Sent: 13 October 2011 11:14
Subject: V S Update Marathon Edition 2011
In view of
the Striders Autumn marathon tour to
Hopefully
none of the stories will make the national press. Did you see two stories
from the weekend. I’m pretty confident that we won’t have a repeat of
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15251624
but I did see some V S messages going back and forth “has anyone got a bus
timetable for
You will
spot a hilly theme to this set of reports. I was the sad one who ran a
plain (but hilly) road marathon, one or two of the other races were shorter but
certainly harder, the rest, well make a plate of pasta as you’ll need to
carbo-load just for the reading…
Contents
(in
alphabetical order of race)
·
Borrowdale
Fell Race - 6 August – from
·
English
Fell Racing Championship 2011 – from Mark Woodhead
·
Ironman
·
·
Lyke
Wake race, 9 July – from Sarah Smith
·
Mont
Blanc
·
Windermere
Marathon – 22 May – from Bob Jackson
Borrowdale Fell Race
- 6 August - from
The
weekend before the race, I went to the Lakes to try and walk round the course
after being told that the race route does not follow many OS-mapped paths
between checkpoints and that I should try to find the ‘runner’s paths’ using a
After
constantly finding, and immediately losing, these 'runners' paths’ in fog and
rain, I decided that maybe I didn't want to be a fell runner after all, and I
had no chance of making the 4:30 hour cut-off at Honister on race day.
The reccie also made me recall a conversation I'd had with Xanthe last year
about a race in the lakes she entered, decided to reccie and then decided not
to race it after spending hours of the reccie lost, scrambling over rocks and
cliff faces and being on mostly un-runnable terrain.....it dawned on me that
this must be the same race that I'd stupidly entered!
I decided
I'd turn up and see how things went and not to expect to make the
cut-off. The weather forecast on race day was torrential rain,
becoming worse during the day with thunderstorms and indeed at the start line
we were all standing around in our Goretex in torrential rain. The
race started with a fairly immediately blockage down a narrow path which
consequented in everyone walking for a few minutes which was a nice break in to
the pace and I was pleasantly surprised to find the rain suddenly stopping for
good.
The course
then took in killer climb up to the top of Bessy Boot and along the infamous
vague runners paths which contour around the side of the long ride towards Esk
Hause. This section was mostly runnable apart from the thigh deep bog I
managed to fall in and a lucky escape when I fell off the path and slipped down
the hill. After Esk Hause you head over the slippery boulder fields
across Broad Crag, down the col and back up the other side to the top of
The race
then follows the Corridor route or rather parts of it as most runners seemed to
stray off the path cutting off corners and disappearing over steep banks (not
always good to just follow them!). I was feeling pretty good when I
got to the bottom of Great Gable, having held back earlier in the race and
taken it steady. I was very pleased that fellow V.S. Andreas had offered
to walk there with a drink for me as it turned out to be quite a humid day and
with a huge smile on my face and shouting that I felt great and was ecstatic as
I knew I should make the cut-off I set off for killer climb number 2 up to the
top of Great Gable (passing the famous Joss Naylor on the way - no he wasn't
running!).
The top of
Great Gable is apparently one of the best views in
I made the
cut-off with almost 30 minutes to spare which was great and then I immediately
faced killer climb number 3 up Dale Head which was pretty tough and has a lot
of false summits. Again I had the difficult choice of which person to
follow down and decided to take what looked like the most direct route but then
proved to be the slowest route with it being so steep and slippery and the long
winding path may have actually been the better option.
The last
few miles of the race takes you through a slate valley which I found mostly
difficult to run in the reccie but again, on the race day people took vague
paths away from the main track which made it a little more runnable. I
was feeling pretty happy at this point as I still felt good and knew we didn't
have far to go and we'd finished all the hills and I let my feet take me
quickly down a long stretch of grass only to be scuppered by a wet rock section
which sent me flying onto the floor and a painful landing. I'd come so
far and wasn't about to give up so the best thing to do was to pick myself up,
brush myself down and run through the pain. I managed to cross the
finish line in 5:08 and felt happy knowing that I could have knocked quite a
bit of time off that if I'd pushed harder, taken better paths, not fallen over
and not stopped so much.
I was
greeted by a post race cup of tea, sandwich and massage which isn't bad for a
£6 entry fee in addition to all the support and encouragement given by the
organisers and marshals around the route.
In a very
twisted way I enjoyed pretty much every minute of the race, had a huge smile on
my face most of the time and the 5 hours passed incredibly quickly due to the
sheer concentration needed. I was extremely glad I'd reccied it even
though we hadn't followed too much of the race route as it meant I always had a
vague idea of where I was and what to expect.
If you are
considering this event then you don't need to be worried about the hills as
most people walk every slight gradient and go carefully on the technical
downhill but you do need perseverance to keep a steady pace during the rest of
the race and be fairly comfortable at the thought of having to get out your map
and compass if the weather closes in. I arrived feeling like a
fell-running impostor but realised that I'm not the only one who struggles with
technical terrain and I obviously have the sadistic mentality it takes to
achieve all that is Borrowdale.
Race
report blog: http://www.justusuk.com/2011/08/borrowdale-fell-race-06-august.html
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/north_ender/sets/72157627382354134/
Great Gable: http://www.sportsunday.co.uk/portfolio209670.html
Honister: http://www.sportsunday.co.uk/portfolio209652.html
Dale Head: http://www.sportsunday.co.uk/portfolio209654.html
http://www.keswicklakedistrict.co.uk/fellraces/bd2011/
English Fell Racing
Championship – from Mark Woodhead
A quick
note of self-congratulation (sometimes you have to do it yourself!) that might
be of interest to Striders fell runners and would-be-fell runners. On Sunday I
completed the last of all six of the English Fell Racing Championship events.
Similar to the VS fell championship, the English counters are made up of 2
'short' races, 2 'medium' and 2 'long' (I think you need to complete at least
one of each and one other to earn your points). I've no idea how I've done
overall or if my points total is actually recorded anywhere - I'll
leave that to the Ian Holmes' and Lloyd Taggart's of this world to worry about.
I finished the last race on Sunday (Sedbergh Hills; 14 miles and 6000' of up -
though it felt more like 25 miles and 10000'!) about 2/3rds of the way down the
field of 334 finishers. That was pretty much the way of each of my
races (tho I did much better in the two short ones - Mearley Clough and
Whittle Pike). For anyone interested (ie still reading this!), the English
Championship was won by Lloyd Taggart from Dark Peak (who came 2nd on
Sunday, behind Morgan Donnelly from Borrowdale who I think won last year's
Three Peaks). Not sure yet who won the womens' Championship, but
Jacqui Lee of Eryri Harriers won on Sunday in 2hrs 32min. Next year's races
have already been chosen; all six are new to me - I can't
wait (and it'd be great if some other Striders are able to join me).
Completing all six English championship counters was a personal goal for me
this year. Now I've done it it leaves me time to work my way up that VS Fell
champs league table!
Ironman UK 2011 (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) at
Bolton – from Richard Adcock
The day started with a wake-up call at 3:30am but
it didn’t matter as I had been half awake for the last hour - nerves I guess as
I’m not normally awake at that time and there was already activity
outside the hotel.
Down in the restaurant they offered a 'special
athletes breakfast' from 3am, consisting of everything... bacon, eggs,
porridge, toast, yum, a perfect start to the day.
Outside, although it was still dark, the weather was
perfect, clear and still and predicted to be nice but not too warm.
Everything had been checked in the previous day so at
the start area there were just a few last minute preparations: check
tyre pressures, put drinks bottles on bike, a bit of milling
around and then from 5.30am start being counted into the water.
It was a strange yet reassuring feeling to be
surround by over 1100 athletes all thinking the same thing ... it's
really happening... can't back out now... Oh dear!!...
After quarter of an hour treading water the
national anthem was played at 6am, followed by a big cheer and we are
off....Mayhem...Arms...Legs.... and some serious jockeying for position... I
love the triathlon mass start swim J
I soon settled in to a rhythm and really
enjoyed the swim, finishing the two laps about where I expected in 1:04:11
(255th)
Helpers guide you out of the water and it is a 200m
run to the transition area [T1] through a huge crowd of adoring,
cheering fans (not sure if they were all for me but it felt great!), grab
the bag and do a quick change out of my wetsuit, helmet on, slurp a
gel, find the bike and run to the mount line for the bike leg (4:21,
164th).
The bike leg was described as ‘undulating’ (read
the profile looks like The Three Peaks race) with 7921' of climbing, but it was
just like having a day out cycling in the Dales, a really enjoyable ride
where you were up out of the saddle for the up-hills and head down on the
aero-bars for the majority of the rest.
I've spent a lot of time on the bike this year and was
really pleased with my time, averaging
18.17mph over the 112 miles, I came in
6:09:50 (192nd)
An
advantage of wearing clipped in shoes is you can take your feet out a few
hundred metres before the end in preparation, jump off, give the bike to a
helper and then run barefoot into the transition area [T2] to put on running
shoes, have another gel and go... (1:54, 53rd)
I implemented a new eating plan recently and
when I came in off the bike felt really strong and ready to do a marathon.
The run route was about eight miles down from Horwich
to Bolton then three laps of a six mile out and back course finishing back
in Bolton town centre, and the first two miles were great, the crowds were out
in force, I felt good, had a good pace and then all the gels and
Gatorade I'd had through the day made themselves known and I needed
a trip to the loo (this was to become an all too regular occurrence that I will
not dwell on... other than to say four times!!...)
The route
down involved a bit of road, a bit of trail along the canal, then up the hill
and turned on to the main road for the last two miles into Bolton with a
section of twists and turns through the city centre that never seemed to end
before heading back out to do it all again...
You received a band at the turnaround point of the run
so there was no way of cheating the distance but I did find a psychological
boost in passing other people with fewer bands than myself.
My plan had been to keep running throughout the run no
matter how slowly I went, and other than through every aid
station where I walked to drink water and the hill out of the city this worked for the first twenty or
so miles but the inevitable happened and I did slow to a walk a few times, but
quickly forced myself to start running again.
At the
start of the last lap a friend over for support, ran with me for a hundred
metres, chastised me for going too slowly and when I used a colloquism for ‘I’m
very tired…’ told me to ‘Speed up, it’s not supposed to be easy!!..’ thanks Ady
J
Heading back into the city for the last time and
running down the finishing chute felt fantastic, the crowds were banging
bam bams (I had to google it) and cheering, and crossing the finishing
line I heard over the tannoy what I have wanted to hear for the last 2
years... “RICHARD ADCOCK YOU ARE
AN IRONMAN”
I finished the run in 4:06:43 (470th).
Overall finishing time 11:26:57 (251st out
of 1051 finishers - the winner in 8:34:24 and the last
finisher in 16:46:20)
As I was collecting my bike from [T2] a conversation
with a marshal went something like ‘Never again’, ‘You’ll be back next year’,
‘Probably...’ and the next day I was looking for the next one.
More information/pictures/entry forms are available
from http://www.ironmanuk.com/
Detailed splits at http://ironman.com/events/ironman/uk/?show=tracker&race=uk&year=2011#axzz1UoHXIuBa
22 degrees +, sunny skies and no wind;
normally the kind of weather I'd pray for in the Lake District, but not when
attempting to run 50 miles through it.
The Lakeland 50 (http://www.lakeland100.com/the-lakeland-50)
has been my main running aim this year and it did not disappoint: a strong
field with ~500 runners, stunning scenery, excellent organisation throughout,
very strong camaraderie amongst the competitors, lots of good, varied running,
all one could want from a race really, except that it was so bloody hot!
Even on top of the large climbs there was no refreshing breeze, no wind at all,
just baking sun and after a few hours people, including myself, started to
suffer - not so nice when there are 12 hours + to go!
But sometime in the late afternoon things got a
bit cooler, the running a bit easier, and I managed to team up with a chap
called James who, despite frequent electrolyte tablet induced vomiting
interruptions, proved to be a good running buddy. Friendly chat about
past and future runs made miles 20-35, all the way into Ambleside, pretty
straightforward and in Ambleside my spirits were further lifted by the vocal
support crew that met me there.
The last 15 miles were a bit of a blur though,
mainly because it was dark by then and the focus was just on staying in touch
with torches ahead, but also because tiredness had set in and thoughts were
definitely turning towards the finish line.
So in the end I got to there at 2.30 am in the
morning, after 14 hours and 5 minutes, finishing 128th out of 404 finishers,
not bad for my first long run.
Will I be back next year? For sure,
hopefully a bit fitter, hopefully with a few more Valley Strider runners in the
line up, and hopefully on a cooler day, but this is definitely one to remember
and one to come back to for many, many years...
Andreas
PS some pictures can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/andreasmayer2000/Lakeland50?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Lyke Wake race - 9
July – from Sarah Smith
The
morning of Saturday 9 July was dry and quite crisp as I hurried along the lane
from Osmotherley to Sheepwash car park for my start time of 5.20 am. A few
minutes later it was time to go, along the road, across the cattlegrid to take
the path into Coalmire plantation, across a field, a ford, a road, up steep
stone steps, across Carlton Moor, down Carlton Bank, to the first check point,
Carlton Bank, 6.30 am.
After
this, a little detour from the
Now here
is a little climb, up Carr Ridge to another Round Hill, above Greenhow Moor;
past Bloworth Crossing and along the disused railway which wends its way round
the dalehead to Farndale Moor. Mile after mile it’s easy to imagine you
are a train winding your way along the winding track… and then you pull into
the Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge, check point number three, at 9 am. Here you
are treated to rice pudding and peaches. Two cups of coffee here
too. A
Five years
ago, I couldn’t believe people ran from Osmotherley to Ravenscar, the seed was
sown, I started running and here I am, running in the Lyke Wake race. The
overriding feeling is one of freedom, as you fly across the moors for just over
40 miles relying on the kindness of strangers and you don’t know how you are
going to get home.
This is a
handicap race, the organisers decide your start time taking into account your
previous times and your own estimated time. If you beat your estimated
time by 2 hours or more you are disqualified.
Well,
Geoff told me to get a team together and Sylvia told me if you believe you can
run that far you will. There was some interest but strangely enough
people had to move house the same weekend and taper for the
Dear Race Director. Last time I entered the Lyke
Wake race, I was timed out at Eller Beck, however since then I have taken up
running. I think I could aim for 10 hours but it could be longer but I am
sure I could finish within 12 hours. With thanks. Etc.
The seven
checkpoints between the start and finish provide water, jelly babies, biscuits,
cakes, millionaire’s shortbread, and an opportunity to connect with humanity;
there are some very fine people marshalling at the checkpoints and they are all
part of the history and tradition of the Lyke Wake race.
Leaving
the Lion Inn, you cut across Rosedale Head and follow the road round past Fat
Betty and turn left where the tarmac has been helpfully sprayed LWW – this is
the way to the sea, you see the path stretching out for miles ahead – once you
have emerged from the boggy West Gill Head, you embrace Shunner Howe and past
there, come to check point 4, Hamer Track at 10.21 am.
Past Blue
Man i’ th’ Moss standing stone, you wend your way through Wheeldale Moor,
keeping Bumble Wood on your left, I lost the path and realised quite quickly I
was going in the wrong direction so ended up flying across heather to meet the
path further ahead. It’s getting quite warm now.
Arrive at check point 5,
Stepping
across the stones across Wheeldale beck, you then climb up to Simon Howe and
enjoy fabulous views ahead; there is a good stretch here and you descend to
cross the North Yorkshire Moors railway then you are at check point 6, Eller
Beck Bridge at 12.10 pm.
Deborah,
Joey and Tulip were meeting me at Eller Beck with dry trainers but I was going
much faster than I had expected to, and had to rush off without waiting for
them. It was singularly kind of Deb to agree to meet me at a
random point on the A169 with little information other than the words Eller
Beck between 1 and 3 pm… so leaving without the support I had requested I felt
ungrateful but I couldn’t wait.
This
section was the hardest. I lost the path and ploughed through heather
possibly on the brink of becoming crazed. Where was Lilla Cross? Nowhere
to be seen… But looking back I could see a group of runners and they
seemed to be catching me up – I endured an ad hoc fartlek session looking for
paths of burnt heather to make up some time on and eventually found the track
which led me to Lilla Howe and the eponymous Cross where I thanked the heavens
for my good fortune, inhaled a banana and a sports gel, wiped my face with my
arm and off I went.
I took a
wrong fork to the left and was overtaken by two people who stayed on the right
path to my right; my path started to divert back to the right and just as I was
about to meet them the man fell, the lady stopped, I ran past and then
turned round to check he was ok – he was – so I kept going but they over took
me again, I think. It’s all a little blurry from here on. Down the
ravine that is Jugger Howe, up the other side and rolling along the tank road
to check point 7,
The last
hour of my run was accompanied by thunder and lightening but I escaped the
storm, the torrential rain and hail which rained down on Fylingdales Moor
running at a good pace into the Raven Hall Hotel in sunlight at 2.20 pm exactly
nine hours after I set off.
“I’m here”
I joked, as I lurched into the gazebo at the finish and picked up my
certificate, a t-shirt (preordered and prepaid) and a very high quality glass
memento with the Lyke Wake coffin floating in the middle; this memento
recalling the Lyke Wake dirge which the route was named after, the old dialect
verse describing the journey of the soul across the desolate moors on its way
to heaven or hell.
Deb, Joey
and Tulip surprised me by meeting me at the end which I hadn’t expected so
seeing them at the Raven Hall Hotel was a real treat – I tucked into some
houmous sandwiches, saw a wedding party in their finery promenading against the
dramatic backdrop of the North Sea and Robin Hood’s Bay from the hotel lawns in
glorious sunshine, had a shower in the Raven Hall Hotel and was whisked away as
the heavy rain came down.
I was told
at one check point that I was the first runner through, and would win the race
if I got a move on - but two others finished before me; I was the second lady
to finish which felt great but I did have a headstart on
most.
My time: 09:00
My position: 24th
102 entered, 86 started, 73 finished
1st man Neil Ridsdale 05:49
1st lady Shelli Gordon 06:42
A letter
from the Race Director dated 11 July encloses the results sheet, gives a
weather report of the conditions on race day, and goes on to castigate previous
entrants and clubs, for “None of the previous regular competitors that have
ceased running have ever shown an interest in helping – especially the running
clubs, the Valley Striders, East Hull Harriers and Chapel Allerton etc
etc”. Well, I said at the end I would
Mont Blanc
This is my
my favourite race of all time and after running it last year, missing out this
year was never an option. Impressively, 1941 out of 2000 runners started
the race so
The first
20k follows a relatively flat trail up the
The
From
Vallorcine the route goes up 941 meters up to
I had now
been out 2h33m and inspired by the stunning views of the
The French
don't like running downhill so like last year I was overtaking quite a alot of
people down to the Le Tour (1400m) and Trail Le Champ (1363m). At Trail Le
champ there was another superb drink/foot station but I managed to resist the
goodies again and after stopping for energy drink and bananas only, I started
the next climb up to Flegere(1897m).
I had now
been out for 3h32m and the the legs were getting tired in the hot sunshine but
lure of the unlimited free beer at the finish plus that the locals were really
out in force now meant that I just had to crack on as fast I could.
I reached
Flegere after about an hour and I had now been out 4h35m and with 5k and 400m
up and 150m down to go I knew I would smash my time time of 5.54 from last
year. The last section (the grand balcon sud for those with local knowledge) to
the finish follows a very rocky and technical trail with at times some very
steep drops so with tired legs it is difficult to run with any speed here.
With about
35-40min to go you can hear the finish and with 20min left, you can see it but
they make you run down a good 200 meters before you follow the ski piste up to
the finish at Planpraz (2016m). The last climb is a bit of killer but there are
so many people around at this points and with free unlimited beers from the
Microbrewery in Chamonix (MBC) waiting at the finish, it was impossible not
keep smiling all the way to the finish.
I finished
in 118th place out of 1941 starters (1815 finished) with the time 5.23.16 and
that was over 31 minutes faster and 160 places higher up than last year so
that's probably as good as it gets for me. I skipped the so called sensible
post race drinks and went straight for the beer and my word how good that cold
beer tasted in the scorching heath.
I stayed
up at the finish for about a couple of hours enjoying the stunning view and
taking advantaged of the beer on offer before getting the cable car down to
Chamonix where there is a great free post race buffet with more beer and also
wine on offer.
This is
just a great race with the most stunning views and there is also a Half
Marathon (23K) and a 10k the day before the
Results:
1 Nicolas Pianet (
118 Eirik Stangnes (Valley Striders /
Course profile:
http://www.montblancmarathon.fr/photos/profils/profilMarathon.jpg
Full results:
http://marathon.chamonixsport.com/fichiers/resultats_marathon_2011.pdf
Windermere Marathon –22 May –
from Bob Jackson
The
Windermere marathon had started in the late 80’s, stopped in the 90’s and was
revived in 2007. Eric Green and myself went to that race. He ran
3:05 and was presented with the cup for 1st M50 by legendary fell
runner Joss Naylor (please Google). I’d finished 30th in a
very pleasing 3:12 but was a little disappointed in that there were 3 M55’s in
front of me and I missed out on a cup (and shaking Joss Naylor’s hand) by one
place.
This year,
I wasn’t running anywhere near 3:12 but was hoping that those three M55’s ahead
of me (a) hadn’t entered or (b) had not yet reached 60 or (c) had got slower
too.
Alistair
Smyth, Greg Skerrett and Simon Redshaw were the other Striders running. They
were all making a weekend of it, but with a 10:30 start and a 2 hour drive, I
just traveled up on the day. As I left
I picked
up my number and chip at registration, saw Simon and Alistair, talked to the
Kirkstall Harriers ladies team (told them it was undulating like Leeds half),
and went back to the car to get changed. It started to rain heavily
(sitting in the car it sounded like hail). But just 20 minutes before the
start, as the brass band started up to lead the runners to the start, the rain
stopped, so I thought I’d better get out of the car and go for a run.
I’d been
going well in February but a cough had stopped me running for 3 weeks early
March and at my comeback race at
The
Striders squad all lined up about 12 rows back from the start line. And
off we went. I picked up Sharon Gayter (Google to read about the best
lady ultramarathoner in the
The first
3 miles all seemed to be uphill (looking at the course profile afterwards
showed that they were) and then the next 3 miles were undulating. During
this time I was running and chatting with two Scots guys (both called Jim),
they were looking for 3:45, I said I was looking for 3:35 to 3:45. There
was a hill at 5 but I’d remembered it from last time as steeper. However
I was already worried what the Kirkstall ladies would say to me; those 5 miles
had definitely been tougher than the first 5 for
We were
all breathing fairly easily, and I was attempting to use one of my recommended
marathon tactics – run easily for 6 miles and then the 20 miles that is left is
a distance that I know I can do. At 6 we were 30 seconds under 48 minutes
and checking breathing, legs and bits that might chafe, I certainly felt everything
was going OK. Now I know that 48 divided by 6 is 8 and 8 times 26¼ is
3hrs 30mins and 3hrs30mins is the Good For Age qualifying time for M60 at
Remember
the hill at mile 5 that didn’t seem so steep as last time. That was
because the real hill was at mile 7! But we (me and the 2 Jims) got up it
in a 9 minute mile and although we were now a few seconds over 8’s there was a
long downhill to come. All went well for another couple of miles but then
there was another hill where I tried to maintain pace, the Jims were left
behind, but it started to feel like hard work. I was now worrying a bit
about the remaining 16 miles.
We passed
the Lakeside Hotel (“best 4-star hotel in the Lakes” and “the only thing it
overlooks is the Lake”) and turned at the end of the
At 15
miles I was still a minute under 8’s so still with hope of 3:30 and I kept
going although each mile was harder than the last just to maintain speed.
Eventually the effort took its toll and I started to slow down at 18
miles. There was a lady from Cleethorpes who was walking up the hills – I
was catching her up and on one, overtaking – but then she’d pick up the pace on
the downhills and get away from me. We reached 20 in 2:40 and I knew that
maintaining 8’s for the last 6 would not be possible! Instead I adopted
survival tactics. Mentally I was trying to save just a little in case any
old blokes tried to overtake – fortunately none came past. Those last 6
miles averaged 9 minutes per mile and I finished in 3:37 – not bad on 3
training runs of 20 miles (by the way this is not recommended practice).
NB when I
checked my split times later, I found that the last 385 yards took nearly 4
minutes. The next day I compared with Simon and he’d had a similar
time. The last 100 yards is up a steep hill but I’d not walked so
obviously a problem with the mile markers. So memo to anyone running
Windermere and aiming for a target – allow an extra 2 minutes for that extra
long 385 yards.
The guys
were all waiting for me at the finish, and we compared experiences. Greg
was first Strider in at 3:22. Alistair had been hoping to qualify for
Now the
nice thing about these smaller races is that the start, finish, car park and
facilities are all within a short distance of each other. I hobbled the
150 yards back to the car, had a quick rub down, put on some fresh clothes and
went back to the finish, not so much to watch the runners come in but more to
have one of the sausage sandwiches that I’d smelt as I’d crossed the finish
line. And a second one. I saw Jill from Kirkstall (she was
supporting not running) and asked her to pass on my apologies for
mis-describing the course. I found Simon and family in the beer tent
(also less than 30 yards from the finish line).
Then to
look for the results. I’d finished 2nd M60 which was a pleasant surprise
for “only” 3:37. But I was only 40 seconds behind the first place.
I couldn’t have done it on the day but an extra couple of weeks’ training and
an extra two 20 mile run would have been enough.
The
presentations took an age to set up but I was going to wait. Again there
were 3 cups for each 5 year age band, I’ll let you multiply that up (don’t forget
to multiply by 2 for men/women). Joss Naylor was here again handing out
the cups and he had a brief chat with everyone who stepped up for their
cup. If it hadn’t been for the fact that many of the prizewinners had
left we would have been there till early evening. He said to me something
along the lines of “Bob Jackson, that’s a famous name” which took me by
surprise and I said something about Bob Jackson the racing cyclist who used to
live about 200 yards from me in Scarcroft. Apart from the cup there was
also a £20 Pete Bland Sports voucher and a tin of
Following
the race prizegiving was the presentation to 12 runners who’d completed 10
marathons in 10 days. I’ll repeat that, yes, for each of the last 10 days
they’d run the full Windermere marathon route. Each of them received a
medal and a signed copy of Joss’s autobiography.
I’d been
standing by Joss’s car while the presentations took place and when he went back
to the car, I asked him whether he had any more signed copies of his
book. He said not, but that he thought there were some unsigned copies on
Pete Bland’s stall and he said he’d sign one if I could get one. I also
apologised / explained the Bob Jackson confusion – I said I knew about Bob
Jackson the fell runner from Horwich Harriers, in fact I’d been to Bob
Jackson’s 60th birthday race a few years ago where the race had been won by
Bob’s son Rob. (see http://valleystriders.org.uk/vsfl0401.htm#bob60
)
The
Grasmere gingerbread has been eaten, the voucher converted to a pair of
knee-length tights (look out for them this winter), the cup is on the window
ledge of the office at home and I am proud owner of a copy of “Joss” inscribed
“to one of the Bob Jacksons, best wishes, Joss Naylor MBE”.
72 Greg Skerrett
3:22:09
89
Alistair Smyth 3:28:12
106 Simon
Redshaw 3:32:58
125 Bob
Jackson 3:37:25
** end