over the rest. And at Lanthwaite Green he was about 100 metres up the first climb before anyone else even reached the Fell wall... absolutely mind-blowing what he did today.
As for my race, very happy overall. Had a crazy idea in my head that I was going to knock an hour off my 2016 time, and I knew that meant a consistent 2nd half from Honister, so I made the decision never to red-line it. Despite that I was quite comfortably just behind a group on the first climb which contained the likes of Steve Birkenshaw, Spyke, Dave Lund, Daz Tindersticks and DanGilbert. A casual glance at where they finished compared to me, show that I can certainly climb, it's the rest of it that's my problem! Perfectly demonstrated on the steep descent from Whiteless Pike when the mid-pack surrounding me went hurtling past and I just couldn't match it. Lord only knows how fast the front guys threw themselves down there.
Despite all that I was 12 mins up on last time at Newlands, and 24 mins up at Honister, although starting to feel the fatigue, and the first cramp hit just before Inominate Tarn. Held on grimly over High Stile and it wasn't until the descent down Scale Force that I made my first mistake of the day. Crossed to the "easy" left bank much too early and ended up on steep heather and rock, and trying to back track bought on massive amounts of cramp. But obviously when looking at the splits, I kept it together much better than last time.
Recovered to climb well up Mellbreak, and a strong run in, making up about 5 places down the valley. I knew I was close to being an hour up on last time, and a manic sprint finish up the hill. A look at my printout confirmed I was an hour and two seconds ahead of last time... job done! 6hrs15, 205th.
A little astounded to see Bill Fellupfelldown at the finish, as he was two minute behind me at Mellbreak, and beat me by two minutes without me ever seeing him on the descent!!
So a massive pb and still room to improve. If I can sort out the minor route errors, and more endurance in the legs (although even the front runners were telling tales of having to sit down at points today), then I can hopefully clear 6 hours next time.
Hello to the forumites I saw.... Tindersticks, DanGilbert, Fellupfelldown... sorry if I've forgotten anyone, my brain is struggling this evening.
Pete
Last edited by Travs; 23-06-2018 at 09:51 PM.
Thanks to everyone who supported the race today.
Provisional Results from today's Darren Holloway Buttermere Horseshoe race can be found on the Cumberland Fell Runners website.
http://www.c-f-r.org.uk/
Andrew
Thank you to everyone at Loweswater yesterday who helped Chris with his research questionnaires at the Daz H Buttermere race, especially on those post-race questionnaires which were an endurance test in themselves!
Huge thank you to Paul Jennings & his team for permission & support in using this race for Chris’s Uni research, you did a fantastic organisational job and I really appreciate your patience & acceptance when you had so much going on.
Chris looks to have got a great data set & will pop his findings up on here when his dissertation is completed. Some really interesting comments & discussions with runners yesterday indicate some fascinating outcomes.
Superb day & race, well done & thank you everyone.
"You have brains in your head, your feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose". Dr Seuss.
Good write-up Pete. I think I passed you early on (you run for Godiva, right?)
A fantastic race, despite the wheels falling off for me pretty early on (I’d hoped for sub-5 & came in at around 5:35!) If only I’d managed to stick with some of those that passed me at 6 miles...
Big thanks to all marshals, RO & helpers - even more commitment than those out running. I’ve marshalled at Edele Skyline & enjoyed a long day on the fell in fine company, but getting marshals to some of those remote CPs on Buttermere Horseshoe is a day out in itself!
Also, thanks to Chris for supplying copious amounts of orange quarters & fig rolls - very much in keeping with the race & all the best with your dissertation.
Yes that would have been me Sam... surprised you spotted me by my vest, as i'm sure my backpack would have covered the Coventry Godiva logo on the back as you cruised past!
Most people seem to mistake it for a Carnethy vest!
Awesome time by the way, that the sort of time i eventually aspire to... sub-5, well, i can dream...!
Not a good day for me. The wheels came off at about Innominate Tarn, and I DNF'd. I did consider jogging the remaining hills, but it quickly became apparent it would have been a slow walk. Well done to all the finishers - a very well organised event.
I'd like to think that some day I'll have the fitness to race this properly - although right now that seems a long way off.
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