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Why run
with Knavesmire? |
This race was (I am led to believe) one of the tougher of the NYM races at around 7.5 miles with 1350’ taking in Roseberry Topping. For the hardened fell runners this would have been a breeze although the boys were all suffering slightly after the tough slog of Borrowdale at the weekend. They were led home by Dave Eiser in 4th place, followed by Barry Atkinson (2nd in his category) and Giles Hawking not far behind. The women put in a strong performance despite myself and Andrea taking a bit of a detour and ending up scrambling through bramble bushes to get back to the path. Despite this costing us a number of places (and rather a lot of blood!!) we still managed to take the team prize ahead of New Marske and NYM. Andrea was the first home (5th female overall) , closely followed by myself and Janet (1st in her category).
It was thus with some trepidation that
four Knavesmire Harriers arrived at Rosthwaite to tackle the race – Barry
Atkinson, Giles Hawking, Caroline Warrington and myself. Having walked the race
route a few weeks earlier, me Giles and Barry were acutely aware of the
challenge we faced – not only in terms of the climbing (6500 feet in total), but
more particularly in the nature of the terrain. The Borrowdale doesn’t just
follow well trodden paths, but slogs through boggy fell, traverses
boulder-strewn slopes, and descends steep mountains over slippery grass and
sharp rocks. The low cloud and mist that shrouded the upper slopes of the
Borrowdale valley as we arrived added to our nevousness – we now had the added
challenge of navigation, and the distinct possibility of getting lost if we ever
lost sight of the runners in front.
We registered in a sodden marquee in a muddy field in the centre of the village. It was nice to see several friendly faces who had turned out to support – Janet Cordingley, Dick Hunter, Joy Allen and Alayne Finlay. After a quick coffee it was suddenly just five minutes to the start. The start itself was a shambles. I made an elementary mistake when I went to what I thought was the front of the field. Too late I realised that the race was actually going to leave the village in the opposite direction to that which I had assumed and then double back on itself – so I was actually at the back. In the short time before the start I managed to squeeze towards the right end of the field, but then we were off and I was behind crowds of runners in front. In all the melee, the race organisers had announced at the last minute that the race would not go up Scafell Pike. This decision had been made at the instruction of Mountain Rescue, who had declared conditions on top of Scafell to be ‘horrendous’. 200m after the start, the race field was funnelled into a narrow lane and came to an almost complete standstill. Then, as the lane widened and the bottleneck cleared, we got moving again. As we rounded a corner I could see the race stretched out in front around the foot of the hill. I was gutted about how far back I was already, and couldn’t see how I was going to overtake people on the narrow track. Just then I was myself overtaken by Joe Blackett of Dark Peak. Joe runs a lot of the North York moors races and is renowned for beginning races slowly and moving through the field, so I decided to follow Joe. Joe was actually moving very quickly, as though we were in a 10k race! He weaved in and out of the runners in front, and I followed right behind. I couldn’t believe how many people we passed, and it was really great fun. Every now and then we’d get stuck behind a little group, then a small gap would open-up between runners, and we would accelerate through the gap – it felt a bit like being a rally driver (kind of).
From Bessyboot to the next checkpoint at
Esk Hause (distance of a few miles), the race followed various sheep trods. It
was heavy going – the ground was oozing water from the weeks of rain, and at
times the sheep trod would seemingly peter out, and the race would suddenly be
tramping over the tusocky grass of the open fell. Sometimes we found ourselves
running through thick bogs that sucked us down and made each step laboured.
Sometimes the race would split in two or more directions around a knoll or rocky
outcrop. A quick decision would be needed about which route to follow, then hope
that when the race came back together you had opted for the right route and had
gained rather than lost position in the overall field! By now it was raining quite hard, and the wind was coming straight into our faces, blowing the rain straight into the eyes. I was finding it hard to pick out the terrain underfoot and at one point, as the race descended a grassy knoll, I lost my footing and went somersaulting off the side of the track, down into a little gully. Finally we reached Esk Hause. Darren Hendley was there to shout support and offer water. Normally the race would have continued up at this point towards Scafell Pike, but because of conditions we were diverted down to Sty Head. Having run uphill solidly for over an hour, it was fantastic to be flying downhill. The going was not too technical, but the moisture on the rocks meant we had to be a bit careful about where to place feet. At one point the runner in front slipped and crashed into a crumpled heap, swearing profusely. I stopped to see he was okay and although he didn’t look it he said he was (and he later caught me going down Great Gable so I guess he must have been). All too quickly the downhill was over and we began the slog up Great Gable. I was feeling good here and went past a couple of groups of runners. By the summit however we were in thick clag again. Having confidently passed runners on the way up, I realised I was now alone. I began heading off the summit in what I thought was the right direction, but panicked and decided I should get my compass out and make sure I was on the right bearing. By the time I’d done this however I’d been caught by the runners I’d past on the way up, so I began the descent in the group. The descent of Great Gable was treacherous – no real path as such, just loose piles of sharp, slippery boulders. And it’s steep. The only way to get down safely was to use hands as support while swinging from rock to rock – I felt like a monkey swinging through trees (kind of). Occasionally there would be the sound of sliding rocks accompanied by loud cursing. Looking round at these points normally revealed a fellow runner bouncing off scree in a painful looking style.
The descent to Honister Pass was a bit slippy but not too bad, although I did take it a bit too gingerly and was caught by runners I had passed earlier. We were then into the final big ascent of Dale Head. I knew this uphill would be my last chance to improve my position, and as I still felt quite good, I really dug in. It was a long grind but I had overtaken quite a few runners by the summit. Then it was all downhill to the finish. The first part of the descent from Dale
Head was a ‘reet boogger’ (as I heard someone say at the finish). The
slope was really steep and the grass was very slippery, but the hill was also
strewn with nasty looking rocks which meant that any fall would be painful. To
make things worse, my legs had now begun to cramp up, and I was really going
slowly. Every now and then I slipped and my legs crumpled up beneath me. I could sense a pack of runners (the ones I had overtaken on the way up
Dale Head) closing in on me, and I looked round briefly to see runners taking
all sorts of routes off the top, like a swarm. Yet again there were occasional
cries of anguish as runners lost their footing and impaled themselves onto
boulders, but by now the race had become a survival test and the sounds spurred
me on to run faster. The angle of descent eased off a bit and I started to run properly again. A runner 50 yards in front suddenly disappeared up to his waist in bog, I took note and detoured around. Then it was into the final descent through the quarry, over the river and back into Rosthwaite. I dug in and, to my surprise, only lost one place on the final descent from Dale Head to finish 19th overall in about 2hrs48. Knavesmire runners had a good day out. Barry felt strong and finished in 3:20, Giles was like a beast on the uphills and finished 3:36, and Caroline did fantastically to finish in 4:11 in only her second ever fell race (and having only decided to race on the morning itself, and having been out in town the night before). It was certainly a great day and even the rain had stopped by mid morning. I for one will definitely be back next year (hopefully to be able to run the full course, weather permitting), and Janet has already said she will do it! Well done to those who ran and thanks to those who gave support – Darren, Janet, Dick and Joy.
Ingleborough Fell Race - 21st July 2007 Aislinn did well in her first fell race, finishing 4th lady. Jonny Kendall also had a great run, finishing in 24th place in his first race for Knavesmire. Barry Atkinson and Dave Eiser were 36th and 8th respectively.
Giles Hawking, Barry Atkinson, Gaz Huggan and Caroline Warrington
ran the
Pen y
Ghent race in the Dales, with Caroline having a superb run to finish 3rd
lady against competitors more familiar with the tough terrain. Barry beat
Giles to 29 th place in the mens by a hairs breadth after duelling for position
for the duration of the race, Giles overhauled Baz on the way upto the summit of
Pen y Ghent (1650ft) and had a healthy lead over his wizened adversary
coming off the top, despite running as fast as he dare on the descent , a number
of thankfully painless tumbles on the way down eventually handed the lead back to the less fall prone Barry.
Garry who has only recently been reintroduced to his trainers did
commendably well to complete the challenging course in good time. The race got off to a sedate start, mainly because nobody seemed to know the way around the first 1k loop to the bottom of the first climb. Barry entertained the whole field by executing a spectacular barrel roll which gained him several places. The race proper started on the climb up to Surprise View which soon split the field. There then followed three more climbs and four exhilarating descents before the final hands-and-knees clamber up through waist deep heather to the finish line. Barry Atkinson won the V45 Category, and the team was Dave Eiser (3rd), Richard Lowson (6th), Barry (7th) and Giles (not far behind). The rest of the NYM summer series are on Tuesday evenings, see
www.nym.ac for
details. Conditions were more or less ideal, with enough sun to get a tan (or burnt) and a cooling breeze on the tops. The race was run by British champion Rob Jebb. For Knavesmire, Dave Eiser was 38th in 3:33, while Barry Atkinson came in 163rd in 4:03 despite going “backwards” up Whernside. Excellent support was provided by Gary Huggan, Darren Hendley and Richard Lowson. Thanks to Gary for the photos below.
The race was the final in the North York Moors winter series. Barry Atkinson
was the clear winner of the V45 series, completing 9 races, and finishing first
in his category in 5 of them. Janet Cordingley also won the women's V45 series,
completing 7 races of which she was category winner in 3. At Clay Bank East (6m, 1000’) in mid-January, only Steve Cook and Janet Cordingly were flying the flag for the Mire. Steve came in 33rd with Janet in 54th, first FV45. At the Castleton-Danby race in early Feb (8m, 1100’), Dave Eiser was 4th while Barry was 8th. After 7 races in the North York Moors winter series, Barry is now leading the V45 category and is the odds on favourite for the title. Illness and Kwik-Save limited the Mire's turnout at the Ilkley Moor fell race on Feb 25th to just two. Dave came in 15th with an under-par Barry in 50th out of 283. It was a "proper" fell running course with steep climbs, rocky descents, plenty of mud and good views. We will definitely be back next year. Click here for more Race Reports |
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Suddenly
we went through a gate and the race was going uphill on a narrow sheep trod.
Torrents of water were gushing down the hillside, and in places the path was
more like a stream. Joe was still motoring past other runners, and I was
desperately trying to stay with him. Because the sheep trod was narrow, the only
way we could overtake was by going off the path ourselves – and this meant
darting over boulders, splashing through streams and cutting through ferns and
bracken at the side of the path. Eventually we swung off the path and headed
directly up towards the summit of Bessyboot, the first checkpoint. There was no
real path here and it was properly steep, hands on knees stuff – the sort of
terrain I really like, and I passed a few more runners before Bessyboot itself.
By this point I recognised some of the other runners around me and was happy
with my position in the field. I settled back into a more sensible race pace and
watched Joe disappear into the distance.
Having
descended to ‘windy gap’, the col between Great Gable and Green Gable, the race
split two ways. Some were running straight up Green Gable, while others were
contouring around. I went for the contour route, but this turned out to be a
mistake as we were passed by all the runners who went for the more direct up and
over route. Then, as we skirted round Grey Knotts, Joy, Dick and Janet were
there shouting encouragement which spurred me on. 
English and British
Championship race there was a strong field, with the race won by Ian
Holmes. Pictures show Steve Cook (right) on the first climb up Harter Fell, and
Dave Eiser on the final climb up to Caw (left).
