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Thread: Turner Landscape

  1. #11
    Turner Landscape English Champs

    My week leading up to Turner Landscape had been less than ideal and I’d even contemplated not doing the race. I’ve been on nights and sleeping during the day had been troublesome to say the least. The continuing hot weather coinciding with one of our neighbours having an orangery built hadn’t boded well for kipping.

    For you Yorkshire folk: an orangery is like a fancy conservatory, or if you prefer...a posh greenhouse. There’s no reason why you couldn’t let your pigeons roost on its apex if you so fancied.

    Nothing much happens on our street in quiet suburbia and as you’d imagine the orangery is causing quite a stir. The last time there was this much excitement was when Jimmy from number 10 started wearing a neck brace.

    It’s early friday afternoon and I’ve not been up long after another interrupted sleep. I bump into the window cleaner as I’m collecting the bins at the end of our drive, he’s a talker and there’s nowt he doesn’t know. In no time our conversation revolves around the orangery....Jimmy’s neck brace is now old news, facet joint pain apparently.

    The window cleaner tells me the only time he uses his water fed extendable pole is when cleaning the roofs of conservatories and orangeries. If he ever branched away from domestic windows and veered towards industrial he’d use his pole more often. For now he remains a stickler to the old values and still favours the hands on approach to cleaning as he’s a traditionalist and perfectionist...his words, not mine. He then starts to educate me on the best ways to avoid water streaks when cleaning windows in hot weather.

    By this stage I’m losing the will to live and blurt out in a panic stricken manner, “shit, I’m sorry mate I’ve left some peas on the boil”. He looks perplexed and checks his watch and from his watch gazing antics I’m getting the vibe he doesn’t believe me. His suspicion is understandable as mid afternoon is an unusual time to be boiling peas as it’s too late for dinner but it’s too early for tea. I can appreciate his confusion but I play along with my pea boiling charade as there’s only so much window cleaning chat I can take.

    Back in doors I crash out in front of the TV and watch Countdown. Things start to look up as I get my first ever 9 letter word....then the phone rings. I was going to ignore it but my mum still rings the house phone, no matter how many times I’ve told her to go mobile. She rang up only yesterday to tell me she’d bought another pair of Skechers shoes. She’s also gonna buy my dad some for his arthritic big toe...she's seen a pair in navy blue, “ your dad really suits blue”. I don’t feel the purchasing of Skechers warrants a phone call but it made me smile all the same.

    I answer the phone, it’s not mum with tales of thriftiness, it’s some bloke from Chorley council asking if I can spare a few minutes to answer some questions on the pedestrianisation of Chorley town centre. I use my “peas on the boil” line again and settle down with Nick Hewer and Rachel Riley. I’m playing along with the contestants on tv and they both comfortably beat me...my 9 letter word was a fluke.

    Race day and it’s become the norm this summer that it’s going to be another warm sunny one, Great Lakes and Kentmere being the exceptions. Turner Landscape is a fitting name for this Lakeland medium as pretty much the full race landscape can be seen from the start at Turner Hall.

    The track up towards Seathwaite Tarn has me generating a mixture of sweat and sun cream that runs into my eyes and it’s not pleasant, bloody uncomfortable if truth be told. Relief is close by as there’s a lovely breath of fresh air whilst running across the dam.....and that’s exactly what it is, a breath of fresh air. Once the initial climb of Grey Friar is reached the rest of the route is reasonably runnable with the descent off White Pike being a highlight.

    Many thanks to all involved and lovely to hear Joss praising all the efforts put in for the Alzheimer’s Research funding.

    Oh I nearly forgot, my 9 letter word....Limestone.
    Last edited by Tindersticks; 12-08-2018 at 12:17 AM.

  2. #12
    Master Travs's Avatar
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    Turner Landscape cancelled tomorrow due to forecast lightning.

  3. #13
    Moderator noel's Avatar
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    That's a shame. I was due to do this one, but had just had to pull out anyway. If it's not COVID it's lightning.

  4. #14
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    Turner Landscape cancelled tomorrow due to forecast lightning.
    Well that`s a bolt from the blue
    The older I get the Faster I was

  5. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by JohnK View Post
    Well that`s a bolt from the blue
    Ha ha.

    I suspect this would not have happened before the revised safety rules were introduced following the death of Brian Belfield, following which the routes of a number of long lakeland races eg Borrowdale, were amended on the day.

    A week or two ago I was running past a trig point on Ilkley Moor (so very exposed) in the rain when there was a virtually simultaneous thunder clap and lightning flash. I recalled my "O" level physics and decided to head for lower ground - and quickly.
    "...as dry as the Atacama desert".

  6. #16
    Master Travs's Avatar
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    Indeed, Borrowdale route for tomorrow has been severely amended/shortened.

    Will report tomorrow after the race.

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Breeze View Post
    Ha ha.

    I suspect this would not have happened before the revised safety rules were introduced following the death of Brian Belfield, following which the routes of a number of long lakeland races eg Borrowdale, were amended on the day.

    A week or two ago I was running past a trig point on Ilkley Moor (so very exposed) in the rain when there was a virtually simultaneous thunder clap and lightning flash. I recalled my "O" level physics and decided to head for lower ground - and quickly.
    The advice used to be crouch down small, feet together, away from others and anything tall - it seems to have changed to get the hell out of there, onto lower ground, and ideally into a building or vehicle. Makes sense to me.

    I was with my partner and daughter descending from Helvellyn some years ago when we were caught in a summer storm - the gap between light and sound was virtually non-existent and we could smell what I took to be ozone from the lightning strikes - very scary. There was at least one death from a lightning strike that summer.

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    Indeed, Borrowdale route for tomorrow has been severely amended/shortened.

    Will report tomorrow after the race.
    It will be interesting to learn what the shortened route is.

  9. #19
    Running down to the Cockley Beck CP in the OCT (in about 1988) there were several strikes in to the beck on our left, just yards away. With the climb of Grey Friar looming ahead I was half hoping they would call it off or send us back direct over 3 Shires - as it happened it passed over and we all carried on. On another occasion a few years earlier we lost a search dog on exercise during a thunderstorm above White Moss Common - the dog didn't like it at all but it was a spectacular night to be out. The dog turned up fine a day or so later.
    Last edited by Mark G; 07-08-2021 at 08:48 AM.

  10. #20
    Master Martyn P's Avatar
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    Race now rescheduled for 2nd October. As I understand it, if you already had an entry and had not previously asked for a refund then your entry is carried over.

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