Monday 29 December 2014

Christmas Races

Christmas races

Cheddlton Pud run and the Christmas Cracker over the roaches.

The first festival run in the Christmas Calendar was the Cheddleton Pud run. Which is 3 laps around the back lanes in Cheddleton. I had no intention of the doing the race the morning I woke up. As my leg felt a bit tight. So I opted to go to Cave training instead. I went and after I felt great. I then got a text from craig and martin saying they were running. I thought, well I may as well. And thats is what you can not do, do not change your plan, but thats what I did. I should of stayed at home. My legs felt like they had 30 christmas puds in each of them. I felt horrible warming up. This did not bow well. My only hope was that after a mile or so they would come alive.


Cop Hill Fell Race

Cop Hill Fell Race 2nd November 2014

Cop Hill Fell race is located in Meltham and organised by Meltham Athletics Club. It's a 7 mile race that consists of two laps.

The first part of the course is made up of one climb to the reservoir, and then another short climb just before the trig and then a descent back near to the start line along a farm track, the course then repeats until you hit the farm track and head back towards the sport complex where the finish is.

I travelled up with Gareth Briggs, who had recommended the course and his partner Joanna Hackett.

For the first time in a while before a race, I felt okay, not that badly injured and not that nervous...Something was a miss I thought.


British Fell Relays 2014

British Fell Relays 19/10/14

That time of year has come around once again. The biggest social event in the Fell running calendar. This is the British Fell Relays, this year it was held in the Lakes at Middleton Fells on the 19th October.  

I helped Gareth Briggs organise the Fell Relay teams this year. We decided to opted for three teams, maybe in retrospect we should of stuck to two. However we wanted to encourage the growth of fell running in the club. And to an extent that did work. We opted for one vets team, and two open teams. 

We all decided to travel up on the day, which was fine apart from Alison got a puncture on the way up in her car. Which delayed there arrival a little. 

After setting up the tent, getting numbers and tags etc we went for a warm up. It's hard to do this,  as it's relays, some people would be running off straight away others would have to wait until the afternoon.


Sunday 28 December 2014

Shelf Moor Fell Race 14

Shelf Moor Fell Race 07/09/14

This is the second time I ve done this race, the first time I did it with Gareth Briggs. This year he decided to do another race, so I arrived with the Craig and Martin.

After registration in the old scout hut and a half mile warm up to the start we were on the start line. I saw Roger Taylor and his friend who was doing her first fell race. I can't think of a better fell race to do as your first. Good choice Roger. Roger is a good friend and he runs for Mercia and lives in Stone.  Mark Platt who also runs for Staffordshire Moorlands also made his way up to the race. Hes nice bloke and has been running for a while.


Longshaw Sheep Dog Trails.

Longshaw Sheep Dog Trails Fell Race 30/08/14

Myself, Craig, and Martin decided to carry on racing.

We enjoy running, we enjoy the banter, we enjoy the sport and we enjoy the land.  So the next chapter in the adventure took us towards Sheffield and close to the burbage edge.

Here is the link to the website:

http://www.longshawsheepdog.co.uk/fell_race

We arrived to a muddy field in a cold and wet miserable day. O the joys of running in the rain. None of us knew what to expect and how difficult the race was. We had just turned up to take part in the race.


Weasdale Horseshoe

Weasdale Horseshoe Fell Race 23/08/14

A rare trip up to the lakes to race, this was my first lakes fell race. You start to fear the worst when you see the mountain grow as your driving on the motorway. And for those that know me, my nervous started to step it up a notch, so there were a couple of stops on the motorway!

I travelled up with a Craig Jeffery, Gareth Briggs, and Martin Dearden all from Staffs Moorlands running club. This made for an enjoyable journey because of the banter. Laughing definitely helps settle nervous.

We arrived at the Wasdale and it was no surprise that the race was attached to a village fete. A gently warm up and a quick look at the map and a technical tongue wag with Gaz about the the route as he has done it before. And I was set for me race plan.


Saturday 27 December 2014

Half tour of Bradwell

Half Tour Bradwell

This year I opted to do the half tour of Bradwell, rather then the full tour that usually cripples me. The half is 15/16 miles long and takes the first part of the route from the full tour until you get to the Hollin's Cross and then it goes across the ridge until you join the route on the full tour.  Then the Half goes back to start/finish line on its own route once you hit the car park checkpoint near Lady-bower reservoir. And this is the bit I didn't know, as I didn't do a recce.

I arrived just in time to get myself sorted and also meet up with Janson Heath who was running the full tour along with Frank Murphy. Lisa, Janson's wife was also there. Myself and Janson were running for Team Raidlight, though in separate races.