Wentworth Castle Trail Race

TEAM ACTIV

The Wentworth Castle Trail Race, which is a Club Championship race, has had to be moved from Sept 8th to Sept 22nd. Apparently, the organisers of the Cannon Hall 10K have decided on the 8th Sept for their race and have said it is fixed because of booking Cannon Hall. So Team Activ have decided to move to the new date as there are no other races on that day. Thanks. Martyn Cartwright

High Peak Marathon - GOOD LUCK

GOOD LUCK ON FRIDAY 1st MARCH

GET LOTS OF SLEEP TONIGHT! (THURSDAY!)

It's that time of year again;  when all the mad people make for Edale and decide to run in teams of 4 through the cold and possibly snowy terrain of the High Peak. The 42 miles are certainly testing.

I can't find any results for the last time I actually did this race. The one set I can find, is where I ran with Mark Pearce, Shaun Clarkson and Andy Plummer. I think before that one, it was Mark Buskwood  instead of Andy but I might be wrong. Mark will probably be able to put me right. One tour ended up with me bailing out at Cut Gate due to stomach problems and another year, Mark fell by the wayside at Snake.

Why I wanted to enter this race, I just haven't the faintest idea. It's one of those must do runs - 3 Peaks, Wadsworth Trog - next step up... High Peak Marathon. The weather is usually unforgiving but I've never experienced pouring rain. Freezing cold and snow... YES!

So what are my memories of this event? No order, just as they come to mind...

• Finishing the event in a bit of a sprint with the team in front
• Watching Shaun Walker fall asleep in his mashed potato and saugsages because he was so tired
• Having the fastest split time one year from Snake to Mill Hill, probably because we didn't spend enough time eating and drinking at the tent
• Stomach cramps and having to drop out at Cut Gate
• Managing on one bottle of fluid because my drink was like a slush mixture
• Feeling dizzy because of light reflecting off the snow for hours on end
• Being thankful for the sun rising - it reinvigorates the mind and body and the need for sleep disappears
• Never wanting to do it again BUT having the greatest admiration for those who do it year after year.

When I walk the dog on the night the race takes place, I'll be thinking of all those taking part. AND when I walk her again the following morning, I'll wonder where Mark's and NIcky's team have actually got to.

Best of luck to both.

27  Pot Noodle

Mark Pearce Brent Lindsay Steve Burgess Andy Heading

46  3 Blind Mice & a Farmer's Wife

Nicky Spinks Ian Charlesworth Simon Rippon Keith Holmes

I thought you might like to see one of the many videos that are on YouTube.

Winter Handicap is Over

The winter handicap took place last night; finally! I don't think that any records were broken in terms of people present at one event OR that we've hit the ton in terms of total number of runners for the series.
A big vote of thanks to the Winter Handicap team(Keith, Anne and Martyn plus ???) who turn up each time to ensure that the rest of us can run.
Mick Quinn didn't show and I don't think that Martyn Booth did either but I could be wrong about the latter. This meant that it was between Steve S, Mark Law and myself to gain as many points as we could. I had no idea what sort of state I was in after the 10 miler on Sunday. It's a long time since I've raced twice in three days. Emma Wolff, Steve Sanders and moi were off at the same time. Emma wasn't sure if she'd actually get round, and within a few hundred yards she had to return to the leisure centre. Just Steve and Steve to climb to the windmills then. It seemed to be relatively easy, even though it's always a slog to the viewing point. I thought I was doing quite well until Steve S zoomed by and carried on with a fair bit of pace down the hill to Millhouse and the road crossing. Ah well, just keep going. However fast Steve ran wouldn't really matter to me, I just needed to run a reasonable time to keep fairly high up the points. Having an advantage of 14 points gave me a really good cushion for the night. More and more people went by; Steve Roebuck, Andy Swift, Damian Kilpin, Steve Stead, Joe Mann.... I thought that I was running out of steam and suddenly going backwards. Not sure if Mark Law had gone by as there were so many overtaking me at one point.
Here comes the line and a chance to look at the watch: 31:42? That would do nicely; fastest time for that way round and second fastest for the season: 31:30 being the best of the bunch.
I don't know what Steve's time was but it must have been fast. Hopefully not a minute or more otherwise it might move him out of contention for the winner on the night. It will be interesting to see if anyone did beat their best by one minute.
It's a shame that Steve S missed a race and Mick Q missed two. They were definitely better than myself in terms of age-graded times but I managed to turn up for every race. That's the first time I've been able to do that. Retirement does have the odd perk.     


 

New Chew Photos

Link to Ray Green's New Chew Photos

TV host to Mo Farah: 'Haven't you run before?'

TV host to Mo Farah: 'Haven't you run before?'

I just don't believe it!

Martyn's Weekly Results Round Up (5)

Penistone Footpath Runners & AC’s Steve Frith broke the Clubs vet 60 10 mile Club Record by over 5 minutes last Sunday in the Pocklinton Snake Lane Road Race.    Steve finished in 161st place in a time of 67-46 to also claim the 2nd vet 60-69 prize. He was beaten by V65 Geoff Cumber of Halifax Harriers.   Paul Griffiths, making a rare appearance on the roads, finished in 389th place in 77-59.

 

 

 

Vet 55 Steve Storey had a day out at the seaside at Bridlington on Saturday and took in the Sewerby Park Run, winning the event in a time of 19-54.   Daughter in law Ailsa Park had her first race after the birth of her second child and was 25th in 28-44.

 

 

Members were also in the prizes in the hilly Huddersfield 10K Road Race last Sunday.   Emma Wolff took 2nd prize in the Lady vet 35 category and Dave Needham 2nd prize in the vet 65’s.     Shaun Walker was first home in 33rd place in 41-45 with Emma just behind in 38th place in 42-10.    Other results were 111, P Gee 46-47; 190, G Dimelow 49-17; 222, D Needham 50-24; 230, H Parkin (L) 50-45; 325, T Mellor (L) 54-55; 478, J Spencer 66-32. 

 

 

 

 

 

Huddersfield 10k

Loads of pictures, thanks David. Any of the following runners like to write something? Go on, you know you want to ....

						Pos. 33   Shaun Walker   41.45 Pos 38   Emma Wolff   42.10   F35/2nd Pos 111  Paul Gee     46.47 Pos 190 Geoff Dimelow  49.17 Pos 222  Dave Needham   50.24   V65/2nd Pos 230  Heather Parkin  50.45 Pos 325  Trish Mellor   54.55 Pos 478  John Spencer   66.32

Billy One Mate Goes to Pocklington

This is a ramble! It's what I do. If you've any sense then you'll read a different post instead. It must be the teacher in me. Sorry! After a good run at Liversedge, I decided that I'd keep up the training and aim for a good time at Pocklington. Well, three sessions in a fortnight should do it. NOT! Pocklington attracts a number of clubs from around the York area who use it as one of their championship races. As usual I had a number of targets which I wanted to achieve. Considering the lack of training, they were probably a bit ambitious.

*Try to break the present V60 club record, Pocklington is fairly flat apart from the last couple of hills.

* Break 70 mins if possible by hitting a few miles in sub 7 mins

* Hopefully be in the top 5 of my category

* Break 68 mins if I possibly can

* Top 3 V60 position

* Age-graded of 80%

 

I know it's sad, but I go through all the targets I'd like to achieve in what I consider to be the order of difficulty. It helps me during the race to focus my effort into each mile.

The night before I made sure that everything was ready for the off. Willow would need her "60 min" walk first thing, 15 mins for breakfast and toilet and toilet and ..... The instructions of how to get there seemed very straight forward and I'd written them on a sheet of A4 in massive print. This would help me when I got nearer to my destination, eyesight isn't good that close to. A last minute look at the sheet that came with the number. "What!" Prizes for 5 year age groups BUT mine was V60-69! Bad news... Geoff Cumber from Halifax and Pete Johnson from Scarboro' would probably be there and they are amazing 65 year olds. Never mind. Time to go, everything packed and .... NO trainers! Trust me!

An easy journey in and I parked up at the station, next to the loo - where else. I found the rugby club and mingled with early arrivals. Didn't spot anyone I knew but was sure that there would be a few Harriers kicking about. The sun came out and it was time to decide what to wear. NO hat...NO coat this week. I'm sure that I'll warm up after a mile or so.

More visits to the loo and then follow the snake of people to the start which is 5 mins or so away from the club.

Mile one was fairly flat and a quick glance showed a 6:31 mile. PANTS! That's 15 seconds slower than Liversedge... Never mind, think of it as 29 secs up on a 70 min finish. So that's what I concentrated on throughout the race. Mile 2 in 6:49 - 3 was 6:38. After 3 miles I'd built up just over a minute on my target. I can't say that I felt comfortable, even though the terrain was fairly flat, it felt harder work than Liversedge did. Managed mile 6 in just over 40 mins, just 4 to go. Surely I can manage 4 miles in half an hour? 6:39 for 7, another 21 seconds in the bag. Hills approaching - 7:02 and then 7:11. Last mile and I can see the church in the town centre. Time to make an effort and use the people around to spur me on. Runners go by, why didn't they put more effort in earlier on? The big clock on the main street shows some time after 12:05, come on Frithy, give it some welly. After what seemed a lifetime, the last corner approaches and I can see the lead car with the clock on its roof positioned at the finish line. It shows 1:07:40 I WILL get under 68 mins... BRILLIANT!

At the side of the line is Geoff Cumber, V65 and last year's V60-69 winner. He's still breathing fairly rapidly. I hoped that he'd finished not too long ago. Any time near his would be fantastic.

A drink and a prize mug and back to the car. Changed into something warm and ate a Mars bar. Not the best post race thing but it tasted wonderful. I didn't stay for the prize-giving as it was over an hour later and I couldn't see me getting any prize with such a good field.

I was far more tired after this race than the 13.1 miles a fortnight earlier, time for a kip methinks. The results were supposed to be up soon after the race had finished. I kept looking on the tinternet but gave up after a few hours. An email from Dave Needham alerted me to the results. I was over the moon with my performance even though it had seemed really difficult at the time. I know I could have improved on sub 68 with better training. What did I get out of the run?

 

* 1st V60 but 2nd 60-69 because Geoff Cumber came in 46 seconds before me.

* £20 prize money - I'll be rich at this rate

* An 81% age-graded performance - my 2nd best of all time! That has really given me confidence for the rest of the year.

* 4th fastest V60 10 mile performance in the UK rankings - it won't last long but it does do my self-esteem a power of good

 

Loads of positives from this race, yet I know I could have done even better if I'd trained a little bit harder.

If you've managed to work your way through the whole of this post then you deserve a medal!

 

Editor

 

Can you spot me in this video? It took me a while too.

 

 

Steve Storey's Langsett Run

Don't forget Steve Storey's morning social jog around Langsett Reservoir. It is aimed at all abilities and the THIRD foray into the flora and fauna is: Wednesday 27th Feb at 09.30 from the barn . Everyone and anyone is welcome. Cuppa in the cafe afterwards? Cake? Sandwich? Sounds like my sort of run. (editor)

Barnsley Boundary - Diary out please!

The Barnsley Boundary Relay is on Sunday 2nd June.    Teresa will be recruiting teams nearer the date.

Please put this date in your diary and leave it clear of other events so that we can send out as many teams as possible and carry on winning the Trophies.

Photos by kind permission of WainwrightWarrior