Yorkshireman off road marathon, 12th September 21. 26.41 miles, 2nd event 2021. 958 m of ascent. 5 hours 39 mins 23 seconds. 10th team of 22nd, 5th mixed pair of 13. Joint 109th of 182.
Andy’s calf was sore after parkrun the day before but he used the foam roller and I kept him moving most of the Saturday, he also wore compression socks on the day and we were delighted that he manged to run with just his usual calf stiffness! He’d seen Richard the physio on the Wednesday before and I managed to book him in to see Andy Kirk for a massage 2 days post run so hopefully he’ll be ok.
My race had been doubtful as I got one of those lovely boils in my right armpit and felt dreadful Tuesday to Thursday, the pain was incredible! I was given a high dose antibiotcs, flucloxacillin 1gm QDS, the doctor on Tuesday was hoping I’d not need to be operated on. Luckily it burst overnight into Friday morning and with Katie’s district nurses skills the puss was squeezed out and inodine mepilex dressing applied. I felt so much better on Friday so Saturday I knew I’d be fine.
I was meant to be a pair with Rachael Newton but ankle injuries meant Andy and I teamed up. A warm, muggy day. We started by the fleece and it was a long slow climb up to the Moors. We took it easy on the climbs but it was soon apparent that Andy was going to be fine. Good to see people like Rose George, Neil Wallace was on the course taking photos. Darren Barham and Richard Allen were also running as a team but soon disappeared.
A great day out a few climbs initially then the long flat section towards the wind turbines. This kept our speed at 5 miles an hour but then the hills rolled gently and we knew we’d slow down a bit. The ground under foot is mostly runnable and little tarmac making it a great run route. Although we didn’t have totally blue skies we had great views of the Howarth area. The day was muggy with little breeze.
We’d recced the course a couple of times, the first 2 visits we’d walked half and then the other half, parking the car in Denholm so I just had to make sure I wasn’t looking for the turn off back to the car, plus the 2nd time we took a short cut as the day turned out to be longer than expected so the route wasn’t the race route towards the end just to confuse me!! We did the full route 4 weeks before the race, taking 6 hours 13 although moving time was 5 hours 52. I did the race 11 years ago in 5 hours and 8 so really hoped to be close that. The race is under FRA rules so no GPS allowed, I kept the map in hand and knew we should be ok except for a few turns possibly. There were race marker stickers on some gates and stiles but not all. I was amazed at one point when Andy realised we needed to turn left through a gate and called back the runners who went on in front of us!
The checkpoints were stocked with jelly babies, bananas and orange slices, sometimes with chocolate bars or biscuits and at one place cups of tea, I only remember water and biscuits last time, I struggled with the lack of food back then!
We did really well, it felt like loads of people overtook us near the start but then we slowly pulled back past them. Especially after the last checkpoint, where we were surprised by how many people we saw.
Rachael had Bill and Carrie with her, they were there at the start and then we saw them at checkpoint one, they would see the half marathoners that started an hour after us. I’s just said to Andy they’d be watching the halfs finish when we heard cowbells just before the viaduct that we cross, so nice t get one of Rachael’s chocolate cookies. The next time we saw them they were at the pub at the bottom of the final hill, Andy sped up the hill past them as I struggled to get any speed. A great finish in 5 hours 39, my WAVA (age related score) was 46.87%, it was 45.58% 11 years ago so I was faster than expected, delighted!!
There was pizza at the finish so I was extra pleased. Bill, having had a couple of pints, was keen to talk And into running it as a team next year! Home to a hot bath as always!!
Making lifes adventures - Sarah Norman 