Running Archives - Page 2 of 2

Saturday 9th March 2103, witnessed me ( Darren) and Clare out in the wilds again. This time it would be different!! We would be trail running the ‘Howarth Hobble‘….

Friday – I prepared all my home made veggie juices ( care of Jason Vale ) for the weekend. These would help replenish the bodies good sstuff post race. I also packed Oats, Blueberries, Banana Gluten Free nutty bread, free range eggs, Chia seed, Flax seed, I’m sure there’s more but I forget. 6:30pm we set from South Cheshire for the 2 or so hour drive to Yorkshire and the Howarth YHA.

After a nice drive with through thick fog, and a bizzare route choice by the sat nav we arrived at the Hostel. A big house overlooking Howarth, we were allocated a very large room for the princely sum of £19 for 2, this persuaded us to book an extra night for Saturday so to save the long drive home with sore legs.

After an early wake up alarm call at 6am , we headed to the kitchen for breakfast and put the final touches to getting ready. I suffer from a condition I’ve called ‘pointy toe syndrome’, which kills my socks with my big toe wearing the sock after only short races. So I wrap my big toe in a strip plaster and Zinc oxide tape, I also had to strap up a blister on my heal with Zinc oxide tape.

Loo Q

We drove the short distance to the registration at 7:45am, picked up our number and soaked up the pre-race atmosphere. The Loo queues were huge, pre-race nerves i think!!! We headed to the high street for the 8am start outside the Fleece pub with 500 other runners. Then we were off..

Howarth Hobble

The course is very runable, but still, I’d plotted the route on printed out mas from OS getamap, highlighted the route on the maps. We headed up towards Top Withens of Wuthering Heights fame, passed the derelict building in thick mist, wind rain and snow. Following other runners, we manged a steady pace. Under foot was a mixture of re-claimed flaggs from mills of the past, track and muddy paths across streams and styles.

After 8 ish miles we hit the first Control (check) point Widdop Reservoir. It was a nice sight in the rain and cold day. We grabbed a handful of biscuits, topped up our 1/2 litre water bottle, wished the marshals well and headed off across the dam wall.

A few runners around today

Following the pennine way for a while we focused on the running, placing one foot in front of the other. I wasn’t very sociable during this particular race, I wanted to achieve a target time I’d secretly set before the start of 7:30 ( 1hr 30 minutes faster than my first and only to this point, 32 mile race), so i was ‘in the zone’.

The next control point was on a top of ‘Long Causeway’, the marshals here must have been cold, with no shelter and horizontal easterly wind, rain and snow. A couple of biscuits and off we trotted, past very active wind turbines on Cole Clough, for a short 1 mile road section.

Trail running around the Howarth Hobble

We headed off road again and through a very, very muddy path behind Stiperden House farm, then on to the Stoney Lane control point. The control was busy, providing Donuts, Hot Cross buns, hot water, biscuits and ‘Hot Dogs!’. I resisted the hot dogs, but couldn’t resist the Donuts :). Clare had been challenged for the first section of the race with an unusual lack of energy. After taking on board a hot cross bun, the engine was stoked and it wasn’t long before she was back to her normal mountain goat fitness.

With a short navigation test, we revisted the map and with a ‘it this way’ shout from fellow runners we headed down to Todmorden. Crossing a busy main street, a very steep, but short climb towards the control point at Mankinholes. Now this control point had a bottle of whiskey, next to water and biscuits! We resisted this and opted for a few biscuits and walked for the next 1/2 mile eating scones, Oh I forgot to mention these 🙂 Then a short run then a steep climb towards a misty top of ‘Stoodley Pike‘ with its monument hidden in the mist. A fast muddy downhill run followed ( this was fun) to Hebden Bridge.

Stoodley Pike

The next control point involved a steep work/run to the lovely cobbled village of Heptonstall, then down (again) to the last but one control point at Horse Bridge. The pack we were running with divided at this point and along with another runner, me and Clare headed off first. We were around mile 22-24 and the wall was hit!! I took on my first and only Gel, which helped and restored my energy, carrying on along the old pack horse route passed Hollins hall and below Shackleton Moor to the last checkpoint at ‘Top O’t Stairs. We spent a little too long here and we set of up the short sharp tarmac section of the road to Lane End, picking up the track again.

I suffer from a touch of Raynauds syndrome, which is a reduction in circulation to the fingers. With this in mind I try and buy the best, waterproof cloves, so i bought a pair of Seal skin gloves prior to an aborted attempt on the Tour du Helevellyn ( another story ). For whatever reason , and only appears to be me, these gloves fill up with water, which they did at mile 10. I just put a pair of liner gloves on. Now at mile 28(ish) the feeling my fingers had gone. I shouted to Clare that she’d have to help me (like a baby) put a dry pair of mitts on. This was amusing as Clare had to unzip my bag, I managed to take my wet gloves off with my teeth and Clare shoe horned on my 15 year old mitts under my water proof cuffs and we were off with drying and warmer hands.

After a couple of miles we dropped out of the clag and things got a little warmer. We passed other runners by the small reservoir below Windle House farm. At this point i tried to un-zip my water proof as things were starting to heat up and I was getting little claustrophobic in my zipped up hood. This was even more amusing as I couldn’t grab the zip in my mitts and wasn’t prepared to stop or even walk to take my gloves off. Panic started to set in, like when somebody used to sit on you when you were at school ( this is the main reason I didn’t play Rugby 🙂 ) the zip un-zipped..

We were now only a few miles away, possible 2, or may be less from the finish and it was at this point I took the first look at my Garmin in the whole race and was amazed that it showed 6:58 – I thought to myself ‘we can do this’!!!

We picked up the pace with tired, but strong legs and ran with determination to get within my target time. Running over Pennistone Hill, we had the last cold shower of snow of the race and it was down hill. Before I knew it we were back in the centre of Howarth popping out from behind the church. Down some slippy steps to the school and the finish line. The Marshall’s took our number and I’d already taken my gloves off to stop my Garmin…..

7:14 – we’d done it…!!!! 33 Miles – 4400ft

Now it was here we could feel good and proud, replace my wet and cold base layer. Have a nice home made Veggie stew, cup of Tea and some home made Cakes ( all donations going to the school).

Howarth Hobble Done

A damn hard run

Darren What do we get up to! darren hunt, everest, kilimanjaro, marathon, Running

Sunday 6th January 2103 saw 8 Mow Cop runners line up on the start line of the Trigs race. An 16 mile race across the expanses of Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. Now I’ve spent many an hour over here on my mountain bike and as a young army cadet sergeant but never ran it, but knew it was going to be tough.

The race got under way just after 11am, with around 130 runners from different clubs scrambling for a good running line. As we ran further runners went there own way as this was a navigation course, and you’re under you own devices, map and compass at the ready. The aim is to get to 4 Trig points in the quickest time possible! Our navigation choice was to stay low level along sherwood valley until the climb towards the first trig point, which is close the old rifle range. The day started to warm up ( or was it me) as we moved quickly up the first climb, aptly named bugger hill ( for obvious reasons) by my brother who bikes over here a lot than I do. It was warming so much that I removed my Rab long sleeved top and just wore my vest. My legs and lungs were on fire at the top and a run turned into slow jog. We hit the first Trig point .

With great encouragement from the marshal’s from Mercia Fell running club and my brother, Paul, who was following us on his mountain bike we headed of towards on the next very long leg to the railway crossing and the climb to Trig No2. We started running with a group of around 5-6 other runners, including a Mercia runner who we followed ( easier than Navigating yourself ) . We were all pretty evenly matched and kept changing position, then a great down hill section approached and love these, so off I shot. We had 2 mins to take on some water and cross the railway line and busy main road.

We then set off along a forest fire track which was ok until an incline were I just lose my legs. We lost the other group, crossed the road and headed up towards Trig No2 ( i said it was a long way )… We passed other runners on the return leg from the Trig point heading in the opposite direction, we saw 2 of our club mates Damo and Andrew, they said only 10 mins to go, but it was up hill and that was it. Now I’m OK walking up the hills and mountains as a Mountain Guide and instructor, but running is an art I’m destined to crack in 2013. We felt we were moving more and more down the field with less and less runners behind us – Damn. Well this was only ever was going to be a Training run..wasn’t it?

We hit Trig No2 and headed to Trig No3. Down a muddy path until we hit the main forest trail, then up again – yes you got it I walked, albeit quickly (ish). Now we are at mile 11 and we run along a main road to the next trig, dibbed in and took a marked short cut. During the next 20 mins or so was a bit of a blur ( well that was my excuse anyway ). We took , sorry I took a wrong turn and ended up 25 mins behind and for good measure added an extra 2 mile. Still – a great navigator can and has the ability to relocate 🙂 – this area of the chase is a little like the Bermuda triangle as another runner from Macclesfield harriers had the same thing happen to him too…

Still onward and upwards! and it should have been downwards if we’d taken the right path, still never mind these things are a test.. We hit the right track and headed down very quickly, feeling the odd twinge on my right calf. Passing mountain bikers and families we hit the Railway crossing and took on more water.

Then we headed on towards No4 Trig, our final one at Glacier Stone, which i think is that highest place on the chase. But before long we hit the nice down hill from earlier, but this time it was up! Now at this stage I’d had an energy gel and healthy cereal bar and was starting to flag – mile 14. The track leveled out and we ran with 2 guys from Nottingham. My brother was with us too, as he’d met us coming down the previous track, it was a slow run as this was the furthest I’d run since July when we completed a 33mile ultra. Having to dig deep and keep focused, even though you could hear the clock ticking and the sound just gets louder.

We soon passed day trippers and families out for a leisurely afternoon and headed back to the shrub land. Crossing the valley we climbed up aiming towards Trig N04. We ran up a path , then across to what I thought was contouring – Wrong. Now at this time we were about 4-5 mins in front of the guys from Nottingham having taken them on the down hill and not stopping on the up’s. This little oversight meant they were now 5 mins in front – Damn. Still we scrambled our way across the heath and shrub, dropping my left foot into a hole and hitting the floor trying not to twist it we arrived on the correct path.

10 mins or was it 30 mins passed ( well it felt like 30 ) we made it to the final Trig point. Yipee. We then carried on towards Milford and Home. The downhill towards the old railway sidings were full of families, dogs and push chairs, but we ran down as fast as we could only to see the 2 guys from Nottingham about 2- mins in front. Paul who met us again at the top by trig No4 said you can get them…

Now I have No idea where it came from, but I gathered speed, then more speed, my legs were moving fast, running straight through the mud and puddles – now when running it hurts, and when it does you often put your mind some place else! Sometimes to hide the pain, sometimes to find the motivation – now don’t laugh – I imagined I was in the 10k Tri-athleon race with the Brownlee brothers ( a far cry I know, but it worked for me 🙂 ). I took the guys just as we started to climb 300 meters from home, all i could hear was my long suffering girlfriend Clare saying ‘ why did’n’t he run this fast way back there?’ I noticed somebody else running behind me, I turned hoping to see Clare as I would let her finish first, but it wasn’t, it was one of the guys from Nottingham – so in Mow Farrah style I kicked in to a sprint finish .

It was damn hard we did 18.5 mile in little less that 3:29 – and we were 4th from last! Not the best time in the world ( winner did 1:43) but a damn good training run over 1800 feet of ascent.

Hers to the next one.

Have fun and go try something different

Darren

Running

A weekend with the Bronte Sisters

A damn hard run