Written by Jason Millward - http://www.sleepeatrun.co.uk

What are your running goals for 2016, the questionnaire I was filling in for Jayson Cavill – Running and Fitness Coach asked?

I put down just 2, finish the UTMB in the top 5% and get a top 3 place on the Hardmoors 110.

Like many I scored enough points in 2015 to enter the draw for the 2016 UTMB, but never expected to get a place.

When the draw was announced and I got a place I knew I had to get some serious training done and started looking for a coach who could transform me into someone who could slay the UTMB.

In the 9 weeks we’ve been working together up to the 110 his training routine has transformed my running and in the lead up to the event we talked about going for the win, which by the time the race came around I was confident enough in my ability to have a crack at. Push myself and see what we can learn for the UTMB we decided.

I woke my ever supportive wife Victoria at 5am, had a quick breakfast followed of porridge followed by Mountain Fuel Morning Fuel and we set of for Filey.

After a week of weather that can only be described as changeable we were met by clear blue skies although there was an icy chill in the air.

Stage 1: Filey to Ravenscar Village Hall

So at shortly after 8am on Saturday 30th April we lined up on Filey Brigg and I cranked up

in my headphones to try and replicate the UTMB experience and set the mood, then we were off on a 110 mile journey around the Cleveland Way in reverse to Helmsley.

I settled into a steady pace as we left Filey behind and headed towards Scarborough chatting with Ste Lord and Kirk Hardwick as Paul Nelson did his usual disappearing trick and shot off like a rocket in front.

As with a lot of ultra-runners I have a tendency to go too fast at the start and suffer later on so this time I was determined to take it slowly and ease myself into it, there was a long way to go after all.

After the freezing cold start the temperatures began to rise and I took the opportunity to take my base layer off as we climbed up through the woods at Cayton Bay.

After the bad weather we had been having all week that included snow, hail, strong wind, rain and pretty much everything else it looked like we might get lucky with the weather.

The sun was out and the trails were much drier than expected so it was shaping up to be a nice day out in the hills.

It wasn’t long before we dropped down onto Scarborough sea front where Victoria was waiting for me. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to see her in Scarborough so it was a pleasant surprise to see her there. I walked with her for a short while and then was off again.

Thankfully the stretch along the sea front was much quieter than the last time we ran through on the Hardmoors 60. I won’t say I enjoyed this 2-3 mile stretch as flat road sections is easily my least favourite type of running but the lack of crowds made it bearable this time around.

I was trailing the main pack by about 20 seconds or so at this point, usually I would have put my foot down to make up the gap but I just plodded along content in the knowledge there would be plenty of time to get past later.

I had already decided the coastal sections were just the warm up and the real race would begin when we turned inland towards the moors.

Coming into the first drop bag location at Ravenscar we passed Paul Nelson on the out and back who was flying at the front. I took had a quick bathroom stop and refilled my water bottle with Mountain Fuel, stuffed my pack with the stuff I had prepared and was off again.

Stage 2: Ravenscar to Kildale

Kirk and Ste were already gone by the time I left. I really need to work on getting in and out of aid stations quicker. According to Strava I lost 45 minutes over the day being stationary.

I set off along the coast making good time and feeling pretty confident. My legs felt good and I was running to plan. I felt really strong on the short steep climbs that dotted the route and I was starting to slowly catch Kirk and Paul who were now running together at the front of the race.

It wasn’t long before I saw Whitby Abbey come into view and was pleased that this time we were going down the steps rather than up them.

A small navigational error by Paul and Kirk allowed me to catch up with them at the bottom of the steps.

Getting through Whitby was the usual battle of fighting your way through the crowds of tourists slowly shuffling their way through the narrow streets. We’re in a race get out of the fucking way I was saying to myself in my head as we politely pushed through the crowds.

The fast pace at the start was starting to get to Paul and as we passed by the Whale Bone and out of Whitby Kirk and I pulled away and ran the remainder of the coastal section together.

Kirk was great company and we chatted about future plans and previous races. We had both ran the White Rose 100 last year where Kirk finished first male nearly 4 hours ahead of me so to be running with Kirk at this point made me realise that all the hard work and training was paying off.

We must have eased off a little too much because as we were leaving the Runswick Bay checkpoint another runner came in so we picked the pace up slightly in the hope of putting a bit of distance between us again.

I was still feeling good at this point despite the fact the coastal paths were starting to become really tedious with the same terrain for miles and I started to think of the moors section and how much I was looking forward to it.

It wasn’t long before we reached Skinningrove, well 50 miles and 8 hours since we started, and I knew it wasn’t long before we would reach Saltburn and the turn inland towards the moors. That was after we negotiated the pretty horrible beach section and climb leaving Skinningrove.

We must have taken our foot off the gas coming into Saltburn as Ste Lord caught us and left the checkpoint in front of us whilst we took a bit of time to sort ourselves out.

I left the aid station slightly ahead of Kirk and waited at the top of the steps while he had a quick change of shoes. Whilst I was waiting Kevin and Jamie came up the road section and we set off all running together through Valley Gardens towards Skelton and the Moors.

A stop to adjust shoes meant we weren’t running with Kevin and Jamie for long which left Kirk and I to start the climb up through Skelton together. We were both starting to feel the distance at this point and I was starting to have problems with my stomach which was churning away as we progressed.

We were finally broke free of Skelton and the last bit of population before Helmsley climbing the long slow drag up Airy Hill Lane wit Ste just ahead of us.

Dropping down the steps to Slapeworth I made sure I took extra care as the last time I went down them I nearly broke my neck after catching a toe on the uneven wooden steps and going flying. I didn’t want a repeat performance and end my race here.

On the section through Spa Wood we encountered the first bit of mud all day, not bad considering the weather we had the previous week and the fact we were 58 miles or so into the race. We decided to walk this section and save some energy.

Both Kirk and I were starting to struggle a bit at this point. I tried to get some food down me but couldn’t face eating anything. I knew I had to and it seems such a simple thing to do but after 60 or so miles I really struggle to eat anything. It’s my biggest weakness now and something I really have to sort out before the UTMB.

We progressed slowly up through Guisborough Woods towards Highcliff Nab and Roseberry Topping and that’s when all of a sudden I projectile vomited the contents all over the side of the track. I apologised profusely to Kirk but that’s one of the funny things about ultra-running, it’s almost acceptable to do this sort of thing in front of people you only met a few hours earlier.

It turned out that this was what I needed to sort myself out and it wasn’t long before Kirk was starting to drop back and I started to pull away. I could see that I was starting to catch Ste as well so I pushed on. It was my turn to feel good and as we approached Roseberry Topping I passed Ste who was suffering from cramp.

I stopped and checked he was ok and gave him an S!Cap salt tablet and then pushed on towards Roseberry Topping. I was now on my own in the lead and thoughts of winning started to creep into my head.

At this point I was running really well, felt good and my legs felt fine. It was like a switched had been flicked from being tired and knackered to being full of beans. I dealt with Roseberry Topping fairly quickly. I’m never sure why it gets its fearsome reputation as you can be up and down it in no time.

I passed Kirk on the way down and wished him well, then bounded off towards Kildale and the second drop bag looking forward to getting some goodies down me.

Stage 3: Kildale to Square Corner

Darren West from Harrogate Harriers was going to meet me here and run with me to Lordstones so as I dropped down into the village it was great to see his smiling face running towards me and we ran into Kildale Village Hall together.

I changed into my leggings and spent a few minutes sorting my feet out as I could feel the start of some blisters on the bottom of my feet. Compeed Blister Plasters are a life saver in these instances and I always make sure I carry some with me on races.

We left Kildale before anyone else arrived at the aid station. We jogged to the foot of the road climb up to Bloworth Crossing which I used as an opportunity to get some food on board.

I knew I wanted to take the initial climb easy and had planned on taking this easy and then getting back into my stride once we had cleared the steep climb and the path levelled out.

In the race I just couldn’t get going again and spent far too much time walking. In hindsight I think this is where I lost the race. If I had pushed myself more I could have opened up a big gap on the rest of the field.

We reached Bloworth Crossing and stopped to put our headlamps on as the last of light was fading. A few minutes later we were at the highest point on the course at Round Hill and I could see a head torch in the distance.

The long downhill section to Clay Bank was a lot harder than I remembered it and in my mind I knew it was not going to be long before we reached the hardest section of the course. The Three Sisters are a series of steep rocky climbs followed by technical downhill sections that are difficult enough in daylight never mind in the dark with 75 miles in my legs.

Climbing each of the 3 sisters took a lot out of me as I was trying to push hard and open up a bit of a gap on the head light behind me. I could see the tops silhouetted against the dark sky but it seemed to take ages to reach each one, the never seeming to get any closer.

The descents weren’t much easier and I took my time to make sure I didn’t slip and injure myself. I ran this section the week before and it took me 40 mins at what I thought was a leisurely pace but in the race it took me just over 1hour.

At Lordstones checkpoint we met JDan Simmons my next pacer. It was good to see Jayson here who had just arrived after being up in Scotland for The Hoka Highland Fling. It was good to see him and after a quick hand shake we were off again.

Another tough climb up to Carlton Bank was the first section we had to tackle but I knew after this we would have a good few miles of nice downhill that I could use to pick up the pace and get moving again. I was still in the lead at this point but knew the other runner wasn’t far behind.

I was really starting to feel the effects of around 80 miles and around 15 hours of running at this point and started to have a real bad patch. The section which I thought was going to give me the opportunity to get back up to pace turned into a never ending drag and even though I knew it was a good runnable section all I could muster was a slow plod.

Dan was doing a great job to keep me motivated but I was dead on my feet and really struggling so it was no surprise that as we slowly plodded down Green Lane towards Osmotherley that Ste Lord came past looking fresh as a daisy. The S!Cap I gave him earlier must have done the trick and as we climbed up the grass field towards Huthwaite Plantation he disappeared into the distance.

It was tough going towards Osmotherley and the steps up through the woods certainly didn’t get any easier. I had gel in a bid to get some energy into my body and as we reached the first self-clip at the TV mast I was starting to feel a bit better and started to manage some more running and by the time we reached the village I was feeling pretty good again.

It didn’t last long though and as we left the village towards the final drop bag at Square Corner I started to feel bad again. I really need to get my nutrition in the later stages of ultras sorted out. Now my fitness is
much better this is what is letting me down.

By the time I reached Square Corner where my wife Victoria was waiting with my third pacer Nick Andralojc I was dead on my feet. I stopped briefly to refill my bottles and tried to get some food down but the only thing I could eat was a handful of crisps as we headed up the last big climb of the route.

Stage 4: Square Corner to Helmsley

At the top of the climb I knew we had a good stretch of slightly downhill running and I wanted to try and get myself going but I had to settle for a run a bit, walk a bit strategy as I just didn’t have the energy to run at this stage in the race.

The temperature had really dropped at this point in the run and I was freezing cold. Nick very kindly lent me his mittens to help keep my hands warm and every 20 – 30 mins tried to get me to eat something. All I could manage was a few gels every now and again.

We reached the penultimate checkpoint at High Paradise Farm and dropped done the hill towards what I knew would be a really horrible muddy section before reaching the last checkpoint at Dialstone Farm.

I think this section was the toughest of the race. It was very slimy mud and my Scott Kinabalu Enduros just couldn’t find any grip. Coupled with the cold and the last of energy all I could muster was a quick walk. I could see Stes headlamp just up in front but more worryingly I could see another headtorch behind me now but I just couldn’t respond, I was knackered.

At Dialstone Farm we met my final pacer Tony Essex, the Harrogate Harriers club chairman. JDan and Nick also joined us at this point and as we were leaving the checkpoint the head torch came into view.

This was the kick up the arse I needed to get me going again and I suddenly snapped out of my tiredness and lethargy. It was mostly downhill to the finish just 8 miles away in Helmsley and we pushed on, trying to put some distance between me and the other runner.

It was getting light by now and the sun was starting to rise over the finish in Helmsley. The last section was pretty easy with just a few small inclines which after 100 miles and 20 hours of running felt like mountains.

I emptied the contents of my stomach again just before Rievaulx Abbey and as we can out of the woods got another boost from both being sick again and seeing Tony’s wife Mary parked at the side of the road cheering us all on.

It was great to run this last section together with the guys from Harrogate Harriers and although I think they got slightly more out of the views than me it felt good to have the company.

Eventually Helmsley came into view and the 110 mile journey that started 21 hours ago in Filey was at an end. It was good to see Victoria at the finish, who I think was very relieved to see me in one piece.

I finished second in a time of 21:21:08. Ste had finished just 18 minutes in front of me and took a very well deserved win.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt since working with Jayson my running has improved considerably since my last 100 mile race, the White Rose Ultra where I completed the 103 mile course in 22:45. I ran the 110 just over 2 minutes a mile faster over much tougher terrain so it’s given me a lot of confidence looking towards the UTMB in August.

I’m much more confident in my abilities now to the point where I look back on the race now and although I’m happy with my second place, I’m slightly disappointed with my performance. I could have pushed harder in certain sections and think I could have knocked at least 30 mins off my time. That’s something to consider for next year I guess.

I’m still trying to find something I can eat after the 60- 70 mile mark and I think once I crack this I won’t fade as much as I did. My legs felt fine but there was just no energy there to keep going. I’ve just started reading Feed Zone Portables where I hope to find some solutions to my problem.

Thank you

A rather long list but here goes.

Thank you to my beautiful wife Victoria for putting up with my daft hobby and supporting me throughout. I really couldn’t ask for more.

Jon and Shirley Steele for putting on these events. Hardmoors are such great events and you have created something wonderful

The marshals, helpers and supporters who help make these Hardmoors events great and unique. They couldn’t happen without you and what you do for everyone is brilliant. I’ve been told I’m a demanding pain in the arse at checkpoints by Victoria so thank you for all your assistance and patience.

Jayson Cavill Running & Fitness Coach for the training advice and guidance. Working with you has really transformed my running and if anyone is looking for a trainer I really can’t recommend Jayson enough. Next stop UTMB.

Darren West, JDan Simmons, Nick Andralojc & Tony Essex for pacing for the last few miles and keeping me sane throughout the night. I can’t thank them enough for spending Saturday night trudging the moors with a grumpy runner who was being sick. Also Tony’s wife Mary-Anne for giving up her Saturday night to ferry people around and support us.

Harrogate Harriers for all the well wishes and support on Facebook.

Ste Lord & Kirk Hardwick for the company and pushing me on. Congratulations on a well-deserved win for Ste. Looking forward to the next race.

Check out their race reports – Ste Lord | Kirk Hardwick

Kit

• Scott Kinablau Enduro Trail Running Shoes
• Jack Wolfskin Exolight Texapore XT Softshell Jacket
• The North Face E-Tip Running Gloves
• Petzl Nao Headtorch
• Garmin Fenix 3 GPS Running Watch
• Anker Fast Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank
• The Northface Flight Series – Better than Naked Long Haul Shorts
• The Northface Flight Series – Better than Naked Short Sleeve T-shirt
• Salomon Advanced Skin Hydro S-Lab 5 Set
• The North Face Beanie
• Mountain Fuel Sports Drink
• Hammer Nutrition Espresso Gels

Written by Kim Collison - https://kimcollisonblog.wordpress.com

 

Today my legs are tired after yesterday’s 55 mile race from Guisborough to Helmsley and my focus will soon shift towards my spring time goal race of the World Trail Running Champs in Annecy. However yesterday was a great run across the North York Moors following the Clevland Way, although a cool day the cloud was high giving stunning views across the Vale of York. The ground was hard after a good dry spell and with a tail wind conditions were set for some fast times. I wanted to use this race as a preparation race to get me back into the Ultra mindset and test my winter training. I set myself three goals which I thought were all possible yet would provide motivation to give me a hard race to test the mind. The primary goal was to try and win, secondly to break the course record and thirdly run sub 8 hours.

 To achieve this I knew I could not run a tactical race with a hard burst towards the end. So after about 500 metres I took the race on and pulled a 30 sec lead over Paul which stayed pretty constant to Roseberry topping about six miles in. I knew it was not going to be a free flow running day after my hamstrings had tightened after two miles but a day of graft and determination to succeed. I pushed on the return from Roseberry and the elastic had broken. I was on my own with only my mind to spur me on. I came in to Kildale expecting a drop bag to be told no bag here but further on, without thinking or looking at the map I carried on in haste. I had one gel left and nine miles to cover, I was well stocked up to this point so I should make it okay if leaving me a little depleted by claybank (A lost driver, time to adapt and cope). I had equalled Dan Anderson’s split from the year before but I did not want to fade the same way. After Clay Bank I stuffed some food in and attacked the hills to Lord stones, I started to feel the pace and feel dehydrated but managed to maintain rhythm to Osthmotherly where I could fuel up for the last section.  I was clearly going well I was 21 minutes up on record pace with all three goals still possible but I knew it could all fall apart with 23 odd miles still to go. 

The climb out of Osmotherly was a grind but I was happy with this, it was on reaching the plateau realising there was still twenty miles to go and my legs felt shot where my mind suffered. I was using my watch to make sure my legs kept on task and I made a new goal to set a faster leg than last years winner in order to keep me focused. It was a grateful sight to reach the White Horse and walk the steep steps after so much good running. I knew my legs were tightening but all I had to do was cover the last ten miles down towards Rivleuax and on to the welcome sight of Helmsley. I ran into the town to the welcome sight of a small crowd including an old work friend. I was proud if extremely knackered to of set a new course record going well under my best goal achieving a time of 7hrs 39 mins for the 55 miles. Thanks to Hardmoors for organising another great, friendly event and all the volunteers who make it possible with a friendly welcome and supportive words of encouragement. 

 

Written by James Campbell - https://jamescampbell78.wordpress.com

Since Hardmoors 30, I’ve changed my approach to training fairly radically in order to first recover from injury and then rehabilitate and strengthen myself while still preparing sufficiently for the 55 and the 110 milers that follow in quick succession.

In doing so, I’ve incorporated a lot of technique work on the treadmill, which built up into speedwork culminating in me recording my best 10k time in over 6 years just a couple of weeks before the race.

I also got myself out for two key recce runs, one from Helmsley to White Horse and back with Dave Cook which we ran at the effort I wanted to maintain during the race and carrying all of the kit I intended to carry in the race. The temperatures that day were sub zero and snowing.

The following week I did a similar out and back in icy conditions for the last section of the route, Guisborough to Kildale and back, starting at 9:30pm and finishing around 3am in order to do the final section on tired body and mind.

I then had a very long taper and planned my race around splits that I thought would be achievable on the day (but also understanding that something would blow that plan out of the water somewhere) and was aiming to finish in 14 hours.

I planned to camp at Guisborough Sea Cadets before the race and the night after, so in aid of making sure everything went right on that front, I camped out in the snow during my taper period, however as race week approached, the weather forecast made the prospect of camping look increasingly scary. My mind was taken off the race for much of the final week due to the eventual decision to part with my car, which had served me well since 2011 both as a family car and a race camper, but was pretty much falling apart at a rate of knots and buy a new car. Sadly, as much as I love the new car, a Corsa is not as easy to camp in as a Zafira, but at least the process of sorting the car kept my mind away from the usual mental stresses of tapering.

I travelled to Guisborough on Friday afternoon, arriving about 5pm to breezy weather 3 degrees with snow already in the air. Being the first vehicle on site, I headed into town for some food and returned to find another car had arrived containing Duncan Bruce. Shortly after, a gentleman from Guisborough Sea Cadets arrived and upon hearing our plans to camp in the field told us not to even consider it and sleep in the hall, an act of kindness that made sure that I not only got onto the start line without a difficult night of camping, but in hindsight, probably saved me from hypothermia on Saturday night.

After unpacking kit and getting myself set up near a radiator in the hall, I made a couple of adjustments to my kit choices in view of the howling gale that was driving snow against the window above my head and replaced my usual compression shorts with fleece lined thermal compression shorts (which I’d intended to use for camping) and added my waterproof socks to the pile of clothes to go on in the morning.

After a couple of mugs of hot chocolate, which I drank as the hall filled up with a couple more campers, I then tried to get my head down to sleep. I think I woke up pretty much every hour on the hour and at 4:20am, gave up the ghost and made myself a coffee to go with my porridge. I had only eaten half of my porridge and a banana when my stomach started churning and feeling awful. I made a dash to the gents and only just got there on time. This was not a good start to the day, but following my dash, I was able to hold food in, although I continued to feel queasy as I got dressed for the day ahead and stashed my kit in the Sea Cadets office we were kindly allowed to use to keep our kit in so we didn’t have to pack and then unpack after the race.

After getting dressed, I walked down to the bus pick up point and wandered around in search of Mark Dalton as I’d agreed to help with the bus marshalling. I couldn’t immediately see or hear Mark but spent some time chatting with a few familiar faces until he arrived. It wasn’t long before the coaches arrived and everyone was swiftly boarded. I spent the first few minutes of the journey checking names off against the register, which took my mind off my increasingly rebellious stomach for a short while then barricaded myself into a seat and sipped on Lucozade Sport all the way to Helmsley.

Upon arrival at Helmsley, I managed to pass through kit check and having my GPS tag fitted inside of 8 minutes, which was unbelievably slick, but also left me with almost two hours to kill so I found a side room with a few others, too off my warm jacket, hats and gloves and tried to chill out.

Helmsley to White Horse

Eventually it was time to go outside for the race brief and without too much ceremony the race was started under bright sunshine, but cold crisp air and a bit of a breeze, which as we turned west towards the Cleveland Way, became a nice tailwind. The first section leaving Helmsley is across two usually muddy fields, but today the ground was frozen solid and it was possible to keep a decent pace up to the gate that leads to the trail proper, as expected there was a bottleneck here before we could pass through and get running again. In a short space of time, I found myself running alongside a series of familiar faces, Paul Burgum, Dennis Potton, Tom Stewart and Angela Moore through Ingdale Howl and out onto the road through Rievaulx where a number of people were shedding the warm layers they’d put on before the start of the race due to the bright sun and becoming warm through exertion.

Having run this section in similar weather, I knew this warmth was only temporary (and partially false due to the wind being behind us) so took off my top buff and wrapped it around my poles with the two I intended to use later when it got really cold and unzipped my jacket a little. We soon hit the bottom of the first climb of the day, which starts as a rocky, muddy incline that leads onto a steadily climbing farm track towards Cold Kirby. As soon as we were out of the treeline, the wind made things feel a lot colder and snow began to fall, a lot of people then had to stop to put layers back on, while I simply zipped back up and added buffs as required. I passed John and Katrina Kynaston and said hi then cracked on further up the road until I reached what I affectionately call Dead Body Farm for no other reason that on a night recce of this section in 2015 Aaron Gourlay, Dave Cook, Dee Bouderba and I had climbed out from Cold Kirby to find two men manhandling a cylindrical shaped black bag out of a van here.

Once past the farm we dropped down into a gully that was ankle deep in water and for the first time I became glad of my choice to use the waterproof socks, on the way up into Cold Kirby the trail was slippy enough for a few people to take falls but I managed to get up and at the top decided to have a Chia Charge bar as the Wine Gums and salted nuts I’d been eating so far weren’t easing my iffy stomach.

Once through Cold Kirby the trail cut left and for the first time runner experienced the strengthening wind as a crosswind biting into the left side of our faces and driving icy snow at us. Thankfully the path soon turned right and we had a tailwind again.

Before long, we were approaching the horse racing stables at Hambleton where Wayne Armstrong was marshalling to divert us through Hambleton Plantation, a section of the route designed to keep runners safely away from the Cleveland Way path on the verge of the A170 near Sutton bank.  Although less well travelled and a little overgrown, covered in snow, with heavy snow falling it reminded me of movies and documentaries set in places like the Ardennes Forest in winter.  As I climbed out of the plantation, a team of marshalls saw us safely across the road and I took the opportunity of tree cover to answer a call of nature before picking up the pace for the steady downhill path that runs along the side of the glider station towards the White Horse at the same time, doubling up the buffs on the left hnd side of my face to protect my bare skin from the wind driven snow.  The route diverted right on this path down a rocky, scrabbly and usually muddy steep path down the side of the escarpment and round to the back of the White Horse car park.  On my recce run, this descent was frozen and it was possible to descend quickly, so I had it in my mind to push hard on this bit, however I was no more than two steps onto the descent when a pair of runners in front started slipping on ice and I decided caution was the order of the day.

As I reached the bottom of the slope, I was overtaken by Chris Lyons, who I ran and chatted with for the final stretch into White Horse, as we approached the car park, I thought I could hear drumming and assumed somebody had the car stereo turned up to 11.  Upon cresting the final rise, we were met by a man in Druidic costume beating a drum for all he was worth and it brought a smile to my face as I hit the checkpoint bang on my target time of 1h:55m.

White Horse to High Paradise

At the checkpoint, I got my water bottle topped up as planned and headed up the steep steps that run by the side of the Kilburn White Horse with encouragement from Race Director Jon Steele ringing in my ears.  I was now in a group that contained 1,000 mile club member Harriet Shields who kindly helped me get my headtorch out of my pack during my torrid day at Hardmoors 30.  As we hit the top of the steps, I pulled a Snickers bar out of my pack to find that it had frozen solid and let it slowly defrost in my mouth while I fast walked/jogged back uphill towards the road and re-arranged my buffs to cover the right side of my face to provide protection against the prevailing wind.

Once across the road, I stayed close to the group containing Harriet through the first km of undulating and snow covered paths, content with my pace but not wanting to push much harder due to the continued unsettled state of my stomach.  The group thinned out as the path turned into single track and gradually rose to the ridge line, once on the ridgeline, we were shotblasted with snow blown across the fields on the stiff breeze from the east.  The view on this section is spectacular, on a clear day you can see right across to the Pennines, however my view of the world was now reduced to a small gap between my cap and my buffs. There were a couple of sections of the path which usually dipped and rose, but it was clear that walkers and runners had avoided these for a couple of weeks due to the pockets of snow that had drifted and remained in them since the ‘Beast from the East’ storm a couple of weeks ago.

I was now trundling along back and forth overtaking a couple running together but unable to really chat with them due to the strength of the wind carrying words away and not really wanting to lift my face to expose flesh to the bitter cold. I estimated that the windchill was already a couple of degrees below zero, but my clothing was keeping me comfortable and only exposed skin felt cold.

I passed through the Sneck Yate checkpoint on the three hour mark without stopping and was enjoying the cover provided by the trees in Paradise Wood, up to the point where I hit the Paradise Road, where the wind was catching the lying snow on the ground and in the trees and blowing it into me at great strength.  I fast walked up the hill to High Paradise Farm and hit the Hambleton Road junction at 3h:17m, a good 3 and a bit minutes ahead of my target.

High Paradise to Osmotherley

I rewarded myself for being ahead of time with a short walk break and had just started running again when I spotted a familiar dog headed towards me and realised that Jayson Cavill was out running on the course with his dog Indie.  I shouted a quick hello that I hoped wasn’t lost in the wind and cracked on, popping a couple of Wine Gums into my mouth in the hope that pushing food down my neck regularly would deal with the stomach issues.  As I got toward the end of Boltby Woods, I fell in with Andy Nesbit and Emma Giles who were running together and aiming for 14 hours too.  I saw it as a good omen to be running with Andy on Hardmoors 55 on this particular section of the Cleveland Way, as it was on Black Hambleton we joined up and ran all the way to the finish together in the 2015 edition of the race.  We went through phases of fast walks and running as the terrain and weather allowed, passing through a series of squally snow showers and enduring some turns into the strengthening wind.  We hit the section where the terrain began to rise towards Black Hambleton around the 4 hour mark and I squeezed a protein gel down my neck which seemed to be more palatable to my stomach than the Wine Gums and Snickers.  At this point I decided to stick to Chia Charge and protein gels on the hour for food rather than the more sugary treats I was trying to eat every 15/20 minutes.  We had now hit a section with a wind in our backs and although uphill, we were running to make use of the tailwind. 

As we reached the top of Black Hambleton, a really heavy squally came down and reduced visibility to almost zero and I was glad to be started to lose altitude as there seemed to be a definite worsening of conditions above a certain height.  As the snow abated slightly, I pushed hard down the hill, picking up a nice fast pace of 5m:30s/km to 6m:00s/km and reached Square Corner at 4h:25m with my head down and missed Ann Brown taking this amazing shot of me.

As we descended down the hill towards Oakdale reservoirs, the snow on the ground bcame patchy and less frequent and it was possible to move quickly along the flagstones.  Once over the Burnthouse Bank road I found myself running with Harriet Shields again on the greasy, slippery and muddy descent towards Cod Beck, however Harriet pulled away from me with ease on the steep steps after the beck on the way into Osmotherley, where runners were being greeted enthusiastically by marshalls and spectators.  Once inside the checkpoint, I picked up my drop bag, binned the Wine Gums and nuts from my pocket and debated leaving the new bag of Wine Gums on the table for someone else, but decided to take them just in case.  I downed my can of Red Bull and re-stocked my pack with Chia Charge bars from my drop bag but left my bottle of Luczade Sport on the table, opting instead to top my bottle up with checkpoint cola to see if that had a more positive effect on my stomach.  I spotted Dave Cook who was marshalling and said hi before heading back out up the road bang on the 5 hour mark, about 10 minutes behind plan, but not too worried by this.

Osmotherley to Scugdale

I had originally planned to get my poles out in the Osmotherley checkpoint, but decided on the hoof that my legs felt pretty decent and that I could run at a decent pace on the downhill section between the TV transmitter and Scarth Nick if I didn’t have the poles in my hands being blown around by the wind.  To that end, I kept them stowed in my pack and fast walked up the muddy climb towards the TV transmitting station.  Once up on the top and in the shelter of the drystone wall that runs by the path, I got a steady jog on until I hit the top of the descent then I started running at a steady pace down the side of Scarth Wood Moor, as I did so, I bumped into Marc Short and we ran together across Scarth Nick chatting as we went.  The wind had seemed to calm and the sun was shining as we ran together through the woods heading towards Scugdale, dropping through the field before the Scugdale Road, we pulled apart again and after the beck I got my poles out ready for the climbing that lay before us in the next section.  As we arrived at the Scugdale checkpoint (6h:10m) I realised I’d run my fastest Hardmoors marathon (I passed 42.2km at 5h:54m) but even better I spotted that the checkpoint had both cola and dandelion and burdock where I’d been expecting only water. While the marshalls topped up my water and cola bottles, I managed to gulp down a cup of D&B and noted that my stomach was feeling OK now.  Once the bottles were topped up, Marc and I moved off to start the really big climbs of the day. 

Scugdale to Lordstones

As we climbed up through Live Moor Plantation Marc, and I chatted about various things and caught up on bits and pieces from each other’s lives, since the last time we met a couple of years ago but once on the top, conversation became impossible in the face of a block headwind that must have been blowing 30-40mph.  Again, the peak of the cap came down and the buffs went up as we pushed hard against the wind for little return.  Marc pulled away while I plugged on behind just trying to maintain a steady pace, using the poles to keep myself steady in the buffeting wind but my work rate had increased a lot for very little return and as we climbed higher, the wind seemed to get stronger, with some odd swirling effects as the wind deflected of various escarpments and cliff faces.  Once back above 350m, the snow returned and driven into the small gap between my cap and buff, it was stinging.  As I passed the weather station by the old glider runway, I noted the wind gauge was turning at a ridiculous speed and I wondered how the weather station stayed anchored into the ground in the weather that hits up here. 

Soon I had passed he trig point and was descending towards Raisdale road with another runner.  I remember saying to him ‘At least the flagstones are dry and free from ice’, which of course was a total curse as about 30 seconds later we rounded a bend and hit a patch of ice that sent me flying down a couple of steps.  I turned to pick myself up and retrieve my poles, (which I had instinctively thrown away from my body as I fell) then had another comical slip on the same patch.  Having got up and dusted myself off, we were able to warn a couple of following runners of the ice before moving on more cautiously.  I eventually crossed the Raisdale Road on 7h:10m tracking around 20 minutes behind my goal time, but knowing that I was certain to lose a lot more time in the next few hours. 

Lordstones to Clay Bank

The next section of the route contains the most climbing per km than any other part of the route and even on the best of days, is hard, slow going.  Today, in snow, high wind and with icy surfaces, it was going to be a big tester.  Running through Lordstones Country Park I rejoined Marc and we made our way up the side of Cringle Moor together, Marc being faster and lighter pulled away from me again, but once on the top we found ourselves running together into the savage wind and snow.  At some point we were caught by John and Katrina Kynaston and a loose group formed just before the descent which, on the flagstones, was ridiculously icy and almost impossible to descend without slipping.  We took the decision to use the grass and heather at the side of the path, which had a covering of snow and offered more traction and a softer landing in a fall and made our way down into the lee of Cold Moor and out of the worst of the wind.  We jogged between the hills, making use of the reduced wind until we reached the base of the next climb, which for me is the hardest of the climbs on this stretch.

I looked up and noticed the clouds scudding over the ridgeline ahead at great speed and realised that the weather was now far worse than the forecasts I’d seen in the days before the race.  Again, Marc gapped me as we climbed the hill, but the group came back together at the top and on the descent, which was far more icy and treacherous than the Cringle Moors descent (all snow that was hitting the flagstones was now freezing on contact and I noticed it was doing the same to my leggings and jacket).  At this point, we had merged with the group that contained Harriet Shields and we all descending very slowly and carefully. About halfway down, I decided to take a sip of my water and was frustrated to find that the water had frozen in the nozzle of my bottle and I couldn’t get any water out.  I tried the coke and thankfully, that was still flowing, albeit with ice crystals in.

As we reached the bottom of the hill, we were again in a weird calm spot sheltered by The Wainstones/White Hill and due to the slow pace, the group had gained a few more runners. I looked up towards the ancient rocks as I was climbing, hoping to get a sight of the Eagle Owl that has been seen nesting here, but even the owl had enough sense to hunker down and ride this storm out. 

Going through the rocks on the Wainstones, I encouraged everyone to maintain three points of contact with the rocks to reduce the risk of slipping, which made things slower, but at least I was hopefully going to avoid a repeat of the arsebruise I picked up here while spectating last year’s 55. At the top of the Wainstones, a runner whose name I didn’t catch helped me up out of the rocks and did the same for a few others in the group.  We got moving again and along the plateau at the top of White Hill, I noted a real change in the feel of the temperature.  I checked my watch and saw that it read 3 degrees.  Given that it was on my wrist and usually read a few degrees above the real temperature due to my body heat, I judged the air temperature to be several degrees below zero and the wind chill much more than that. All this considered, I still was not cold anywhere apart from my nose.  I pulled my buff up over my nose and noticed the front of the buff had frozen solid so I spun it back to front and the unfrozen part that had been on my neck was now at the front.  As we descended off the side of White Hill, several runners, including myself resorted to sitting down and bumping down steps to avoid slipping on the ice.  About halfway down, it was possible to run with caution and Marc and I did so, eventually reaching the checkpoint at 8h:46m.  My original checkpoint plan was to spend a couple of minutes getting my bottles filled up and my headtorch out ready for the next section. 

I handed the marshalls my bottles and noticed they struggled to open the water bottle as the top couple of inches of water was entirely frozen in the bottle.  The coke was in better state, but still had chunks of ice in.  While the marshalls sorted my bottles, I asked Marc to help get my headtorch and a spare pair of gloves out for me, as I expected it to get colder after dark.  I stripped off my outer gloves and put the new gloves in between my skin layer and put the outer layer back on over them.  Marc was also putting extra gloves on, but was really struggling with them.  While we were at the checkpoint, a heavy snowfall blew over and dumped about an inch of snow on the road in the 10 mins or so we were there.  I stuffed another Chia Charge bar down my neck and checked all my buffs to make sure the absolute minimum skin was exposed and we eventually moved off. 

Clay Bank to Bloworth Crossing

We were only about 400m out of the checkpoint when my fingertips started going numb and I realised that using my poles was leaving my hands exposed to the bitter winds.  I needed Marc to help me stow them, such was the speed at which my fingers became useless. 

Once my poles were stowed, I grabbed a handwarmer from my back pocket and activated it and also used the plastic bags I’d carried my spare gloves and headtorch in and used them to cover my hands to create a bivvy bag effect and alternated that hand warmer between hands as we marched further up the hill toward the highest point of the moors (Round Hill 454m), it slowly got dark and much, much colder.  The wind was now howling and even running did not feel much more than walking.  Conversation between Marc and I was reduced to:

‘Fancy trying to run?’

‘Yeah, let’s go’

‘I’m knackered, let’s walk’

‘How far do you reckon Bloworth is?’

‘I dunno, I can normally see it, but this snow man…’ 

‘Fancy trying to run?’ 

This continued for a few kms and when we turned our headtorches on, visibility didn’t improve much and all we really got was the same view as the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon as it enters hyperspace. Despite all this, I wasn’t feeling bad or weak.  I’d done very little running since Scugdale and the legs felt willing, I was just hoping that at Bloworth, turning side on to the wind would allow some running.  The plastic bags and handwarmer had done their jobs and my fingers had feeling again and were warm through.  We hit the slight downhill into the dip that crosses a beck about 400m from Bloworth and the combination of the downhill and the positive landmark in relation to Bloworth got me running, for all of 10m before I hit some ice and ended up on my backside just short of the beck. I was busy scrabbling around making sure I didn’t lose my handwarmer and Marc came up behind to see if I was OK and went flying himself.  Satisfied we were both OK, we got up giggling and cracked on to Bloworth, turning the corner at 9h:57m. 

Bloworth Crossing to Kildale

Once round the corner at Bloworth, the wind was at our back and side and we got through more prolonged stretches of running, although I did at one stage try to point something out to Marc and realised that I could not straighten my arm because the right sleeve of my jacket had frozen solid.  Taking water was pointless as the bottle had frozen and I was only getting coke out by holding the nozzle between my lips to de-ice it before sucking the slushy coke through.  I was feeling strong and each walk break was done at a decent pace, each time we ran, we overtook groups of runners.  At some point we passed Andy and Emma, I only really noticed due to Andy’s distinctive reflective jacket and Marc and I turned our attention to cut off times.  We knew cut off was 12 hours and that we’d been moving a lot slower than usual.  I estimated that we were about 7km from Kildale and I made the time at 10h:15m so we would likely land comfortably ahead of cutoff.  Marc told me he’d just talked himself out of quitting at Kildale and wanted to have a decent stop there to have a pork pie and phone his wife. I told him that ideally I wanted to move through the checkpoint quickly, but I’d wait for him and take the chance to have a hot drink.

We pushed on with the increasingly shorter walk breaks and increasingly longer, faster and more downhill running stints and it seemed like no time at all before we hit the unusually welcome tarmac at the top of Battersby Bank.  At this point, another heavy squall blew in and at some point I’d fast walked away from the group we were in and before I’d realised it, I’d done at least two stints of running and walking on my own.  I looked over my shoulder and there were headtorches about 300m behind me so I made the assumption that Marc would catch me if I took it easy.  At the start of the descent into Kildale, I started to run again but halfway down, my bladder (which I had been holding since Clay Bank, not wanting to expose myself to the wind) forced me to attend to attend to the matter or have an accident.  I stopped by the roadside and created some worryingly yellow snow and as I sorted myself out, Andy and Emma passed, but no sign of Marc.  Still thinking he was just behind me, I pushed on. 

On the final stretch down toward Kildale, I noticed two sets of blue flashing lights heading slowly up the road towards Kildale from the direction of Easby.  A fire engine passed by as I hit the main road and I commented to the runner beside me that I was glad it wasn’t an ambulance as I was worried that an ambulance would be for a runner.  As I arrived at the checkpoint, I noticed the fire engine stopping further on in the village, but an ambulance car was outside the checkpoint.  This was not unexpected since we knew the race did have ambulance cover.  What I did not expect were the scenes in the checkpoint.  I checked in with Andy Norman who was marshalling and immediately bumped into Paul Burgum, whose first question was ‘Are you going back out?’  My answer was ‘Of course I am.  I’m feeling great, why wouldn’t I?’ and Paul told me to look around the room and at the huge pile of GPS trackers on the table handed in by retirees.  The room was full of people in foil blankets taking on warm drinks, some shivering, many having discarded kit and clearly not intending to continue.  I got a bit of a negative vibe from this and decided I wanted to be out of the checkpoint quickly.  I quickly got my dropbag, ditched the untouched Wine Gums, downs my Red Bull, loaded back up on Chia Charge and put my dropbag fig rolls into my pocket before battling off the frozen top of my coke bottle and topping it up.  I moved to get a coffee, but there was none in the coffee flask on the table so I left it be.  I looked up and saw a frozen looking Angela Moore being looked after in a side room and was a little shocked, Angela is a tough cookie with a lot of seriously hard race completions under her belt. 

There was a group of runners preparing to leave, including Tom Stewart who invited me to run with them, I agreed, and said I’d wait by the door for them, I wanted to keep moving so as not to cool down.  On the way to the door, I saw Marc arrive and I told him I needed to move on fast to avoid cooling off, we wished each other well and I moved to the door.  The other group seemed to take forever to get organised so I shouted to Tom that I was going to move on and that they’d probably catch me on the climb and at that I headed out of the door.  As I did so, I saw a Mountain Rescue Team member heading into the Village Hall, which should have triggered alarm bells (and perhaps did subconsciously).

Kildale to Finish

I jogged out of the checkpoint and down the road, noting that the clock time was now 8:32pm, I saw the fire engine further down in the village, I thought it was dealing with an RTA, but I was more focused on the firefighters, I had a vague feeling that they would try and stop me running off into the night.  I ran hard down the road towards the railway bridge and got out of sight of the village.  I decided to have a fig roll, sip of coke and some paracetamol.  I also took a salt tablet, which I’d been taking about every 90 minutes during the day to keep my electrolytes in check.  I made up my mind to run to the bottom of the hill, then keep setting myself targets all the way to the race finish. 

As I approached the start of the climb, I noticed a sole runner ahead, I caught him quickly and on the snow covered road, I thought he was taking a wrong turn (he wasn’t) an led him on a detour through the driveway of a farm house by the road.  Once back on the road, I noticed another group about 400m ahead and decided to bridge across to them with a fast walk/jog up the hill.  I decided this would be my mental game to get me through to the finish.  I’d  found during the Lyke Wake Challenge in 2016, that playing mental game gave me a bit of extra motivation to keep moving quickly in the later stages of a race.  The premise being that unless I had a mechanical injury, I was fairly capable of moving at a decent pace and that the only blockers are those from the brain telling me that I’m tired or my legs hurt.  This game was simple, bridge to the group in front, overtake them, bridge to the next group and continue this until the finish.  As I turned left into Pale End Plantation, the group in front was only 100m ahead.  I jogged on and caught Paul Burgum among the back markers with another runner (Andy Cole?).  I had a really positive conversation with Paul and I wished him well before running off chasing half of the group who’d broken away.  I pushed hard following them up towards Captain Cook’s Monument, just before the final steep bit I was only 50m or so behind, so I walked and stuck my hand into my pocket and realised that my fig rolls had gone.  Even that didn’t bother me, I just hoped somebody behind me would find them and make use of them.

I pushed on harder and as I hit the top of Easby Moor I used the howling tailwind I picked up once out of the treeline to get closer and noticed that all took the short angle cutting inside of the Monument.  I never do this, not because it’s wrong or anything, it’s just I have some sort of superstition about always going around the Monument, the same as I have about NEVER skipping the out and back to Roseberry Topping (after an infamous run of bad luck on a night when Brenda Wilkin, Dave Cook, Dee Bouderba and I did exactly that). Rounding the Monument, there was a ferocious roar of wind through the railings on the Monument and the wind was clearly still as strong as it was earlier. 

Now round the Monument, I bounded down the descent towards Gribdale Gate.  The group in front had split into a pair and two single runners.  I overhauled the single runners quickly and went after the pair.  Close to the bottom, the pair were stopped by a man walking up the hill.  As I got closer, he asked if I’d heard.  ‘Heard what?’ I asked and he told me that Roseberry Topping was closed and to just turn right at the gate and head to the finish. 

I wasn’t sure if this was a wind up and wasn’t sure what to make of it.  I pushed harder and overtook the pair just before Gribdale Gate and pushed hard up the steps onto the path towards Roseberry, opening up a gap quickly.  I noticed a pair of headtorches about a km ahead and decided that they were the next target to bridge to and that I’d see what they did at Roseberry and follow suit.  I pushed hard along the path and took about 20-25 minutes to get to Roseberry Gate.  The pair of headtorches were nowhere to be seen, but if they’d done Roseberry, by rights, they should be coming back down or be on the way back to the gate.  They weren’t so I pushed on over towards Hutton Moor Gate.  There were no targets in front, so I decided to give myself a new target of creating an unassailable gap on the headtorches behind me. 

As I arrived at Hutton Moor Gate, I noticed a pair of headtorches way off course over towards the Hanging Stone, I flashed my torch at them a few times in the hope of bringing them back on course, then forged on towards the Black Nab path.  Halfway along the path, I met a male runner heading back along the course, presumably to meet someone and as he passed, I looked over my shoulder to see the pair of wayward headtorches back on course and about 500m behind me.  I clattered along the slushy path towards Highcliff, walking only where the surface or grade forced me to, again having to shield my eyes from the snow before eventually turning off the path and into the treeline before Highcliff Nab.  I climbed the steps up the Nab following the tape laid the night before by Lorna Simpkin and the reflective stickers Jon Steele had used to provide direction and made the top at 13h:02m. 

I looked down and saw two headtorches emerging from the treeline below Highcliff and took off like a scalded cat into Guisborough Woods, but found it hard to see due to the Millenium Falcon effect of headtorch and snow.  After about a minute, I realised that the ambient light from Guisborough and the lying snow meant, that I could get better visibility by turning my headtorch off (a couple of years ago the woods were so dense that this wouldn’t have worked), so I decided to do this and gained an immediate increase in pace.  I was pushing hard through the woods, finding it hard to gauge what progress I was making against the lights behind me due to the twisting nature of the trails.  Occasionally, I could see a group of 4 or 5 torches, other times just a pair, so I forced the pace as hard as possible.  About halfway through the woods, the trail forks left and right.  Both routes come out at the same place, but one, the official Cleveland Way, takes a pointless down and up.  I was hoping and praying that the tape would stay on the fire road, but Lorna had been taking instructions to the letter and the more cruel route was taped.  I endured this section then pushed hard through the darkness on the steep downhill that followed.  The trick to running without a headtorch in the dark, is to not look directly at what you want to look at.  The parts of the eye that interpret colours are toward the centre of the eye, the parts that interpret black and white towards the edge.  These are the bits that are used in the dark and therefore, if you look slightly above, below or to the side of your target, you see it clearer.  Your peripheral vision is your friend and the longer you run in the dark, the more your night vision adapts. 

Because of this, I now avoided looking behind me or towards the town or roads to try and preserve my growing night vision and was only focused on the trail ahead and not missing the sharp right turn up into the bush and onto the next fire road up.  I found it easily and crossed over to the next trail before cruising all the way downhill to the concrete farm road which leads toward the final stretch. 

On the concrete road, I was back out of the wind, so I put my headtorch back on and chanced a look back along the trail.  I could see several groups in the woods, but not the pair I thought were behind me.  I bashed my way down the hill to the disused railway line. 

I now knew I was only 2km from the finish so I walked for 60 seconds, then run for 60 seconds.  I did this twice then upped the intervals to 120 seconds.  At some point I saw the lights of the farm on Belmangate and just kept running, over the railway bridge, down the steps, down Belmangate and into the Sea Cadets Hall stopping the clock at 14h:03m. 

As my tracker was taken off me and my time taken, the sudden stop from running hard, the heat in the hall and probably a bit of emotion all hit me at once and I had a bit of a wobble.  A paramedic came over and I insisted I was OK.  The next few minutes were a bit confusing because Harriet Shields and the group I’d last seen her in at Kildale were all there helping me to a chair and someone said ‘Well done for escaping Kildale’.  Marc appeared and explained that after I’d left, all runners had been held at Kildale, the details of that I will go into shortly.  I sat and had a hot drink and just sitting in that group of people in that hall gave me a great feeling of contentment, friendship and satisfaction.  One of the race finishes, I will remember for the rest of my life. 

After awhile, I got showered and changed and sat and had a beer with Paul Burgum, who finished shortly after me, Mark Dalton and Duncan Bruce while we waited for the hall to empty so that Duncan and I could sort our sleeping arrangements out.  In that time, I observed the interactions between the race team and Mountain Rescue that allowed me to piece events together, further information became available over the next few days and tonight I had a further chat with race director Jon Steele to clarify exactly what happened. 

Press Coverage

Most people reading this will have seen the negative press coverage of the race. In my opinion, almost all of those reports were exaggerated and were very selective with the facts. 

What actually happened was that all runners got off the moors by themselves, but at the Kildale checkpoint, after stopping, a number of people cooled down rapidly and suffered minor hypothermia symptoms.  Between 8pm and 9pm there had been significant snowfall onto already icy roads in the Kildale area and many were only reliably passable using 4×4 vehicles.  Mountain Rescue were in the area to assist a driver whose vehicle had been stuck in the snow and being aware of the race, they stopped by the checkpoint to check up on things.

A joint decision was taken at around 8:30pm to stop all runners at Kildale due to the risks imposed by the weather conditions.

Race Control suddenly had a situation where they needed to transport anyone who’d stopped to the race finish 5 miles away in Guisborough. This would normally be done by the volunteer marshalls and race control support vehicles (I’ve actually used this support twice myself and it works well), however due to the state of the roads, the support of Mountain Rescue was needed to help transport people to the finish safely and provide additional minor medical assistance to some runners.

All runners in this race had GPS trackers and Race Control knew to within 10 metres where we all were so were able to quickly close the race down in a controlled manner.

By the time I’d run from Kildale to Guisborough (2h:40m according to the tracker), all runners who’d been stopped had been transported to the end, which to me is an awesome logistical feat.

At no point did I feel that my safety or that of others had been compromised and nobody needed any hospital treatment.

I slept at Guisborough Sea Cadets following the race and the Race Director, Jon Steele sat in the same room and personally made numerous telephone calls up to around 1:30am to satisfy himself that not only were all runners OK when they left Guisborough, but that all had got home or to their accommodation for the night and were fine.

To top all that, Cleveland Mountain Rescue praised runners for their equipment and preparedness and the race organisers for their contingency planning.  To me, the Mountain Rescue praise, speaks volumes.

Performance Summary

My race did not go exactly to plan, however, I’d have been very, very surprised if it did in those conditions, I did however improve my 50 mile Personal Best by just over 6 minutes to 13h:15m:42s.  More pleasing was being able to overcoming stomach trouble that dogged me for over 30km, something which would have stopped my race a couple of years ago and that all of the recce work I did to test kit in foul weather paid off.  That means the awful 6 hour slog in knee deep snow over Bloworth in December, the icy night runs over Highcliff x2, Roseberry x2 and Captain Cooks x2 in Feb and all of the other grim, awful training runs were worth every second because I learned a lot about mental toughness and self management.

I also give credit to the speedwork and speed endurance sessions on the treadmill.  Whilst I have been a huge detractor of the treadmill in the past, the consistency it has offered has clearly improved my overall ability to move at a faster pace for longer.

Kit Choices

For those who are interested, the kit worn on the day was :

Thermal Skullcap

Cycling Cap

Base Layer

Thermal Cycling Vest

Windproof Fleece Lined Cycling Jacket

Fleece Lined Compression Shorts

More Mile Lycra Leggings

Compression Socks

Calf Guards

Waterproof Socks

Gaiters

Adidas Kanadia TR8.1 Shoes

Buff used as gaiter between base layer and neck

Buff used as gaiter between jacket and neck

Buff wrapped around face

Buff wrapped over cap and head

Skin Layer Gloves: Wilkinsons Full Finger Cycling Gloves

Outer Layer Gloves: Karrimor Running Gloves

Mid Layer Gloves added at Clay Bank were Karrimor Running Gloves too

All other kit, including compulsory items were carried but not used.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

I owe a continuous debt of thanks to my wife Natalie and our family for their continued forbearance with the long hours of training and weekends away.

I’d like to thank Guisborough Sea Cadets, without whose hospitality in allowing me to sleep indoors, I probably wouldn’t have started the race, I certainly wouldn’t have finished and if I’d stayed outside on Saturday night, I’d have probably been in a bad way by Sunday morning.

As always, Jon, Shirley and their huge family of helpers have put on a great race and dealt with adversity on the day with so much strength and organisation and afterwards with grace.  I keep saying that this race series is special, it’s special beyond words. The friendships made and the experiences had at these events are beyond value.  The way the Hardmoors family has pulled together this week should be a message to all involved about how highly regarded and valued Hardmoors is by a lot of people. 

Thanks also to Cleveland Mountain Rescue and Yorkshire Ambulance for their help in ensuring that the race ended as safely as possible.

Thanks to everyone I ran with or spoke to out on the course, you guys helped make this event what it is.  In particular, Marc Short, one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, thank you for your company and I’m certain that you saved my race by helping sort myself out when my fingers went numb.  I’m gutted that you were stopped while I managed to continue, you had the finish in you and I wish we could have finished together. Also thanks to everyone, even though my memory is hazy, who helped me at the finish when I went all wobbly. 

I look forward to seeing you all at Hardmoors 110!

Written by Giles Thurston - http://ultrarun.in

Last weekend (21st March 2015) I took on my toughest running challenge yet, The Hardmoors 55. This is 55 mile ultra marathon, which follows The Cleveland Way along the westerly edge of The North Yorkshire Moors, from Guisborough to Helmsley, taking in a breathtaking 2,700 metres of vertical ascent.

As I did in my last race report, for those who don’t have the time or the inclination to wade through my full report, here are the potted highlights:

1. Finished the race in 10:46:31
2. Reached the final checkpoint atWhite Horse before it was dark and only needed it for the final few miles into the finish
3. No return of the quad issues I experienced on the Peddars Way Ultra
4. Started the race feeling pretty fresh, no sign of the sense of fatigue from previous races
5. Started the race at a nice and easy pace and built into it. Was comfortably overtaking people from 15km onwards, and managed to real in 25 people in the last 30km to finish 77th overall
6. Was able to run downhill pretty quickly and in many cases off the main path, useful as a method for overtaking on steeper descents
7. Running surface was pretty hard throughout, did aggravate an old foot injury but didn’t seem to hold me back too much
8. Could I have gone faster? Did I hold back too much early on?
9. Wasted time at the Clay Bank checkpoint, confusing the revised bag drop location with checkpoint itself – doh!

So that is the high level summary, now onto the detail.

Build up to race

My entry to this race was pretty last minute for me (4-5 weeks out) and that, combined with a niggling hip injury, had meant that my build up wasn’t as thorough as I’d have hoped.

I managed no specific hill work, difficult enough in the flatlands of Cambridgeshire, instead focussing on bodyweight strength exercises for the legs and aerobic endurance runs, hopefully keeping my fitness from my last ultra topped up.

I also wanted to try something a little different for my preparation for this race, in an attempt to reduce the fatigue I have felt at the start of my previous two ultra marathons.

Firstly I dropped my 40km+ long run 3-4 weeks out from the race, along with my series of back to back runs exceeding race distance. Instead I focussed on easy mid to long trail runs, with my weekly long run maxing out at 2.5-3 hours duration or 25-30km in total distance. My largest block was a few weeks out, where I had backed to back three runs, totally 50km of running. Other than that my training was pretty light and easy going.

Packing, packing and packing again!

My week leading into the race was pretty hectic and full of work travel, so I started trying to pack the weekend before. The Hardmoors 55 has a decent list of mandatory kit which we all needed to either wear or carry throughout the race. This combined with the fact I was racing for the first time in my new Salomon S-Lab Advanced Skin 3 12 Set Vest (full review coming soon), meant I was having to really sit and think about what I carried and how I packed it. Additionally we could also have two drop bags out on the course, another first for me.

So while there was a lot packing, unpacking and general navel gazing about kit that weekend, I headed away for work on the Monday with nothing really resolved. I tried again after I arrived home late on the Thursday night but got no further, other than scuppering my planned early night! In the end I left it until the following morning and with a clear head and reference to a lot of lists I’d created during the week, was squared away and ready to go pretty quickly.

On the road heading north

I was travelling to the race with Mark Turner, a club mate from Ely Triathlon Club and a very experienced multi-sport and endurance athlete, with loads of ultras under his belt.

We’d decided to camp at Helmsley for the weekend and drove up early on the Friday afternoon, chatting about the race and me picking Mark’s brain for tips on ultra running. Traffic was not too bad and just after 5pm we’d pitched our tents and were heading down into the town to find a pub and some pre-race nutrition/hydration – cough!

I was still unsure about some of my kit choices and what I should or should not carry. Mark was going super light and am sure found the size of my race vest pretty hilarious. Mark’s vest was tiny in comparison and I struggled to imagine getting my kit into something that small.

In my defence I had packed things like my waterproofs loose rather than compressed, which added to the bulk but I continued to chop and change items right up to the start, anxious about carrying too much but also not wanting to leave something behind which I might regret later in the race. 55 miles is a long way after all!

Note: for those interested, I have included a full list of the kit I eventually wore and carried at the end of the this race report, including comments on how useful it was.

We were both pretty knackered, so headed to bed at the ridiculously early time of 19:30. I fell asleep straight away and awoke again around 22:30 before having quite restless sleep through until 3am.

On reflection my tiny one man tent was probably not the best choice for the race and I wasn’t sure how I would cope the following night with tired legs, after hopefully finishing the race!

Race day!

The alarm woke me at 5am and despite a restless night I felt pretty refreshed. The previous night an hour had seemed like plenty of time to get ready for the bus, which was due to leave for the start at Guisborough at 6am sharp. As always time flew by and once I’d struggled into my race kit in the confines of my tent, put my contact lens in, sorted out my feet, socks and footwear, there was just ten minutes to quickly throw some luke warm watery porridge and a pot of custard down my neck and jump on the bus.

I think I already mentioned how I hate to be rushed before a race!

The bus journey was pretty uneventful and I had a nice chat with a Guy from Bournemouth about his ultra racing history and aims for the race, sorry didn’t catch your name. Before we knew it we were at the Sea Cadet’s hut at Guisborough and joining the queue for kit check and registration.

There was some confusion in the queues about what should be going on and in which order but we eventually got it sorted and then had over an hour to kill before the start. I joined the queues for the toilets, which were enormous and despite the time available it was questionable if I’d make it to the front before the start. Fortunately one of the organisers rescued a handful of us and led us into the ladies toilet – sorry ladies!

I was still being indecisive about kit (are you seeing a pattern emerging here!) and had removed some personal bits from my race vest, opting to not carry a set of spare socks and also reduce the food I was carrying. As I was wearing tights and long sleeve merino top, this also meant I did not have to carry these in my vest. Even despite these changes my load still looked huge in comparison to Mark’s!

Eventually 9am arrived, Race Director Jon Steele delivered his race briefing and we all headed outside for the start. A few of us headed off for a last minute toilet pitstop and on walking down to the road I could hear Jon giving a countdown to the start. It was perfect timing and I walked up to the back of the pack just as Jon shouted “Go!”.

I hit start on my Suunto Ambit and we were off!

Leg 1: Guisborough to Kildale – 19km

After the long wait it was great to be running but all good things must come to an end and after just a hundred metres we all came to a halt for the climb up some stairs onto the railway line. This didn’t take long and before we knew it we were running again along the disused railway line to the first marshall point, before turning for the climb up onto The Moors.

My race plan was to ease into the run, finding my own pace and not getting sucked along by the crowd. It was going to be a long day and I knew regardless of how well it went I would be running in the dark at some point, the question was for how long?

I also had my watch set to show heart rate and was keen to try and keep it in and around 140bpm, my usual target for my easy endurance runs. With my previous background in mountaineering I know I can march uphill pretty quickly without blowing my heart rate and that proved to be the case as the day progressed.

As the race started to hit the hills the field started to stretch out and I soon found myself walking along with the majority of the rest of the field. Mark and I had started along the railway line together but he soon skipped ahead and as I knew he would finish way ahead of me I was happy to let him go.

At the next marshall point we were directed up through the trees and before I knew it we were up on the edge of The Moor heading west back above the start at Guisborough. The terrain was very runnable, along forest tracks with some easy up and downs and some steeper sections thrown in.

After feeling like I was overheating at the start of my last race, I had started running without my jacket on, wearing a short sleeve compression top and a long sleeve merino layer, with a windproof gilet on top. I had also started wearing a visor but as we broke through the top of the trees the strong northerly wind caught us and I quickly switched this for my buff to try and retain some warmth.

This was pretty much what I wore for the remainder of the day, only switching back to the visor after the Osmotherley checkpoint. When exposed to the wind I found I was verging on being too cold but running just about took the edge off and it also had the added bonus of ensuring I didn’t hang around in the checkpoints.

Another tactic I had set myself was to try and grab a few photos as I went along, even if that meant stopping for a few seconds to compose the shot. This not only meant I got some photos for this report but also meant I was injecting some random opportunities for my heart rate to drop a little, even if only for a moment.

As the race progressed I felt pretty good. No sign of the lethargy from the previous races and even with the uphills my quads seemed to be behaving – hurrah! I chatted with a few people but on the whole kept myself to the task in hand, focussing on the first major milestone on my personal tick-list, Roseberry Topping.

The route was well signposted and while I was carrying a full map and compass, as well as the GPS track on both my watch and my iPhone, I had no need to get any of them out during the early stages of the race. I have always possessed good map memory, so was mentally ticking off the twists and turns as we made our way along the edge, comfortable we were progressing in the right direction.

Roseberry Topping was just over 11km into the race and shortly before arriving I decided it was time to break out the iPod. Typically just as I was doing this the first official photograph point arrived. Fortunately a runner behind warned me with a shout and I was able to at least look like I was running for the shot from Sports Sunday below

Once passed the photographer, Roseberry Topping quickly appeared in all its glory and what a sight. This was the first out and back section of the route and the lead runners were already streaming back through the gate. I kept an eye open for Mark but as I had taken the first section so easy there was a possibility he would already have been out and back, as it was a mile round trip.

I made sure to give way to the return runners on their run back up to the main path and after taking a couple of photos was soon setting about the first major climb of the race. Everybody was down to walking pace and the climb was quite exposed to the wind but we soon reached the top to find the marshals checking off our numbers and the first jelly baby opportunity of the race. I grabbed a handful, took a quick photo and headed back down.

The majority of runners were taking a different path down to the left of the main ascent path to avoid the runners coming up. After some initial steps, the main path started to zig zag down but there was the option of running along the grass bank and taking a more direct route down. I decided to take the later option and flew past runners, soon getting to the bottom and the short climb back up to the main path.

I made sure to try and greet as many people as I could coming the other way with promises of jelly babies at the summit, I hope they hadn’t run out by the time they got there!

Once back at the main path, it was a fairly quick descent down to the first water stop of the race at the road crossing, where I took on another load of fluids and added Nuun tablets. I was using the Salomon soft flasks with my new vest and it was a reminder what a faff they are to fill and add Nuun to, due to their narrow necks. This would cost me some time across the race, so maybe in the future I will switch back to the Hyrdapak bottles which are easier to fill and will take a complete Nuun tablet through the top.

After leaving the checkpoint it was a long drag up onto Easby Moor and Captain Cook’s monument before dropping down into Kildale, checkpoint 4 and the first bag drop, arriving with 2h 6m on the clock.

There was food a plenty and water too but no drop bags. Apparently there had been a technical issue and we were assured they would be available further along the route, although it was not quite clear where that would be. I was happy with this as I always felt 19km was a little too early for the first drop bag and could comfortably wait.

My plan for this race was to eat in the checkpoints while I was filling bottles and then grab some food and get out of the checkpoint as quickly as possible, eating as I walked up the road. I drank a cup of coke, something else new for me and a bit of a risk but didn’t seem to have a negative impact on my race.

This was the only source of caffeine I had during the day and I took some at every checkpoint. Hopefully the caffeine and sugar gave me some sort of lift!

My bottles were pretty full, so I grabbed a handful of flapjack, gingerbread men, jelly babies and headed off!

Leg 2: Kildale to Lord Stones – 21km (40km in total)

The race had stretched out now, so much so that I was now continually overtaking people and only loosing places when I stopped to take photos or take a comfort break. Even then I would quickly make it back up again and over the next few miles there were a number of runners I was leap frogging back and forth with until I finally pulled away.

The next couple of sections are mostly a bit of a blur if I’m honest. On reflection I guess I was “in the zone” and focussing on moving forward as economically as possible, eating and drinking at regular intervals.

On the subject of food and as previously mentioned, I was making sure I was taking on food and fluid while in the checkpoints and carrying some food out with me to consume in the first mile after I left.

I was paranoid about backing off on the nutrition entirely between checkpoints, worried that I would pay later in the race with the dreaded bonk! I was therefore trying to get some additional nutrition down as well, typically a one or two Nakd bars, which are my current ultra running nutrition of choice.

I wasn’t following a particular nutrition strategy though and would eat as I thought about it. This seemed to work very well for me and I now question whether I could get away with just using the food in the checkpoints, maybe something to test in a future race or training.

I was also drinking regularly between the checkpoint. As they were pretty close together, I was making sure I drank at least a single bottle between each if possible but wasn’t overly anal about it.

There was a long drag up to Bloworth Crossing where we had our first self clip. The Race Director Jon Steele had joked during the briefing that he had placed this high on the sign post and he wasn’t wrong! I was fine as I had my number on my trusty race belt so could easily stretch it up and clip and go. Others weren’t so fortunate and I lingered at the post for a while helping some others clip, including one guy who pulled himself up onto the top of the post while I tried to clip the number on his shorts. It took a couple of attempts but we eventually got there.

Hills came and went and the weather remained overcast and chilly. By now I was no longer looking at my watch and was purely running by feel, soaking in the views and in the easy running zone I mentioned earlier.

Eventually we descended down to Clay Bank where the drops bags were lined up on the side of the path by the road. I only had spare food in mine, so quickly loaded this, opting to donate the single Clif Bar in my drop bag to a young spectator as I hadn’t eaten the one I was carrying. In fact I carried this all the way to the end, so will question whether I carry Clif Bars in future races.

I looked around for the food table and couldn’t see one or anybody who appeared to be in overall charge. There was a jerry can of water balanced on top of the wall so I set about refilling both of my flasks which were by now empty. This proved problematic as the can was nearly empty and whenever I tried to turn off the tap it would twist and start to fall off the wall.

This was frustrating and I was struggling to fill my bottles. Fortunately another runner with Salomon soft flasks turned up and together we managed to fill both our flasks. I dug out my Nuun tablets and got myself ready to go.

There was an abandoned pile of food by the jerry can and I spied a small orange that had been discarded. I had already downed a couple of mugs of water using the cup attached to can but still fancied more liquid. So I grabbed the orange, discarded the peel, crossed the road and began the climb up the steps opposite eating the orange.

I had wasted more time than I was happy with at this checkpoint, mainly due to the water issue. Imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner to find the official checkpoint half way up the hill!

This was totally my fault as the route description had clearly described it being on the other side of the road but in the surprise at finding the drop bags I had totally forgotten this and assumed I was at the checkpoint. With hindsight I should have just grabbed my drop bag and walked to the proper checkpoint, where I could then have got assistance with my bottles and probably saved myself a few minutes. Oh well, another lesson learned!

As it was I lingered a little longer here drinking some coke and enjoying a jam sandwich before grabbing some more flapjack, ginger bread men and sweets and continuing up the hill.

The run continued as before, hills coming and going, including a little boulder hoping coming off Wainstones, slowly passing people and generally soaking up the views. In my mind I was tracking my progress along the route, now heading along the second east to west section towards Lord Stones, after which we would eventually turn south and begin the long drag down through Osmotherley and onto Sutton Bank and The White Horse checkpoint.

I finally arrived at Lord Stones car park after 4h 46m of running. I had no idea of the time though as for some reason was now totally ignoring my watch and just running by feel. It was almost like I had accepted that the journey would take as long as it would take and as long as I was moving forward that was fine.

The next drop bag was at Osmotherley, which I knew was also over half way, so was my next mental goal. Once there is was a short hop (21km!) down to White Horse and then just 9-10 miles into the finish. Easy peasy!

I drank some more coke and water, had my half empty bottle topped up, grabbed some sweets and quickly headed out of at the checkpoint. Osmotherley here we come!

Leg 3: Lord Stones to Osmotherley – 11km (51km in total)

This leg included two of the four occasions where I ran with other competitors for a while during the race. I wasn’t being anti-social, I was just generally finding that my pace was different to those around me and although cheery exchanges would be had as we passed each other, we would soon move apart and back into our own races.

One lesson I learned from Peddars Way Ultra was to run at my own pace and not that of those around me. You may only be moving fractionally faster but over the course of an ultra this can add up to quite a long way, so better to push on if you feel you can rather than sitting in.

I should also take this opportunity to apologise, as for the life of me I cannot remember the names of anybody I spoke to. I struggle at the best of times to remember people’s names when I first meet them. Chuck in a 55 mile ultra and my brain has no chance! Apologise to all, no offence intended and I really valued the time we spent together on the trail!

I hooked up with another runner as we left the checkpoint and we chatted as we climbed up to Lord Stones, swapping stories of our ultra adventures and plans. Closer to the top we caught and passed another runner and I then started to pull away from them both.

On cresting the summit I was confronted by a prominent summit cairn and two paths heading off in totally different directions, with no other runners in sight. 50km+ in and I was finally having to make a proper route decision!

Now was not the time to get lost, so I pulled my map out and started to orientate myself. My two companions soon arrived, with the second confidently informing us it was straight on and duly headed off in that direction.

I was happy with this decision, so stowed my map and headed off on the westerly path, soon passing them both again and pulling away. Eventually other runners appeared in the distance and I settled back into my zone for the run across The Moor and down into the woods around Hollin Hill.

It was at this point that I switched my Suunto into navigation mode, so I could quickly double check I was heading in the right direction. A complete brain fog came over me and I was totally unable to view my time, distance or heart rate data while looking at the route. Turned out I was pressing the wrong button but it didn’t make any difference as I hadn’t looked at this data for ages, so pressed on in navigation mode.

The terrain had been far harder on the feet than I had expected, with quite a few tarmac stretches and also some pitched stone paths. This had started to aggravate an old injury in the ball of my right foot which was now quite sore but wasn’t getting any worse, so I just kept moving on.

That aside my feet were in a pretty good state, with no hot spots to mention and my double sock approach seemed to be working nicely. The Brooks Cascadia’s were also a great choice of shoe for these conditions, with decent support.

Once down in the woods and out of the wind the temperature started to pick up, with the sun even making an appearance. I kept moving forward, confident that we were closing in on Osmotherley and would drop a layer there if necessary.

I was walking an uphill drag across a field in the bottom of the valley when another runner appeared behind me. My right hamstring was feeling a little tight, so I decided to stop for a quick stretch just to be on the safe side. I did this a couple more times during the remainder of the race and didn’t have any further issues. Maybe being overly paranoid but better to be safe than sorry.

I caught the other runner who’d passed me as I stretched and as we moved through the woods we were leap frogging each other. I would pass him on the flat and downhills when we were running and he would then pass me back if I walked any steeper uphills. We hit the 300m uphill drag with a 20% gradient and by now we were both walking, so walked and then ran together and chatted away, again sharing race experiences, of which it turned out that my companion had quite a few. We eventually ran all the way into Osmotherley together and it was nice to have some company for a change.

We reached the self clip at the TV masts, which looked more like mobile phone masts to me but far be it for me to argue with those with local knowledge. From there is a was an easy run downhill into the village, still passing people and into the welcome warmth of the Village Hall and our final drop bag.

Total running time was now at 6h 9m.

It turned out that this checkpoint was the location for the spot check on kit and I quickly produced my jacket as instructed. At this point my companion and I headed to separate points of the hall to find our drop bags and sort out our kit.

The hall was lined with chairs but I avoided sitting on these, instead choosing to stay on my feet and use a chair as a table for my kit. I had included some spare socks in this bag, which I didn’t need but would carry them on with me. Call me tight but there was no way I was leaving £30 worth of socks behind for the sake of a few grams.

I had also packed a pot of rice pudding in my bag, something totally new for me in a race, so a risky choice but it went down nicely using the spoon I had also included. By now I was also craving savoury food, so grabbed a few sausage rolls and munched on these.

As it had been quite warm since coming off The Moor and looked like it was turning into a nice afternoon weather wise, I took the opportunity to switch my buff for my visor and also take my gilet off and place it in my race vest. A quick loo stop, refill of my bottles, I grabbed some more food and I was off.

My companion from the run in was still occupied and I was keen to move on, conscious I had already burned nearly 9 minutes in the hall. So with a quick farewell and thanks to all, I headed out of the door and in the general direction of Sutton Bank and The White Horse!

Leg 4: Osmotherley to White Horse – 21km (72km in total)

Within moments of leaving the checkpoint I had to stop to put my gilet back on, the sun had gone in and it was so cold! Once that was sorted I was on my way, heading across fields and along tracks back up onto The Moors above Osmotherley.

Having read the thoughts of previous runners and also looking at the topography for the route, it was clear that for the first 5km or so out of Osmotherley we would generally be heading upwards. However once this was over the remainder of the route would take on a more downward profile into the finish. Put simply, the worst of the climbing would hopefully be over shortly!

I soon got back into my rhythm and trotted along at a nice even pace. Once up on The Moor the sun even came out again, giving some breathtaking views and as before, some good excuses to quickly stop for a photo or two.

As before I was slowly moving through runners, catching and passing them with friendly words exchanged. As I still had my Suunto watch in navigation mode, I had no idea of the time or distance I had covered. What I did know was that we were now well into late afternoon, predominantly by the way the sun was sinking towards the horizon and from the fact I could hear football score alerts arriving on my phone – hopefully Norwich was having a good game – they beat Notts Forest 3-1 as it turned out!

I knew I would be finishing after dark but set myself the mental target of getting to White Horse before dusk and taking it from there.

We passed through the checkpoint at High Paradise Farm, run by the team from Chia Charge, at which another runner asked how many people had been through ahead of them. The answer was 99.

This pricked my ears, as it meant that if I continued as I had so far, slowly moving up the field, a top 100 place in a 300+ field was definitely in the offing. Something I would have gladly taken at the start of the race.

Although it was only 10km from High Paradise Farm along Sutton Bank to White Horse, I still topped my bottles up, grabbed some sweets and headed on my way.

We had driven up over Sutton Bank on our way to Helmsley the previous day and therefore knew I had to cross that road for the final run into The White Horse, which made a great visual marker for me as I progressed along the top of Sutton Bank.

There was a little bit of navigation uncertainty where a new mountain bike trail had been added alongside the Cleveland Way but this was quickly sorted and before I knew it I was running through the woods and down towards the road.

Once over the road I began the second out and back section of the race, which would take us down off Sutton Bank around to the car park under the White Horse, before returning up a steep flight of steps alongside it to the cliff top, then heading to the Helmsley.

I passed the turn off to Helmsley and mentally logged its location for the return leg. Only a mile to the car park now and I knew I would make not only the checkpoint in daylight but also some of the final leg into Helmsley.

Other runners were approaching from the final checkpoint and most people had that “I wish this was over now” look on their faces, which I totally agreed with. By now, although I was physically tired, I was able to keep running but mentally I wanted to be at the finish.

We had been told that the path cutting down the cliff face would be clearly marked, which it was and I plunged down the path through the trees. It was pretty steep in places so once or twice I had to stop and slowly walk or jump some steps to ensure I didn’t loose my footing in the growing gloom.

Once down I ran along the track at the bottom of the cliff and before I knew it the final checkpoint came into view, with The White Horse above it. 45 miles in the bag, in a time of 9 hours and 8 minutes. Only ten miles to go!

Leg 5: White Horse to Helmsley – 16km (88km in total)

While the checkpoint staff topped up my bottles (many thanks!) I took the opportunity to move my head torch out of the back of my race vest and into one of the expansion pockets, which I could easily access while running. There was still enough daylight to run without it for now but once I started I didn’t want to have to stop again to get it out.

As before I grabbed some food to take with me, chuffed to find they had pretzel’s and peanuts, as by now I was really graving savoury food.

There were two other runners at the checkpoint, one of which was on her first official ultra and happy to be so close to the end. The three of us left together with our thanks to the checkpoint staff, next stop Helmsley!

The steps up beside the White Horse were brutal, thank god we didn’t have to come down them! Munching on the peanuts and pretzel’s meant I kept the pace down and we chatted amongst ourselves moaning about how steep the stairs were.

On reaching the top I quickly finished the last of my food and I joined my companions as they broke into a gentle trot back along the path. It was nice to have the company but I was still keen to finish and aware I had more in my legs. We caught two other runners as we reached the turn off point and I moved to the front of the group. We crossed the main road one final time and headed down a small lane, eventually turning right through some horse paddocks.

I upped the pace slightly and the group started to fragment a little, with the two Guys we caught coming with me. I just focussed on my own running and eventually pulled away from them. By now it was starting to get dark, so I reached around and got my head torch and buff out, placing my visor back in my race vest in their place.

I held my pace at a nice steady level and before I knew it I was out on my own.

As we entered a small hamlet the road forked, so I took the right one as it seemed the logical option and the GPS track said straight on. I didn’t want to have to start digging out my map at this stage but was also aware from the route description that this was the most complicated section navigation wise, with plenty of twists and turns.

Fortunately I spotted the path signpost pointing across the village green in the beam of my head torch and was on my way without breaking stride.

By now it was totally dark and I was pleased to have been able to hold off on the head torch until the final 7-8 miles. Maybe I should come back and race next year, with the aim to finish in daylight!?

The benefit of the darkness was that you could easily spot other runners ahead, although I was also aware that worked for those behind me. There was no way I was looking back, I couldn’t control what was going on behind me but I could focus on those up ahead and reeling them in.

We eventually dropped down through some trees into a valley floor, picking up the road along it. As I rounded the corner I was treated to the sight of around 8 people running about a hundred metres or so ahead of me. They were spread out over 30-40 metres, so weren’t running together but had obviously formed a pace train, similar to those you see formed by professional triathletes on the bike route of the Ironman World Championships.

I quickly moved up behind them and started to move through the group, exchanging a few words with people as I passed. Once I hit the front the Guy who had been leading the way came with me as we pushed on down the road. Guess it was nice to have someone else to run with for a while.

I knew we were closing on the finish but had no idea how far we had left to go and with the tricky navigation and darkness, I was loathed to turn off the navigation mode on my watch to check.

We chatted as we ran and the guy (again sorry never got your name) mentioned that at our current pace we were on for a sub eleven hour finish. Fantastic!

Although I hadn’t set myself any pace targets at the start I had roughly calculated that on a good day 10.5-11 hours could be possible but unofficially hoped for sub 12 hours, with sub 11 hours being a bonus. What a boost to know I could finish in less than 11 hours!

While we chatted I asked my companion how far he felt we had to go. Due to some issues with his watch he wasn’t 100% sure but figured it was around 3-4 miles, which matched my thoughts based on how long we’d been running since the last checkpoint.

We left the road and headed up through the trees, climbing back out of the valley and as before I was pulling away on the ascents while we walked. Thinking back to the maps and the topography I had studied before the start, I knew that there would be one final kick upwards just outside Helmsley, followed by a short dog leg left and then right, after which it was all downhill into the town centre and the finish.

It was difficult to be sure but the current uphill stretch we were on went on and was the first significant climb for a while. As we were in the trees it was difficult to get any visual references so I continued to march along, desperate to finish now.

Once through the top the my companion closed up on me again as we ran and we continued to chat. We then came to a steep drop down some steps through the trees and sensing that the finish must be less than 2 miles away I decided to go for it and pushed it hard down the steps. At the bottom I ran straight into another set going up hill and conscious that I had dropped my companion pushed hard up the steps. At the top I burst out of the trees onto the edge of a field to be confronted by the lights of a small town in the valley below, it had to be Helmsley!

I shouted back, “I can see the lights” and was off!

Ahead I could see a runner heading left up the field, the dog leg I had been looking for. I upped the pace a little, aware the dog leg was slightly uphill. I wasn’t gaining on the runner in front but was happy with my days work and now was just keen to not be overtaken from behind.

At this point my mobile started to ring in my race vest. Was it Mark phoning to get my beer order? Had he seen where I was on the tracker? There was no way I was getting the phone out now though, I knew I was moments from the end and would check it there, there was work to be done!

At the second right turn I could see the track heading down into the town and into the street lights – almost there! I passed through the last gate and could see the runner I had been following passing two other runners a hundred metres or so ahead, could I catch them?

I started to push as hard as I could, making the most of the downhill section and knowing that from the junction it was only a couple of hundred metres around the church to the finish.

I passed the couple at the end of the track and with a quick “we’re almost there!” pushed on. Behind me I thought I head a quick discussion about one of them upping the pace – great that’s all I need, a sprint finish!

As before I just focussed on my own running and hit the main street crossing it to take the shortest line around the church. I knew I was now in the last one hundred metres and was so happy to be able to finish strongly.

A tractor was turning at the roundabout ahead, so I dived across the road in front of it, don’t want any hold-ups now. Spectators were applauding and wishing me well as I turned the corner into the market square and there was the finish in front of me!

I was directed into the door of the Town Hall, where my race number was taken and the race was over! I had finished in 77th place (out of 300 odd) in a time of 10:46:31, I couldn’t have been happier!

Post race thoughts

It was over and I had not only come under 11 hours but well under, what a great race! So much for thinking my estimates of 10.5-11 hours were a pipe dream, they were a reality now!

There had been no return of the quad issues from my last race and also none of the fatigue or general lethargy that had previously held me back. My plan of starting easy and building into the race had work perfectly, with me constantly making progress through the field from ten or so miles onwards.

Already my mind was turning to how I could go quicker. Less kit? I was quicker through the checkpoints but could I be even quicker? My nutrition had obviously worked as I never felt low on energy but had I carried and eaten too much food? Could I get away with just what they provide at the checkpoints, with a few top-ups here and there?

I sent a text message to my wife, letting her know I had finished and my time. I then walked back outside to check who had called and it was Mark. I called him straight back and was delighted to hear he had had a pretty good race too and had finished an hour ahead of me – well done Mark!

While waiting for me to finish Mark had decided sleeping in a tent was not going to be pleasant, so had managed to grab the car, track down a nice local B&B and checked us both in. That morning I had had concerns about how I would cope post race in a tiny tent and as the temperatures dropped after dark my enthusiasm hadn’t grown. I was delighted to hear the plan and the thought of a long hot shower put a bounce in my step as I headed upstairs to receive my medal and t-shirt.

I grabbed my drop bag and a slice of warm toast before heading back outside for the short walk to the B&B. It was only 500m but by the time I reached the front door I was shivering and desperate for the hot shower, definitely the right choice.

I won’t bother you with a blow by blow account of the rest of the day. Suffice to say that beer and celebratory food was consumed at the local pub. Another great job by Mark who went ahead of me and managed to order just as they closed for food at 20:30. I could enjoy my shower, walk down in clean warm clothes while chatting to my wife, to find a killer burger, chips and beer waiting – top man!

Needless to say even as the days have passed I remain very happy with how my race went. As outlined at the start, this was a journey into the unknown, with no idea how I would cope with the 2,700m of ascent across 55 miles. The answer was pretty well and to be able to finish in 10:46 was beyond my realistic expectations and gives me great confidence for ultra marathons in hilly or mountainous terrain in the future. Perhaps my mountaineering muscle memory does still exist after all!

The one interesting outcome of writing this report, as always apologies for its length, is how disjointed my recollections are from the day. I obviously slipped into the zone and the miles just drifted by, in a good rather than bad way and at no point did I ever wish to stop or throw in the towel.

A huge thanks to Jon and Shirley Steele for a superb race and to all the marshall’s and spectators for their support and enthusiasm throughout the race. I had always heard great things about the Hardmoors series of races and can now whole heartedly agree that they do put on a good event. Thanks all!

A massive congratulations to all those that finished, ranging from the winner – a whole 3 hours ahead of me with a new course record! – to those that finished around the cut off at midnight. Fabulous running one and all across a tough course, well done!

Finally a huge thanks to you for reading my inane ramblings. Hope you found it an interesting insight into the race? If you are interested in reading more about the lessons I learned and the kit I carried then read on.

For the rest of you, thanks for reading. Be sure to check back from time to time to read how my training goes in the run up to my next race, The North Downs 50 in May 2015.

Lessons learned

So as is usual, its time to quickly note the key lessons I learned during and after this race, which I can hopefully take forward into future races. This includes things I did right and also things I would change.

So the list is, in no particular order:

1. Dropping one of my big blocks of training and having a more aggressive taper into the race obviously helped, as I didn’t have any of the sense of fatigue from my previous races.
2. Getting a good nights sleep before the race, even if in a tent, makes a lot of difference too
3. Double the amount of time you think you need before a race if you are staying away.
4. No ill effects from drinking coke and eating rice pudding during the race, both new for me
5. I really wanted more savoury foods, especially towards the end of the race. Maybe look to carry a sandwich or similar in future training runs or races? Checkpoints always have sweet options but savoury can be harder to come by
6. Nakd bars are great as always!
7. I didn’t touch my Clif bars so maybe drop those for future events?
8. Starting easy and building through the race worked great and I was running strongly at the end, able to average 7:30 per km across the entire race
9. Brooks Cascadia’s were super comfortable, as were my double socks as had no foot issues other than aggravating the existing injury.
10. Better to be slightly cold than warm, pack and wear accordingly but don’t be stupid about it as weather can change!
11. An orange was a great find and really refreshing, so maybe put those in future drop bags to.

Kit carried

For those that are interested, here is the kit I wore and carried for the race. Some minor changes in the final days, hours and minutes before the race, which you can compare against my original list published elsewhere on this site.

What I wore

• Adidas sunglasses with orange lens – great for lifting mood but also protecting my contact lens
• Salomon compression short sleeve top
• Long sleeve Helly Hansen merino base layer. This was a compulsory item, so didn’t have to carry a spare
• Montane windproof gilet with mesh back
• X-bionic running tights, again compulsory item
• Injinji liner socks
• X-Socks Sky Run
• Helly race number belt, with race number attached of course
• Brooks Cascadia 9’s
• My race vest – Salomon S-Lab Advanced Skin 3 12-set
• Buff or Salomon running visor
• Thin pair of liner gloves

What I carried

• Waterproof layer for top and bottom
• Map covering whole route, plus compass, laminated checkpoint card and route description
• Petzl Nao Head torch plus two AAA spare batteries
• Whistle (attached to bag)
• Survival bag
• Spare Hat and gloves
• Food, with Clif bar and shot bloks as back-up emergency food
• Tub of Nuun tablets
• Minimum of one litre of fluid in Salomon soft flasks
• Mobile phone (fully charged and on)
• iPod nano and headphones
• Personal emergency pack which contained some toilet roll, blister patches, antiseptic wipes, zinc tape, small tub of Vaseline, pain killers, Imodium, 2x£10 notes and emergency back-up light.

What would I change with hindsight? Well I only pulled out the full map once and didn’t touch the compass, so could have got away without these and just used the route descriptions and maps on them. That said the weather was good and in worse conditions I would probably have appreciated having both.

I could have also carried less food, as didn’t use it all and I may have been able to get away with what was at the checkpoints. Something to test in future races! I didn’t touch anything in my emergency pack but it weighs next to nothing and is there for emergencies after all!

Following the race I stumbled upon this

(https://youtu.be/URBDZC6C1vM?list=UUdZUU7qVGwicW0TdsUR6yuw), demonstrating how to fit all of the mandatory kit for ultra distance trail events into a 3 litre vest! I wish I’d seen this before the event and will be using this as a guide for my next race for sure. Super lightweight here I come!

 

Written by Jämes Campbell - https://jamescampbell78.wordpress.com

The Hardmoors 55 is an ultramarathon starting in Guisborough and finishing at Helmsley, taking in the Western half of the Cleveland way and some 2,700m of ascent.

I decided to enter this one almost immediately after my DNF in the Hardmoors 60 as a stepping stone to another attempt at the 60.

For this race I gave myself a set of targets based around my learnings from HM60:

• Carry no more food and equipment than I will reasonably need
• Recce the course in advance
• Use a pacing plan based on recces of the course
• Run with a group where possible
• Eat every 15 minutes
• Spend as little time at checkpoints as possible, if practical don’t stop moving

Over the last few months I’d pared my equipment down to the bare minimum and had done the same with my food.  I’d recce’d all but two sections of the course, the first being the gate at the top of Battersby Bank to Round Hill but I was confident that this stretch was straightforward having spent a lot of time there as a youth.  The second was the stretch between Square Corner and Sutton Bank, this was more concerning because I’d be doing it tired and in the dark but I’d picked the brains of people who knew this stretch and I was assured it was straightforward and well signed.

I printed out and laminated my pacing plan, this was to go into my pocket on race day for reference:

My final training session before the 55 was a 20 miler round my usual East Durham Coastal loop a fortnight before the race which saw me post my 3rd best 20 mile time.  I wanted to try and get another couple of shorter sessions in before the race but work commitments prevented that.

In the week leading up to such a race, I’d normally try and get more sleep than usual, again work demands came into play and I had substantially less than normal but despite that I felt reasonably rested and comfortable going into the weekend.

I’d decided to camp in my car at Helmsley early on because the weather is so unpredictable this time of year and I knew I could keep myself comfortable and warm for the duration in the car.  I travelled down on Friday afternoon, stopping at Clay Bank to get a feel for the weather and again at Chop Gate where I bumped into Gill Crane who I ran the final few miles of the Osmotherley marathon with and stopped for a chat.

I got into Helmsley early and had a wander into town for a huge tray of sausage, chips and gravy before setting up my nest in the back of the car.

After that I got my head down for an hours kip.  I spent the rest of the evening alternating between short naps, chatting with other campers and eating.

Around 2:30am I was disturbed from my slumber by an owl and by around 3:30pm I give in to the fact that I couldn’t get back off so I started to slowly sort myself out for the big day ahead.  I eat a pot of porridge and had a cup of coffee while I applied BodyGlide liberally to my toes and other areas of the body that might rub or chafe then applied blister plasters to my heels.

I then put on some of my running kit before having a wander out to chat with Rosie from Drinks Stop who’d just arrived (and a cuppa of course).

Soon it was time to get on the bus to head up to Guisborough and the race start.  The journey up was uneventful and I passed the time chatting with Dave Kamis and Chris Lyons before getting quickly through kit check and registration when we arrived.  After that there was some time to kill so I alternated with catching up with various people I hadn’t seen since ta least the last race or the one before and nipping outside to stretch off before Race Director Jon Steele gave the race brief.

After that we trouped out to the road for the start and we got quickly underway, with the mass of bodies carrying me up to a bottleneck at the steps up onto the disused railway line which was to take us up to Guisborough Woods.  Up on the railway line I thought the pace was very quick and made a conscious effort to slow down, dropping quite a way down the field as I did so.  However, as the path began to rise into the woods I was soon gaining those places back despite my calves feeling very tight.  I trotted along conservatively chatting with other runners until I managed to hit a significant downhill at pace to loosen them off and catching up with Dave Cook, Dee Bouderba and Jason Hayes in the process.

We jogged along at a steady but comfortable pace, chatting away and soon we were over the top of Highcliff Nab and on our way to Roseberry Topping.

As we came off Little Roseberry and headed towards Roseberry Topping itself, I spotted Ady Benn coming the opposite way having already made his climb up and down.  As we passed each other we high fived and wished each other well.

On the climb up Roseberry I adopted the climbing tactic that I hoped would serve me well on the many similar climbs to come.  This mainly involved taking the smallest steps with the absolute minimum vertical movement in my legs.  I lost ground to Dee (who rocketed up like a mountain goat) and Dave but wasn’t worried as we bunched back together at the top, grabbing some sweets from the marshalls and rounding the trig point before heading back down the hill.

At this point I’d already realised that the cold wind blowing out of the north could be a significant factor and had pulled a buff up from round my neck and over my chin as we came down from the top.

On the way back up Little Roseberry, Dee spotted the SportSunday photographer and managed to trip over while distracted but she wasn’t hurt and cam back up laughing and smiling.  Once through the gate at the top of the hill, our little group continued our steady progress along the Cleveland Way towards Gribdale.

As we passed the Gribdale Gate checkpoint I walked ahead on the climb to Captain Cooks to buy some time to send my first update text to Natalie and was joined by the rest of the group as we reached the top before picking up the pace for the very nicely runnable downhill stretch into Kildale.

At this point I was happy with my pacing, I was slightly ahead of plan but happy to push the pace a little faster because I had the benefit of being in a good group.  My food was going perfectly to plan, I’d eaten every 15 minutes and I was just about out of my dry roasted nuts, had couple of Wine Gums left and two gels.

We cruised into the Kildale checkpoint at 2h:33m where I said hi to Ruth Whiteside and quickly binned the almost empty foodbags and started looking for the dropbags only to be told that a logistical mistake meant they were 10 miles along the route at Clay Bank.  I quickly retrieved my bags from the bin and started loading them up with supplies from the checkpoint to last me another 10 miles.

At this point Dee had dropped back to use the loo at the cafe in Kildale and still hadn’t joined us, with my aim of keeping moving in mind I told Dave I was going to walk on and he assured me that they would catch up.

I started off up Battersby Bank which is on tarmac and quite runnable in places and about halfway up I looked behind me to see no sign of Dave, Dee and Jason.  There was a short line of runners following me up the hill but not particularly close so I stuck my headphones in an cracked on to the beat of my very random selection of music (I plugged the MP3 into the computer before I left and let the computer choose 125 random tracks).  One of the first tracks was “The Only Way Is Up” by Yazz and the Plastic Population, very appropriate.

As I pushed across the ever more exposed moorland towards Bloworth the temperature dropped and I was forced to used my spare buff as a headband on top of my two hats to keep my ears warm and my cap from blowing away in the wind.  I was quickly overtaken by the group behind me but this did not bother me.  I was still ahead of my pacing plan at around 8:30m/km to 8:50m/km so I stuck to this comfortable pace allowing the group to head off into the near distance.

As I approached Bloworth I remembered reading one of John Kynaston’s blog last year where he described gaining benefit from repeating a mantra of “I am strong, I am fit” as he ran.  Since I was alone I decided to try this myself.  I started repeating “I am strong, I am fit, I am running well and I am running pain free.” over and over.  I had done this for over a full kilometer and was starting to feel really good when I came across an amusing sight.  The group ahead were taking turns to lift each other up to clip the numbers they’d attached to their lower bodies at the self clip that Jon Steele had left comically high on the sign post at Bloworth crossing.

I casually tipped up giggling and removed my triathlon belt holding my number, clipped it and got on my merry way repeating my mantra for a few minutes then singing along to my music for a few minutes more, much to the amusement of a couple of ladies running ahead of me who I’d chatted to earlier in the race.

At this point I started to feel really strong and really good about myself, so even though I was roughly 10 minutes ahead of my pacing plan I allowed myself to go with the flow and picked up the pace.  I overtook one runner, then another, then another.  Just before Round Hill I decided to walk and send Natalie another text update.

When I got running again I felt like I was dancing down the descent towards Clay Bank and my MP3 obliged with a nice, fast track for me to skip down the rocks to.

I rushed down to the roadside where Dennis Atherton was manning the drop bag pickup and finally dumped the rubbish from my previous food.  I filled my now empty juice bottle up with the can of Red Bull from my drop bag and quickly packed food into my back pockets including a bag of Bombay Mix, a Chia Charge Flapjack, a mixed bag of Wine Gums and Midget Gems and 4 gels.

At this point I also decided to give my “You are running pain free” mantra some chemical assistance and grabbed some paracetamol from my pack before heading over the road and up the side of Hasty Bank at 4h:45m, 5 minutes ahead of my planned arrival time at Clay and having spent a few minutes there already .

My climbing plan for this stretch was very much the same as Roseberry.  Slow, steady, minimal movements and minimal stress on the legs.  I was overtaken by a couple of runners but this didn’t bother me.  I was feeling good and strong and seemingly climbing without effort.  I’d just got onto the top when I started thinking my pack felt a bit odd.  As I got running again, the feeling got worse.  I stopped and took it off and realised what the problem was just in time.  When I’d got the paracetamol out, I’d left my pack unzipped in my hurry to get going again, my headtorch had been swinging from the pack and was only hanging on by the buckle on the strap.  Another few metres and it’d have dropped into the heather without me noticing.  This may not have been an issue in itself because I was carrying a spare hand torch (although being forced to use a hand torch in HM60 had slowed me a lot) but the psychological blow could have been bad.

I quickly zipped my pack up having been overhauled by two runners while stopped and cracked on to the Wainstones where the runners who had overtaken me were slowly picking their way down through the rocks.  Having trained extensively on this stretch I knew the Wainstones well and quickly percolated like water finding the shortest most efficient route through the rocks and picking up a couple of places in the process.  On the descent I really let fly putting a decent gap between me and the runners behind.  At the bottom I even had time to stop and fasten my laces without being caught before heading up the next climb of Cold Moor.  Again, being slow, steady and minimal caused me to be overtaken but again I wasn’t worried.  I had never felt so good on these climbs, hardly out of breath and relaxed, I realised I was actually enjoying climbing.

I got onto the top and decided to have some Bombay Mix while I was trotting along at a nice clip (my average at this point for the entire race was well under my target) and decided it tasted foul.  I shoved it back in my pocket and resolved to use my Chia Charge flapjack instead.

I flew down the descent where a very cold looking John Vernon and Flip Owen were checking off runners outside their tent.  I got a high five from Flip and a reassuring comment that I was looking strong as I started on the ascent of Cringle Moor.  Again I enjoyed the climb, the technique of preserving the legs obviously working well and the mantra reinforcing my positive feelings. It seemed I was over the top in no time at all before rocketing down the other side towards the Lord Stones checkpoint.

I was now repeatwed my mantra loudly and unashamedly as I finished the last of the Red Bull and cruised into the checkpoint at 6h:00m.  A whole 8 minutes ahead of time, smiling as I passed Jo Barrett and I was laughing and joking as I filled my bottle up with coke at the checkpoint.

As I crossed Raisdale Road, I was anticipating some pain from Carlton Bank, I’d really suffered on there in the Osmotherley marathon at a shorter distance in.  As I arrived at the bottom of the steps, Objects In The Rear View Mirror (May Appear Closer Than They Are) by Meat Loaf came on my MP3 player.

Awhile ago I’d made some videos to use while on my cycling turbo trainer and I’d used this track overlaid against a video of climbing the White Horse Bank (which I’d cross the top of later in the race).  I’d found it a bit of a dirge for the turbo trainer but it seemed perfect for me on this climb.  I was cruising up in time with the music and my body seemed to expect to have to work with this song in my head, I was running past the trig point at the top in no time at all and as I reached the top the sun came out and I had a moment of what can only be described as euphoria.

I was now belting across Holey Moor an Live Moor with ease enjoying every minute of this race, I actually felt something close to bulletproof as I was bouncing down the descent from Live Moor and clattered onto the tarmac at Huthwaite Green in 6h:47m, now tracking 16 minutes ahead of plan.

I had it in my mind that this section would be psychologically difficult, there was an uphill stretch across the field into Clain Woods to do but, I’d even decided to ford the river instead of using the bridge on my way into the field.  I couldn’t believe how well I was going.

I seemed to reach the point I’d been dreading quickly, the steps that are hidden in the wood that stretch for 300m at a grade of over 20% in places up to Coalmire Lane.  As I got onto the steps I was caught by one of the ladies I’d been chatting with earlier and pretty much on and off since the start and got talking again as we made our way up.  The steps were conquered in no time at all and I seemed to have the ability to run straight away so I obliged my legs again.

As I arrived at Scarth Nick, I took the time to text another update to Natalie before starting on the climb to the woods above Osmotherley.  I passed the time chatting with the two runners I was to run into Osmotherley with.  We jogged along, self clipping again at the TV station before enjoying the descent into Osmotherley.  Shortly before the village the battery warning started beeping on my Garmin so I started planning what I needed to do at the checkpoint:

• Toilet
• Drop Bags
• Top up drink bottle
• Get head torch out and into my back pocket
• Take more paracetamol
• Hook my Garmin up to the charger

I arrived in Osmotherley at 8h:03m feeling positive at being almost 15 minutes ahead of plan.  I quickly got through my list of tasks before plugging the Garmin in and my mood took a nose dive.  The bloody thing wouldn’t charge.  I couldn’t work out if it was the wire (which I’d found had been getting leaked on by coke from my bottle), the cradle or the charger.  I swapped new batteries into the charger and still nothing.  I’d tested the whole set up the previous night and was furious with myself.  I hadn’t brought a second watch to manage my eating every 15 minutes and pacing so was facing some guesswork when it ran out.

I packed up as quickly as I could and set off having lost several places in my 16 minutes of faffing about (not that I was bothered about places but it was getting dark and I’d wanted to stay near a group for this bit and felt I was gong well with the couple I ran into Osmotherley with).

As I left the checkpoint Emily Beaumont arrived, the last I’d seen of her was on the railway track at Guisborough where she’d pulled up in apparent pain and was stretching.  She now looked very fresh and soon caught me on the climb out of Osmotherley.

As she passed, I realised that in my rush at the checkpoint, I’d forgotten to take some paracetamol so sh very kindly got it out of my pack for me and saved me stopping.

During the climb onto Black Hambleton I was caught by Andy Nesbit and we got chatting.  I told him I was walking for a bit as I’d allowed myself 4 hours to get to White Horse and my current walking pace was comfortably quick enough to get me there faster.  In fact it was quicker than some of the running I’d done earlier.  We decided to walk to High Paradise and then get moving again on the descent.

We cracked on at a steady pace, telling each other about how our day had gone so far, chatting briefly with runners who overtook us and estimating how far ahead other runners were as their headtorches came on as well as speculating whether the headtorches we could see behind us would catch us.

We left it as long as possible before turning ours on to conserve batteries but it got to the point where the gravel track was getting tricky in the fading light.

Soon we hit High Paradise farm and I gave my first top up of the day to my water and chia bottle, rather fittingly from the Chia Charge wagon there.  As we were jogging off from the checkpoint Fran Jeffery and another runner arrived.  I was pleased to see her as Emily had told me that she was local to these parts and would be a good person to follow if I was struggling with the navigation.

Andy and I pushed on jogging and walking in equal measure keping ahead of the lights only a few hundred metres behind us.  We moved quickly across Sneck Yate having a few friendly words with a gentleman who was waiting for someone there and got going along Boltby Scar where Andy spotted a deer on the cliffside.  Seeing wildlife up close like that always spurs me on and it took my mind off the growing pains in my feet, in particular, what I suspected were a couple of blisters on my left little toe.

We were caught and overtaken by a runner just before Whitestone Cliff and just started to follow him up a left hand turn that appeared to be signposted Cleveland Way when Fran shouted us both back.  We tried to shout the runner ahead back but he was alread on his way across the Gallops.

We followed Fran at her amazingly quick walking pace to Sutton Bank and down towards the cruel out and back loop to White Horse passing runners now coming the other way.

As we descended the scrabbly bank down to the woods around the White Horse (which had some painful challnges for our tired knees) I was surprised to see that my Garmin was still working and we were at 11h:56m which was still looking slightly ahead of budget for White Horse.  A few minutes later, my Garmin gave up the ghost and I was now reliant on Andy, not only for witty banter but reminders to eat and timings.

We soon arrived at what I called the fun checkpoint.  They had disco lights and music booming out of their car stereo but informed me sadly that they were out of coke.

I filled my coke bottle up with water and waited as Andy refilled his bladder, trying to have a dance to the music but my legs were not playing ball.  Just as we were about to crack on, John Vernon arrived in his car and the checkpoint crew told me he had coke.  I very quickly ditched the water and substituted it with lovely sugary caffeine and E number goodness.

Andy and I had been dreading the climb up the steps back to the top of the White Horse but I didn’t think they were that bad.  We got to the top and I suggested a bit of a jog to loosen our legs which we did for about 200m before fast walking again.

In the distance we saw a group of lights heading down to White Horse and we speculated whether that was the final group running with sweepers.  At this point we made a pact to get away on our toes if we saw any lights coming up behind us as a bit of an incentive to keep our pace up and make a final push for Helmsley.

I was confident in this stretch having recce’d it in the dark with Dave, Dee and Aaron Gourley a few weeks earlier.

We banged on at a decent walk/run rhythm and just after the Hambleton Inn we spotted lights ahead of us.  This surely couldn’t have been Fran as she had left the checkpoint well ahead of us and was going well.  We pushed on faster to catch up and found two runners taking a slight detour round the horse training track at the farm there.  One of them looked tired and unhappy, as we jogged on together he dropped back.  I asked the man who’d been with him if he was OK and he said he thought he was having some food, so we pushed on.

I wanted to make the most of these country lanes so I tried to get the group jogging at every opportunity, Andy was now sharing my determination to finish well and I knew that there was no doubt about us finishing now.  My spirits were back on high.

Andy refreshed his torch batteries in Cold Kirby and we jogged on into the woods, the other runner caught us shortly after this and I got chatting to him.  He seemed very tired, so I asked him if he was eating and drinking OK.  He told me he was out of food and water so I gave him some fig roll biscuits and the last of my coke which seemed to perk him up but you could tell he was running on pure force of will now.

The stretch of road we were walking along by the river seemed to drag on forever and as we turned right into the woods and started on the final big climb I checked time with Andy again and did some mental maths.  We were in with a very good chance of a sub 15 hour finish if we played it right.  I suggested jogging again at the top of the climb which we managed for a bit before we reverted to our power walk. As we’d slowed to a walk, the group was still together, but such was our walking pace, Andy and I somehow snapped the elastic on the other two.

As the terrain started to point downhill I asked Andy how he felt about a strong run in, he said he’d give it a go and we did.  We got moving at a gravity assisted jog, only stopping to walk briefly on a really stoney path which seemed to cause serious grief to our feet just before Helmsley, we pushed harder once we got onto the tarmac at the end of the Cleveland Way and we saw Marc Hewison waiting at the end of the Way for Andy.

We didn’t stop and jogged on harder, pushing our way over the final hundred or so metres to achieve the sub 15h finish.  When I checked in with Shirley, she told me I’d clocked 14h:48m:33s.

I was elated!  We walked up the stairs, chatting briefly on the way to Gary Thwaites before being presented with our medals and T Shirts by Jo Barrett.

As I sat down to some very welcome chilli and gave a final update to Natalie I began to wonder how Dave, Dee and Jason were doing.  It didn’t take long to find out.  They made it up the stairs just as I finished my chilli and I was pleased that all three were intact and happy.

In the days after the race I’ve given some thought to what I’ve learned from the experience and summed it up:

• Pacing – I was right after HM60 to blame not having a proper pacing plan.  While I spnt a lot of the day ahead of plan, splitting th distance down and trying to moderate effort gave me the structure I needed.
• Food  – Eating regularly kept my energy, mood and motivation high.  i still took too much food and Bombay Mix was a poor choice (I binned all but two mouthfuls), so were the dry roasted nuts in my second drop bag.  I didn’t use them at all.  The fig rolls and Chia Charge flapjacks were perfect.  As well as that the Wine Gums and Midget Gems were nice enough but not too sickly to keep me happy all day.  Also a gel per hour seemed about right.
• Clothing – I was worried about being too hot in my fleece but needed it to keep my food and other stuff handy in the back pockets.  I needn’t have worried, if anything it kept me just warm enough.  Leggings, trisuit, hats, buffs etc all served me well as per previous races and runs.  My shoes were equally as good with my feet only suffering two blisters (one on each little toe as a result of my feet swelling).  Looking forward to HM60, I may need to consider a standard cycling jersey or maybe a more lightweight cycling jacket depending on the weather in September.
• Positive Thinking – My big take away from this race is the power of positive thinking.  Repeating my mantra had a definite impact.  I went from a place where I could feel my body starting to hurt to being fresh, positive, strong and pain free within a few miles and powered over some of the more difficult terrain on the course on mental strength.  This is something I’ll be looking to utilise more going forward

Final Thoughts

As with all races, nobody gets to run them without them being organised.  Jon and Shirley Steele have not disappointed me yet with a Hardmoors race.  They are always well organised with a family atmosphere that I have now started likening them to an all day party that you get to spend with friends you only ever see once in awhile.

Jon and Shirley of course, could not do this without the extensive team of ever growing volunteer marshalls and helpers that form the heart of the Hardmoors family.

I will confess right now to being addicted to this series and having seen Nikki Carr’s big smiles at hitting the 1,000 Hardmoors miles mark I now have my own long term goal for the future.

To everyone who was part of this day.  Thank you, it was brilliant and I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Written by Lizzie Rosewell - https://lizzierunning.wordpress.com