Helmsley Habit 2016

The Helmsley Habit was organised by Simon 

and Andy as a Ripon Runner's social run. It was a mixed ability run and 23 of us turned up on a dreary morning in Helmsley, at least it wasn't foggy as it had been coming over the top of Sutton Bank, it was just mizzerly. I arrived just in time, paid to park and ran to meet the others. I realised Id left my phone on the car seat in my haste, so ran back to get it missing the group photo, but thankfully not delaying the run.

We set off along the Cleveland Way, but we're not on it long before a split in the tracks and a regroup.

We now left the Cleveland Way and stayed on the main track until we were directed left, left and left again, this time we went straight up to a road and crossed it. Around a field to another road.

Mind the snowdrops

We headed along the lane towards Reivaux Abbey, and turned down through the woods.

After regrouping at the bottom of the steep muddy track, we crossed the road, away from the Abbey. A little further up the track we had a lovely clear view of it along the valley.

So we stopped a while to admire it.

More mud and woods and a couple of inclines later, we emerged onto a road, we ran along the road a short while.

We stopped again by a cottage,  and met Paul, Matt and Doug out recce ing the Hardmoors 110/55 route, so we chatted a while.

A slight incline lead us back onto the Cleveland Way

Through a wood and dejavu, hmm! Had we been here before?

We left the Cleveland Way again and headed towards Duncombe Park on a concrete track.

You could see buildings through the trees

We ran around the outside of the park, through fresh cut logs, towards a river. Where it seems Simon likes to rest a while.

We ran to the left of the river

Steps and mud, mud and grassed, the miles passed by as the Abbey/Castle at Helmley came into view.

Quite an impressive ruin

Back into the lovely historic town

To the cars. Run over. And a lovely run it was too.

A social run, for all abilities in a nice new location. Thank you Simon and Andy for organising it. And thank you Ripon Runners for a great morning out.

LDWA Rombald's Stride

The Long Distance Walkers Association put on several challenge events a year and Rombald's Stride is one of them, it is billed as 23 miles but was slightly shorter. The forcast was for wet and windy so we packed waterproof jackets. We marked our map and carried the route description as these events are not signed. We got up early and got the dog walked before heading to Guisely when we met friends, Martin, Richard, Jeff and Helen, we are all members of NYPTri. We registered at St Oswalds School and collected our number tags, clip card and were informed of a route change and given a map of that section. I tied my clip card and number tag to my running vest. At 08:50 we all walked over to the start. It was a mass start and quite busy, we couldn't hear the race briefing. A man rang a bell and we were off, runners and walkers together, Billy and I ran together, Martin and Richard ran together and Jeff and Helen ran together, we didn't get far before we bottle necked at a railway bridge. This looked familiar, as we turned and crossed a broken wall, I realised that it was part of The Dragons' HDSRL (Harrogate and District Summer Running League) route, but I gad never run it in conditions like these, it was wet sloppy mud and grass making the descent amongst so many very tricky indeed. On man was dressed as a King. There was a cry of "The King is down, God save the King" I looked back to see the man dressed as a King regaining his feet. At the bottom of the hill it was back to new ground and the first climb of the day, up through the woods then down to the water treatment works, we then ran down a lane, there were caravans scattered in a field and across the lane the trees that flanked the river were festooned with rubbish, like Stig of the Dump's Christmas trees. We entered a field and there were two young men with buckets, we had to give them our number tags. That took ages as I had tied mine on good and proper, thinking I needed to hand it in at the end. 

We crossed the road and climbed towards a chapel. The pic is a bit blurred as I took it when I was moving 

It was muddy, mud was going to be the order of the day  

There was a mix of mud and paved for the next section, the thing in common was it was wet, everything and everyone was wet. 

Checkpoints were spaced out over the course clipping our cards and feeding us cake, biscuits and sweets, and giving us drinks. 

We steadily passed walkers, there were old, young and whole families walking and running.

The heaths and moors were tough going, slippy mud and grassy hillocks, it was misty and runners ahead soon disappeared in the distance. On section had gallops for horses and the surface was aweful to run on, it was like shredded material, the horses were lovely in the mist

We steadily progressed along the route. A section of slabs allowing us to run but it was narrow and we struggled to pass people, but we did. All too soon we were back on moorland, Heather trails deep with water and mud, making it difficult to look around as it was tricky going. We passed a stone circle and clambered through rocks, uphill and down dale. There was a point where we were above the mist and there was a glimpse of the scenery we were missing.

Billy led me onwards, I ran sections I would normally walk. There were not many runners around us now, but lots of tracks across Ilkley Moor

ON ILKLEY MOOR BAHT 'AT (Traditional English - Yorkshire) 

 Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee, 

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!

 Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee? 

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?! 

On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?! 

I ran to the tune in my head, when I saw the checkpoint at Ilkley Bottom I expected a brass band, but there was none. After the check point we were running along a track and the runner in front turned off it. We followed, Billy did a Bambi impression as he slipped in the mud on the steep hill, I saw people to the right, but we followed the man to the bottom of the hill and as we turned right to cross a stream we saw other runners and walkers still on the lane moving up to the right. We had gone wrong, the other runner had disappeared in the distance and we set off up a steep muddy bank to meet the lane, we were now behind people we had passed earlier, up up up we climbed. I saw some people on top of a cliff, "Do we go uP there! I asked two ladies near me, "No, you turn before you get there" we came to the junction, Billy called to a man going up the steps to the top, the man said we did need to do the steps, we could pick our own route bug he had done the event the last 5 years and always went this way. So we followed him. It was a long tough climb and we struggled to keep the man in sight, finally we came down a steep bank and crossed a stream there were runners all directions but we followed the man in the yellow jacket and black rucksack who had done the event many times, Billy ran ahead to keep him in sight, he was like Willow the Wisp, I wondered if he was leading us to our doom, but there was a clip point, so we must be right and finally after the moor, a full checkpoint with cake and biscuits, yellow coat black pack was there. 

We set off before him following a man in an orange top, we crossed some slippy muddy fields and along a lane, my lace kept coming undone and orange shirt would disappear, soon another couple caught up with us and kept us right and we gradually caught up with orange shirt and his partner, we all stayed together a while, across more muddy fields and out onto a road, we got to run downhill for a while on a reasonable surface, that was nice, over 20 miles now, not far to go.

We crossed the road into a wood The Chevin it said on the sign. "Is this the last climb" Billy asked a lady by the gate, "yes but it's a big one" the lady's friend caught up and the 6 of us set off up, the path was not a path, it was a wide swathe of grass and mud. I was at the back, I couldn't keep up, then the others stopped, it was a self clip point. Time to catch my breath I hoped it was the top, I don't think it was even half way, my legs were burning and every now and again I'd slip, I struggled onwards. There was a photographer at the top and another check point, the others were leaving so we clipped and followed them onto a road, ah Tarmac it was lovely, but not for long. More mud down a lane, more road and we were back in Guisely and the pace opened up, I had nothing left though, but there it was, the school, the finish.

22.36 miles in 5:15:26, not bad considering the conditions.

Shoes Brooks Cascadia

Pack Salomon race vest 

Jacket Montane mountain jacket

2XU leggings

ToeToe socks.

And now to recovery. I changed into long sleeved and long legged compression, and compression socks.

When I got home I walked the dog.

After my shower and warm bath I put on compression shorts and vest.

I set off with a popped blister on my big toe, I had covered it with a blister plaster, that had come off, I have cleaned and dressed it. I also have an issue with my left ankle and my foot can flip on uneven ground. I lost count of how many times it happened today. If is now elevated and covered in DeepRelief cream.

And I have worked hard to replace the 2000+ calories burned off.

Hardmoors Night Race 09/01/16

I had fancied the Hardmoors training weekend this weekend, but the time taken up and the cost had me umming ans ahing, so when I saw you could do the race without doing the weekend for £6 my mind was made up. I must admit I was nervous,but I have entered the Hardmoors 55 in March and it's likely that I will have to run for quite a while in the dark. 

Fortunately the night race course was part of a route that I recced with a group of other runners a couple of weeks ago, so I had an idea of what lay ahead in the 6.8 mile race.   

Clay Bank - Wainstones - Cold Moor - Cringle Moor - Lord Stones - Cringle Moor - Cold Moor - Wainstones - Clay Bank

...

The race started a Clay Bank car park, 2 miles south of Great Broughton.

 I ran it with my husband Billy We arrived in rain as the forecast had said, the carpark was quite full so the weather was not putting anyone off. We got out of the car to go register at a gazebo a little way down the road, it was windy and cold as well as raining. We registered and went to wait in the car. A short while leather we walked back to the gazebo for race briefing. If wax hard to hear in the rain, but basically the rout would have some glow sticks as markers and marshals, run to Lordstones give your number, run back. 5-4-3-2-1 and we were off, up a slightly different route to the one we had run a couple of weeks ago, thus was a muddy track up through some woods where the mud was often at least ankle deep and was littered in fallen fir branches. At the top a marshal sent us through a gate onto the paved Cleveland Way. From here as we turned towards the hill called Wainstones, all you could see were torches in a long line winding their way up the hillside, wish I could have got a pic. This was a tough climb and you could only go as fast as the person ahead until the path levelled a bit. The rain hammered down and now the wind was picking up from the left, not nice as the drops were on the right. Billy had got ahead on the climb but waited for me, we ran through the rocks where the person ahead went down a biggish drop," I don't remember this" I said, we looked around and there was a better way down. It was tough going now as we were descending on wet rocky uneven steps, I was slow at this. It was a relief to get down onto a grassy muddy section, down then across a really muddy wet bit and back onto paving as the next incline up to started. This hill felt steeper to get up, the runners were now strung out and even though I couldn't keep up with Billy I was now passing others. It was foggy up here so that reduced my vision a bit, as soon we were heading back down again, out of the fog but the wind was increasing. The views were stunning though, a string of head torches ahead and the lights of civilisation to the right, beautiful but a shocking glimpse of light pollution. We worked our way off the hill then a run down the grass, through a gate and more mud as we headed for the third hill. We had just set off up as the leader ran down past me, amazing, you would not think it was dark windy and wet the way he ran. A little time later the second person. From then on periodically there were runners running towards us, I stood aside to let them past. The descent felt long this time but we were soon running through the mud, through Lordstones campsite. It was going ok, there were lots of people ahead, but I'm sure we were not too near the back either.

3 down, 3 to go

After giving our numbers we turned to run back, "Oh my goodness" the wind was so much stronger this way, coming from the right and ahead it was a real battle at times on the way back, the rain was stinging and felt like hail. 

I struggled in the gusts, I find it difficult to get a breath with my asthma in a head wind, it was like it was trying to prevent us getting back. Billy went ahead for a bit, I put my head down, literally, and slogged it out, catching people up an he way up and across the tops but losing places to them on the way down. For a while I could see Billy ahead but then lost sight of him, after a while, I worried that he had gone wrong, there was no sign of him. At the bottom of the fifth climb he waited, phew that was a relief, we took the last climb back up Wainstones together. On the top the wind was scary it was blowing so hard, but we were nearly there, on the descent we were passed by the people we had passed on the climb and on the top, but we were soon down, back at the marshal and back down the muddy track to the gazebo to let them know we were back and have a few sweets before wandering back to the car to get out of our soaking clothes and have hot chocolate before driving home.

The route was actually 7.6 miles with 3077 ft of ascent and the weather was bleaker on the tops than the Stokesly forcast 

Would I do it again? YES, but I'd be hoping for better weather.

Thanks to the marshals standing out in that dreadful weather for hours.

The equipment I used was 

Montane Minimus Smock. Worked well, should have put the hood up though.

Petal Nao Headtorch, worked great, great spread of light kept its power only used on bar in 2/12 hours

Salomon S lab 12 vest, new, first wear, didn't know I had it on, lightweight and comfortable.

Brooks Cascadia Shoes. New, only worn for a couple of miles in advance. Great grip in mud and on the wet grass, struggled on wet slippy rocks, but improved as the run went on. Lightweight and comfortable.