Taddington Lanes Race and Pilsley Fell Race.

Two evening races.
I found out about Taddington Lanes Race from a flyer left on my windscreen at Edale Country Day. I knew little about it other than what was written on the flyer;

So on Tuesday I turned up, paid my fiver and pinned a number to my red + yellow vest. There were quite a few others there, mostly fell runners by the look. The start was at 7pm, outside the village institute. The course is mostly tarmac backroads and starts with a climb. A long climb. Turn left and keep climbing. Turn right and it undulates a bit. Cross a junction and its a typical green lane, stoney vehicle track grassy centre muddy in places. But much flatter. This loops around, heading back into Taddington, but before the finish line is reached we're taken across a road and up another lane between the backs of houses and fields. Then left, left and we return the way we left, running downhill now back to the startline. I finished in a time of 32:50 (official time 32:57), which I'm quite pleased with, and I set a new 5k personal best, 24:34. 43rd place out of 82 finishers.
A pretty unique race, well marshalled, nice course (although quite unrelenting), with a very laid back atmosphere.
By the way Taddington is in Derbyshire about halfway between Buxton and Bakewell.

Thursday evening and I was off to Pilsley, on the Chatsworth Estate.
Another fiver, another number on the red + yellow vest (washed between races!) and another start line. This time the race started from the village green, went up a small lane and across fields. Some fields had sheep, some had cows (thankfully kept out of the way), some fields were nice and flat and others hilly, some had neat 'estate grass' and others tussocky. One rickety bridge needed crossing, single file, queue nicely. Apart from one woman who jumped the queue, much to our disgust, "we're all racing!" was the comment from a chap behind me. A wasted effort on her part as I and quite a few others soon passed her... We passed a river, and crossed a golf course as well after ducking through a tiny gate in the fence. There were a few road crossing, all well marshalled, and any cars kept waiting seemed happy to sit and watch us go past. All in all a nice romp around the estate, a fell race in name only to be honest as its more of a trail race. Still, an enjoyable way to spend a Thursday evening. The course was well marked and the event well organised.
How did I do? Not great to be honest, although I kept a decent enough pace. I started at the back, my usual practice at a new event, and had difficulty making my way through the field. I was beaten by people that usually finish behind me, but hey, thats racing. Still, lesson learnt, start closer to the front in future.

I ran the 9.8k(ish) course in 57:48, average pace 5.55min/km. 170th place out of 255(!) runners.

So, two races, two evenings well spent. Although it would have been nice if I didn't have to get up at ten past four the following mornings and go to work...

Paul.

Dig Deep Whirlow 10k.

I've had my eye on this race for a while, mainly because all of the trail races that I've done so far have been with Dark & White so I wanted to see how another company work. There were actually four races going on over the weekend, two ultras on Saturday and two shorter distance events on Sunday, being 12.12 miles and a 10k. I entered the 10k, I quite fancied the longer 12 miler but as I've been doing mainly short fell races over the summer I didn't think that I would have the stamina for the longer course.
It cost £15 to enter, the fee including a t-shirt. So about three times more expensive than the average fell race.
The event started at Whirlow Hall Farm, a working farm which is used as an educational facility for children with special needs in Sheffield. The farm is the main benificiary of the event. registration was in a large shed, along with various stands selling running gear, beer, coffee and burgers. All good stuff.

Starting at 10.20, we set off out of the farmyard on a wide track heading north. After a short road section we headed south through fields and into woodland. I kept a steady pace as I never properly get into my stride until I've ran a couple of kilometres, but did manage to make up some places as the route headed into woodland and down some steep and slippery muddy steps. Here I could let go, ignoring the steps and running through the mud to the sides passing quite a few others. Then it was onto a wide undulating woodland path, which opened out and led to a road crossing. Once across the road the route took us up Houndkirk Lane, and I mean up as its a climb. We then turned left into Lady Cannings Plantation, a piece of woodland known for its mtb trails, running firstly on singletrack then onto wide tracks, shared with the occasional mtb, with more climbing. Quite a bit more in fact. But soon we were back in the open, heading back towards Hounkirk Lane. On reaching the lane the 10k route turns left and the 12.12 runners turn right. Soon we were running down, retracing our steps, seeing the back markers still making their way up Houndkirk. Through the fields and into the woods we went, taking a slightly different route back to the start. I passed a few runners on the way back, but soon had someone on my shoulder. I left him on the downs but he made the ground up on the flats, and because I didn't know the course I was wary of upping the pace too much to shake him off. Within sight of the finish line he made his move, but I sprinted away and left him. We shook hands afterwards as is usual after a finish line sprint.

My time was 58:36 (official time 59:45). 37th out of 132 finishers

A good event I think, nice trails and plenty of climbing. It didn't excite me as much as a fell would would have, but then it was nice to run somewhere different in the Peaks. And the t-shirt is rather smart as well. I'm tempted to try the 12.12 next year.

Paul.

Two very different races.

On holiday in Wells-Next-the-Sea recently I took part in their carnival race, held on a Thursday evening (August 3rd). There were short and long course options, I took part in the 8.3k long course, Dani's nephew Ryan entered the shorter race. The route took in wide woodland tracks and beach running, in two loops. The first short loop starts by the beach cafe, runs behind the  beach on good tracks before turning onto the beach and looping back to the start. Along the beach I was overtaken by some juniors taking part in the short course, as the short course is the same as the long course first loop. I was running well, and by the time I finished the first loop and got around to the start point I'd gotten into a good stride. Running across town to the start line as a warm up certainly helped...

On the second longer loop the course headed towards Holkham and the car park at Lady Anne's Drive on good level forest tracks. Along here I was going at a sub 5m/k pace. Not bad for someone who was in hospital under obs the week before. At the car park the course turned right onto a boardwalk and past a very welcome water station. The onto the beach, hard sand at first but turning softer as we neared the beach huts, the soft sand slowing the pace down by around 30s/k. Still, I averaged 4:59/k for the whole race.

I finished in a time of 41:36, two and a half minutes faster than last year, in 12 place out of 32 runners. Ryan finished a respectable 8th in the shorter distance.

Last week I took part in another evening race, Eccles Pike fell race on Wednesday 8th. This is a cat. AS race, 5.3k with 185m of climbing. An old race this, dating back to 1910, which is part of the reason for wanting to do it. Another reason is that it has a reputation for being short and tough.
The start is at Bugsworth, behind the Navigation pub. Parking involved squeezing the Landy down to the canal, past a badly parked van with inches to spare.
The race started by exiting the field and dropping down the road and through the basin, crossing the A6 on a footbridge, then across a sports field and up, first on tarmac then grass. And mud. Although the evening was dry we'd had a fair amount of rain in the days beforehand, making the going slippery in places. Luckily I had the forethought to wear my Mudclaws, this is a course for studs! The course climbed on, I walked some parts and ran others, the terrain a mixture of fields, tracks and rocks. Before I got halfway up the front runners were descending towards us, hurtling down at speed. Soon however I summited, crossed the top of the Pike, and descended. At first the descent took a slightly different course to the ascent, but then we were soon retracing our steps. A few others were still on their way up as I was going down. By this time the sun was low making it difficult to see ahead, at least on the higher ground. My descending wasn't terrific at first, especially on the top section, but I did make a couple of places further down, and held off some other runners. I finished in 102nd place out of 132 finishers, with a time of 36:45. Not a great result, but then I set out to just enjoy the race without any pressure to do well. Also when I do weekday races I try to look at them as training, an alternative to speed work or tempo runs. All in all though, a good way to spend a Wednesday evening. Its just a shame that I couldn't have stopped for a pint afterwards...

Paul.