finished and home about an hour ago.
First man was 6 hours something- forgotten his name. Ian Symington was 2nd in about 6.50 I think.
LOTS of mud compared to the last couple of years- like running with lead weights and huge disks under your shoes, but in retrospect good fun.
Nick and Mick made their Ultra grand slam!
Got round OK for my first 50 miler, it was much quicker running than I thought it would be but definitely muddy underfoot. It was also nice to meet such a varied set of entrants, I think the WS100 qualification draws a lot of people who wouldn't normally be interested in a slog around south yorkshire, nice as it is.
Good to hear, well done to both! (And everyone else who ran, obviously!)Originally Posted by karen nash
Well done everybody. sounds like it was a bit tough in those conditions. My mate finished in just under 14 hours, which I think initially he was dissapointed with, but he now seems happy. I wondered if it was going to be bad with all the wet weather.
We had a social event on Friday night, so sensible pre-ultra eating was replaced by an all-you-can eat curry buffet washed down with cava and Tetley's bitter.
The state of my stomach, combined with carrying an injury and having done absolutely no training whatsoever, led me to fear the an unfortunate outcome.
When my alarm went at 3.45am, my last-minute decision to be among the starters appeared even more ill-judged.
My 'game plan', however, was to treat the event as a walk with some light jogging thrown in, and see which checkpoint I could get to before pulling out.
When my calf tightened and began giving me grief as we approached Sheffield, I thought it might be the first, Grange Park. Still, I'd have been happy with a 10 mile outing; it was 10 miles further than I'd gone for weeks!
As time went on, though, it got no worse. In fact, as I became even slower, it eased, or least the pains that were beginning crop up elsewhere took my mind off it. So, I kept plodding on, ticking off the kms, and registering the milestones: a third of the way; 20 miles; half way; and then (slowly! slowly!) 35, 40, 45 miles, the onset of darkness again, and finally (HURRAH!) the lights of the college sports centre came into view, and after running through of forest of banners that was it.
Fifty miles, DONE! Just over 13 hours.
I should at this point have gone inside for food, but I couldn't face peeling my shoes off and having to put them on again to limp back to the car, so I simply picked up a blank certificate and went home.
Thanks to all involved for a really good event, and an interesting course (apart from the muddy fields that went on forever, and the Denaby checkpoint, of which I was beginning to doubt the existence: that slog from Maltby seemed never ending). And although, as commented above, some fields were heavy going, the weather conditions were perfect.
well done tussock face and thanks for the shout when I ran past you. Had my usual bad patch in the middle again through Rother Valley Park but got it back together again at about 30 miles and happy with my time in the end. Third year in a row and never seen the mud that bad.
You were going very well when you shot past!
I haven't seen any results yet, but I'd guess you finished as first Lady. Are congratulations in order?
The mud wasn't bad by fell standards, with very little going over the top of the shoes. It was very clayey in some places though.
Well done Tussockface.
You put some of my mardy "struggling with injury" mates to shame.
And yes Karen, I wondered about how much the pound of mud glued to each Hoka would slow me down.
Turns out it was quite a bit.
A very nice course though despite the name. And the support at the checkpoints was second to none.
I'm even contemplating the possibility of an epic "Round St Helens"...
I used to work with a bloke from Maltby. He led me to believe that it was the murder capital of Britain. It didn't seem that bad. The muddy fields were flippin' murder though!
no, tussockface. 2nd lady after dropping to 3rd and then regaining 2nd in Maltby. Lucy Clayton was 1st lady by about 20 mins.
It wasn't the mud over the top of shoes issue as on the fells but the sticky mud crearing 2 inch platform soles!
An epic run Tussockface, respect, Well Done all:thumbup:
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