The quick ones don't need that stuff. They've not been out long and have nearly finished. Keep the supplies for us tortoises!Quote:
Originally Posted by Also Ran
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The quick ones don't need that stuff. They've not been out long and have nearly finished. Keep the supplies for us tortoises!Quote:
Originally Posted by Also Ran
See AndyA's post no. 18 on this thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by IainR
Ian - there is no officially provided water at checkpoints, although some kind marshals might take some up. I'll have some at CP10 - but you will only be 20mins from the finish there.Quote:
Originally Posted by IainR
Hope you enjoy your first FTOP - just remember that 2/3rds of the climbing comes in the last 1/3rd of the race
The Cabin Cafe on Barley car park willl have some special offers for runners tomorrow so please pop in and sample what they have on offer!
can't make this due to other pressures so enjoy all.
Have a good one everybody, see you all up there.
This is today? I thought I had another couple of weeks left! :mad: In my defence, I don't know whether I'm coming or going after 2wks hols and a wk away with work on a course.:rolleyes:
Oh well, enjoy it folks, best of luck. Looks like cracking weather for it!
Ah! I knew there was something I was going to do today :rolleyes:
Well I will have to do the Roaches tomorrow instead :D
A day fo' th'ard man...James Logue took an early lead and won the race comfortably...
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/3460/jameslogue.jpg
An excellent race today-now I'm in a warm room and comfy chair! A big thanks to the organisers-great as ever, and a huge thanks to the marshalls out on the course. Standing out in the hail, rain and wind today for five hours or more must have been pretty miserable, but all gave a smile and encouragement. Tremendous and very welcome. The split start seemed to work and hopefully shortened the marshalls day a little.
Superb race, looks convoluted on the map, but somehow the race works and I didn't feel like I was running the same hill 4 times. Justifiably a classic.
Tough conditions, great organisation. Feels a lot more than the ascent its given, crawling up that last climb I felt as tired as climbing Cynghorion on the Peris. similar in stats to the Black Mountains but it felt much tougher.
Hope everyone had a good race!!
Gutted to have missed my favorite race, but spent the night in hospital after being knocked out by some local idiot, so wasn't able to make it!
I did manage to get a friend to collect my t-shirt, so its not all bad! :)
Now, you can't leave us hanging like that!Quote:
Originally Posted by ukhursty
I had a great time, even though it was very tough. On the last climb I thought I was going to give up; it was just mammoth.
Many thanks to Kieron and everyone who marshalled. I was so grateful to see the man at CP11, that he was in danger of being hugged.
I know it caused some problems with the results but I think the 10 'o' clock start worked really well and this seemed to be the view of everyone I spoke to who started at that time.
Cracking race, but brutal ! Much tougher that the 3 P's, in my opinion. Great to see Simon Green &, as ever, Brotherton Lad. He really wasn't joking when he said he was going to wear his
1983 Walshes ! He's had new soles put on ! 3.14, so reasonably pleased. Can only repeat what has been said previously about the marshalls. Great job guys in poor conditions. Anybody know how quickly the official results appear ?
Thanks, Clem, very enjoyable race. Hills, wind, rain, hills, cold, hail, did I mention the hills? Marshalls were great.
My watch must have gone dicky as I started on GMT, but it must have slipped to BST around CP 8, nice pile of stones btw.
Nice to meet Amex in the flesh, still smiling, good luck with the rehab.
I'll beat you next time, Jez.
A few notes arising from today...
1. Always a pleasure to meet Forumites. Was fortunate enough to meet Amex, Manhar and Jez today, Jez was a bit of a lifesaver with the moral support particularly towards the end. Also nice to finally meet Dave Tait and a few other fellow Dark Peakers that I hadn't previously.
2. Was it my eyes or was that Stolly walking his dog in just a Helly and a pair of shorts (that was between CP1 and 2 when I thought I saw him) whilst the rest of us in the race were freezing half to death at that point?
3. FTOP is not a race. Its a whole other experience in itself. I was weak as a kitten on the first climb then bucked my ideas up, started to flag around CP8 and it was then a case of just holding it together. Finished in something like 3:13, possibly sneaked 3:12 but will have to wait for the results. But all in all I reckon that is by far the hardest race I have ever done. How, HOW is Lloyd's record 2:11?????!!!!!
4. I will never attempt to drive 60 miles home after that race ever again. I had to make three stops to get out of the car and stretch out the muscle spasms!!
Many many thanks to the organisers and marshalls for a great event. I think I enjoyed most of it.
Phew that was hard work. Felt a twinge in my lower back on the way to checkpoint 2 ie v early in the race & had to take it steady from that point. On the way to & down Geronimo was wondering if I should retire at the checkpoint & come back another day. Decided to carry on-like you do & managed to stagger round. Feel much better now that I have a good scrub & soak.
Thank you to Clem & the marshalls out on the course. Good to see the big man Amex in good spirits & Mr & Mrs Crumblydown-enjoy the curry tonight & a pleasure to meet Simgreen for the 1st time - someone fitting Stollys description gave me a shout between CP1 & 2.
Simon, kind words, but I don't feel I helped you a great deal. If anything I felt like a bit of a grump 'cos I was struggling ! I couldn't keep up with you over the last 2 miles. It would have been good to cross the line with a forumite ! Great to meet you & glad you got home safely.
One negative today. I counted at least 8, empty, gel wrappers dropped on the course. Very poor.
Right, I'm in my pyjamas, the Nero D'Avola is breathing & I've popped some corn. Time to collapse.
As someone who took advantage of the early start option, I have to say I thought it worked really well.
It was great to see the leaders and run (albeit for predictably short distances) near to some runners I normally see only at the start line.
As long as all the slower runners begin at 10.00, it has to better for the marshals, especially on a 'typically Pendle' day like today. The problem is, even if only one slow runner sets off with the faster ones, they still have to remain in place. Plus, one or two slower runners are in a worse position than 30 or 40 of them; route-finding becomes more difficult and there's no one around to give encouragement. Organisers could 'encourage' slower runners to set off first by making the cut-off more challenging.
A wonderful win for James Logue, and one for CVFR into the bargain (RA! RA! RA!).
Personally, I was delighted to get round - see my earlier post - and still can't understand why I unable to jog 3 miles on the flat on Thursday evening and yet complete the FTOP scarcely more than 36 hours later. In fact, I think my time was almost half an hour up on last year's! Weird, weird, weird.
Didn't see many forumites, but it was great to see Amex, and - at several points - Crumblydown. Del Monte Man disappeared into the distance after the initial climb. Sid was good company for the first half of the race, and I'm sure would have been for the second half, had he not moved a couple of minutes ahead. Also, it was good to meet Xavier (from Wharfedale via the Massif Central) - there aren't many French fellrunners around, though my son-in-law Nico has done a couple of races and loved them.
Thanks to all who make the FTOP an outstanding race. It somehow manages to retain the low key essence of the sport whilst being (in every sense) a 'big' event.
That's disgraceful. A dog on Pendle needs more layers than that.Quote:
Originally Posted by simgreen78
Wait 'till Longdogs here's about this - that Stolly will be in for it!
Enjoyed 12 mile of this race then got cramp and had to walk for 4.5 mile, disappointing!!!!:thunbdown:Oh well thanks to the organisers it is a tough but great race.
WOW! That was tough. First time for me and thought it was tougher than 3 Peaks. Reiterate thanks to Keiran and all marshalls. People do need to be a bit more responsible with their gel wrappers. There really is no excuse. Stolly; I was the fat lad who shouted" Alreet "down towards Ogden Clough. (No 141, when pix come out). Mega cramp when got back to car.
First attempt at the race today - justifiably a classic as someone has said. Climbs were fine until the last but glad I jogged the first 45 mins - unlike some. I'll be back. The xtalons held out and my feet only started hurting once we reached the road section!
Marshalls were great and the course worked really well. Bit hard to work out where you were in the race with all the early starters. I ended up 9th but thought I was about 20th!
Some problems with results? Looked like a combination of two starts (10:00am and 10:30am) and no tags for 40 runners? Can't see the point of the tags if everyone doesn't have them! Sportident would be an ideal solution for a race like this.
Great day all the same.
It does seem a little odd that not everyone had tags, though glitches happen. It was definitely an advantage not to have tags; at one late checkpoint, I dithered for ages trying to remove my tag with frozen fingers and sodden, icy gloves, whilst the three other runners who'd arrived just behind me simply shouted "No tags!" and shot through. They gained about 50m at that tag point alone. Glad I wasn't battling them for anything important!Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeynolan
Having said that, I was applauding the 'low key' nature of the FTOP earlier, and a part of me really likes the old-school simplicity of stringing bits of plastic on a glorified hair bobble.
Well done everyone - it was good old dependable Pendle weather today for sure. I spotted some sleety snow at one point. I got to Barley a couple of minutes after the main race had started so I decided to trundle up Ogden Clough and then run the first part of the race backwards. Somebody mentioned they saw me and Harry 'walking' between CP1 and CP2 but I was of course running, albeit on the tussocks adjacent to the race trod, stopping to admire you lot from time to time as you came past.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stolly
Will there be an entry in Stolly Hill Runs 2010 for today ?
Glad to see everyone had a good (tough) day, especially Tussockface, well done mate. Another race i'd pre-entered and never got there, story of my year. Set off late due to an emergency with mother in laws dogs, got as far as Burnley only for my own dog to empty the contents of its stomach all over me and the car, by the time i'd found a shop and some wet wipes figured i'd be late for the start and with the pooch in a sorry state, turned round for home. She's been off her food all day and now my lad's poorly as well. Think i might get hammered tonight so as the litre of nuun's water i'd made for the race doesn't go to waste, it'll sort the hangover tomorrow:rolleyes:
Well done one and all:thumbup:
Tough luck Steve, wondered why I'd not spotted you.
Wasn't it WC FIelds who said "Never work with children or animals"?
As for your creative solution to the surplus of Nuun , I can't help feeling that planning to inflict a hangover on yourself is marginally more extreme than tipping it down the plughole sans vomit.
Aha, I wondered who it was running in the opposite direction ! The legendary Stolly !
My favourite photo of the day...FellRunner1 crossin' Ogden Clough after descendin' Geronimo...
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/9476/tomsessford.jpg
Finished 30sec adrift of last year, which isn't too bad i guess, given the weather. Chased a team-mate all the way down the tarmac only to finish about 5metres behind him; gutted!!
I noticed plenty of gel wrappers too, it's pretty annoying when you consider that they must have come out of a bag so why can't they put them back in? Realistically it's very little litter for over 300 hill users but it's still sad to see it.
Not sure what happened to CP1 but at least the detour to the stile (so that's where the 30sec came from!) made the decison to straight line over Pendle Moor an easy one. I reckon it was faster but barely.
Andy, your post was at 1.18 a.m ! You should have been tucked up in bed hours ago after that brute of a race, I know I was !
Does it ever not hail on Pendle?! Only second time for me and it hailed last time too.
Great race organisation with incredible marshals. I did the 10am start and it seemed to work well. Had some good encouragement from the leaders in the main race as they caught me up, which was a nice touch. No one seemed to mind us slow ones being in their way!
A special thank you to the marshall at the bottom of Big End with his collection of jelly babies, cola bottles and a Club Biscuit!
Morning All,
WOW! OMG!! AWESOME!!!, just like to add my thoughts to the comments already posted.
Thanks to organiser and all the marshalls, you do a fantastic job in tough weather conditions and with a cheery word for all. I really enjoyed seeing the leading guys come "floating past" made me feel like a cart horse! but allowed the also rans to see the fast guys in action, and somehow i am sure it spurred us all on a bit.
Never got round to reccying the back half of the race, due to lack of time. When I saw the climb away from CP5 I couldn't quite get my head round it and I really struggled, then it got worse!
Still finished though and in a reasonable time.
Tussock Face I'm sure we exchanged grunts going up the lst climb? Calder Valley vest an Noon stone buff? Well done we both struggled up there, but you were long gone when I got to the top.
Thanks again to all involved and see you next year!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jellybabyfairy/
A few photos of the race - sorry I didn't manage more, but the rain was getting on the lens. Well done to the guy who started early and ended up with a long lonely run leading out the race for most of the way!
Yes, that'd be me. Your use of the word 'struggle' is the giveaway. I exchanged grunts with a few people. What did we grunt about? And what were you wearing?Quote:
Originally Posted by Steampig
Didn't help results when quite a few runners crossed the finish line, a time was written down and then they said 'I haven't been to all the checkpoints' :w00t: So what's the point in crossing the finish line???Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeynolan
If you haven't completed the course you've retired from the race and go and tell registration. SIMPLE
:angry: I collected 6 empty gel wraps even retracing my steps to pick them up and then gave them to the marshals, and reported it to Keiron the (R O) at the end. most were on the section going down to CP2 if runners are needing gels at that stage and on a down hill section there not preparing properly. I dont agree its not bad though for 300 runners, if you go on the hills you should do so with the least impact, leaving it as you left it for other users to enjoy, these people have no respect for the sport, other runners and users or the enviroment, they should stick to the roads some one will sweep up after them there, and a word of warning whoever you are keep away from another race over Pendle we dont need you, proper Fellrunners should only apply.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyA