Agreed - good event, great food and very friendly marshalling, all the way round - well done the Irregulars!
Roll on the Belper Rugby Rover tomorrow..... I just need new legs to grow overnight.
P.
Agreed - good event, great food and very friendly marshalling, all the way round - well done the Irregulars!
Roll on the Belper Rugby Rover tomorrow..... I just need new legs to grow overnight.
P.
Hi DE
the guy who came in second was from Hull he'd followed me for quite a while for the last 8 miles, I just managed to pull away near the end. I remember now that he said he was a lurker on the forum but was defo from Hull.
I didn't make Belper too tired from the daughter sleepover
And that was me in between, dripping into my bananas & custard. Good to meet you all. Good event, even if I didn't think I ran well enough. Ian: you haven't convinced me to enter Tanky's, not this year anyway. Navigating across Kinder without a path got crossed off my favourites list when I walked the Pennine Way at the age of 17. Strider: hope Belper went OK.
I feel fresher today that I did on Friday: not sure what to make of that really. I still don't know whether to have a go at the Over the Hill next Saturday, but I probably will if the weather looks reasonable.
Spent the day supermarket shopping for the family & fixing my home PC: been using my work laptop for the past couple of weeks. Took it to bits, vacuumed out all the fluff, & now it seems to be working OK. So I hit the LDWA website to sort some events out for the winter, i.e. post-OMM. I picked:
6 Dales Circuit, 14 Nov. Did this last year, & it's a good one, apart from the slippery limestone up Biggindale at the end (which was horrible).
Regular Irregular, 12 Dec. Did this last year, mostly underwater. Laugh? I nearly did.
Reservoir Roundabout II, Rhayader, 9 Jan. Haven't done this one, but the Rhayader Mountain Trail last year was good, & the OMM's there this year too. Those hills are an interesting navigation challenge even when the clag isn't down.
Hebden, 23 Jan. What can you say about the Calder Valley eh? I used to live there, and there's not a level surface anywhere. The runs all seem to be on the hard side, & the Hebden's no exception. I pulled a calf muscle on frozen cattle hoofmarks last year & had to pull out half way, so this is a grudge match.
Anglezarke Amble, 13 Feb. Not done this one, but there's good moors around there.
South Shropshire Circular, 27 Feb. Not done this either, but I fancied a change of scene, & there are good hills around Church Stretton.
Kipling Kaper, 27 March. Hail & snow hit me 26 miles in last year - lovely. Has to be done.
Andy Robinson
Runfurther committee member
Helsby Running Club
Interesting race for a number of reasons.... well organised, signed and marshalled, but the start and first two km was horrendous, and not just because of the 22miles in my legs from the previous day.
We were sent a hundred yards down a road, to come round a roundabout and back on ourselves, and then we had numerous bottlenecks over bridges, stiles and gates..... we didn't start running properly for about 20 minutes. Surely there must be a better route for the course...?
Overall, the event had too much tarmac and dull field running, again with lots of gates and stiles to break the flow, and the best bits only came late on, with the run through Shining Cliff woods and back along the canal. However the weather was pretty perfect and I manged to up the pace for the final 6k, so it has been a nice confidence booster before the Eagle Isle Ultra in 3 weeks time. Legs are pretty shot tonight, though.
P.
Hi Ian
Thought i would join up to forum seen ive been lurkin on for the last few weeks, I followed you in at Marsden with the white top on from East Hull Harriers, like you say we ran together for the last 8 mile or so.
Hi DE
Did not get chance to talk to you ,but did se you as i was leaving ,you looked soaking wet in your humber bridge 10k shirt. Are you doing Rudolfs Romp?
Hi Strider
Dont know how you managed to run again the next day, my legs was shot just recovered now. good luck with the ultra Paul
There were a lot of runners this year, it's certainly picked up popularity massively since I did the first one about 4 years ago. The out and back around the roundabout was put in a couple of years ago to break the field up a bit before the bridge and first gate. If you're near the front it's not a problem, but not everyone has that option I'm struggling to think of another (safe) way to get over the river starting from the Rugby Club.
I think that's a little harsh - it's pretty much what I'd expect to find in this area. It's always going to struggle to be as good as something in the Peak district for terrain and scenery. (don't know here the boundary is but this must at the best be only just inside).
It depends on what you're used to - it's a very popular event among road runners are those I spoke to were very complimentary about the course. The not too severe terrain appeals to them. I heard a few saying how tough they thought the route was We just get spoiled with running in some of the best parts of the country.
Is that really that much tarmac on it? It's a longish stretch around the first checkpoint, there's a bit near Alport Heights and a bit on leaving Shining Cliffs before dropping to the Derwent. 2 miles maybe? I've certainly done LDWA events with more, and this is co-organised by a mostly road running club. They must be doing something right getting that many people there, even if the route is not quite to our cup of tea.