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—Kirkbymoorside 10k.
23rd Ed Dunn 41:11
111th Pete Downes 49:57
118th Mandy Clarke 50:23
355th Edwina Wilcox 1:09:25
407th Darren Leaf 1:23:07
—Melmerby 10k.
189th David Darton 51:18
320th Colin Lea 1:06:44
—Newcastle – Gateshead Half Marathon.
32nd Kate Thompson 1:27:59 4th Senior Woman
—Meandering Thoughts of Bilsdale Fell Race with the self proclaimed “Legend”, Dr “I Look Cool with a Buff On My Head”, Mr One Stride for Everyone Elses Two and the other Muppet.
by Ed Roberts.
Great start to the race where I almost accidentally ran over Bryan, but let’s keep that between us eh?
Then, out of the blue, the man, the myth, the (actual) legend that is Tom Ratcliffe turns up for a pre-race celebration of camaraderie before the start of the race at 11:00. Pleasantries done, nervous walking about as we have just been told that the race is 10 mile not 15! It’s great that it’s shorter, but I didn’t study that map, by study I really mean, I thought about asking Bryan to print one off but didn’t bother.
Race starts on a hill and we soon hear Tom’s voice cheering us on, great stuff. Some good running uphill, Bryan and I taking it steady with no super hero shenanigans as per our pre-race brief. Rob and Graham saunter off. Why in Dickens does Rob have such a long stride, the giraffes would have to fight him off for the best leaves on top of the tree, luckily, giraffes are NOT native to the Moors.
Top of the hill we see Dave Bannister, nice!
To paint a picture, it’s grey, yes it’s to be expected this close to Middlesbrough but this time, its low level clouds or fog or even mist to blame. I inform Bryan that it’s probably best we can’t see Middlesborugh, Byran retorts “harsh, but fair”.
A lovely descent for all the elevation we made and shouted out our bib numbers!
Very important note for the leggy giraffe lad, this area was his downfall with going the wrong way and missing the check point entirely and cut off times, sorry cant help but laugh.
Back and forth he went as he explained to me in the pub after, clocking up an additional mile or two compared to everyone else on a 800m stretch alone! Impressive!
Fair bit of climbing here but met a lovely lady at the top and took some saucy shots of Byran and I.
Let’s talk about bum shuffling, there was a water slide made up of peat bog that Alton Towers should consider for their theme park. Regardless, we went down it and that ended my ambitions of staying relatively clean and dry. Great fun with about 6 of us going down this at same time.
Met another really nice marshal who had accessorised the local area with some blue flags, truly delightful but not entirely sure of the purpose on the only well trodden path in the area.
A glorious bit of woodland with luscious greenery, plants with blue flowers and silver birch trees, so magical, I felt my love for Bryan intensify ten fold.
Some more decent climbs, some good and not so good corner cutting. Fell races welcome all corner cutters, unlike Parkrun, whose stance I feel is a bit archaic, all races have to be 5k and corner cutting is deeply frowned upon. I may write to my newly elected Mayor about this one.
Let’s talk about heather bashing and no, not the nice person in the office but the vegetation that makes up a decent amount of moorland (please fact check me on this, I am curious now I write this but it is late and I have had a beer or 3). Some top tier banter about poor “Heather” and also exclaiming how shit it is to run through heather, the vegetation if you’re confused. This is proper off-piste, no path, no route, no clue, no nothing, but it is down hill, bugger.
Climbing back to the top and we find a cheeky fella who wants to send us the wrong way, none of that business please.
Couple of miles later, guess who we find, yes that’s right, Graham Gill we are suddenly the 3 musketeers. Banter arises from the pits of the peaty bog around us. We talk shop about running and Byran promptly self claims himself as a legend, Graham asks quizzically, “are you a legend if it’s you saying it?”. I start to giggle whilst we run along the top of Cleveland Way in the fog or mist or low cloud but we know it’s away from Middlesbrough.
We reach Cock Howe but the marshal doesn’t have any tea for us at the top as she promised, rather cheeky if you ask me. I should mention that we did discuss that no one has seen “Tree Top Grazier Boy” for a little while.
Down to the finish line, the cheeky lad who wanted to go the wrong way earlier had been following our correct directions for a while and out sprinted all of us even with me shouting at Byran rather loudly to “pick up his legs”, whatever. Job done.
We are putting on our finest evening wear of tracky bottoms and hoodies, Graham shows me his soggy buff (oi oi) and says in all seriousness “I look cool wearing a buff, makes my hair spike up”. Inspirational words that I will cherish forever.
Back to Rob, we didn’t see him for about 30 minutes, presumed dead and worthy of sacrifice to the fell running gods. Seemingly, he had sinned so much by missing several checkpoints that the gods did not allow him entry into running heaven and spat him back out. We then buggered off to the pub for a pint and a parmo.
A quiet word about this race, its bloody tough, lots of elevation on challenging paths. Navigation skills are very much required, it isnt for the faint hearted but what a great laugh fell racing is.
Cheers.
52nd Bryan Drew 2:56:05
53rd Ed Roberts 2:56:11
54th Graham Gill 2:56:13
—York Area Parkrun PB’s.
-Millfield Parkrun.
Ed Roberts 26:59