Race 3 in the series, and, through some fairly good luck (people that beat me either did the first or the second - not both) I was in first place (in the senior category). So I had it all to lose. No pressure then... 3 of us from Erewash Valley headed up to the race, Brett Belshaw and Nick Lander barely recovered from the hot-tub party the night before. Made our way up to the Totley Cricket club, got registered, sorted, changed and ready to embark.
The premise of these events if fairly simple. The Dark and White crew head out the day before, and drop, in this case, 24 electronic dib points out in various places. You have 3 hours from when you start (between 8:15 and 10:00am somewhere) to get as many of these bad boys as you can. You get a map with them marked on as soon as you start, and have to follow the marked paths and bridleways, so in theory, the navigation is quite easy...in theory.
So, I set off, just before Brett and Nick (who were doing it as a team), up a big hill first, so spent a bit of time walking planning out some vague route, then started running. Checkpoint 2 done first, easy find, then 11, then off to 12. Well, that was the plan, except I took the wrong path, ended up off the map, and cost myself about 5 minutes of faffing. So, to checkpoint 12. Next, was 13. Unlucky for some. Including me. Took wrong path, ended up off the map. Again. Never managed to do this before (been doing these since 2009, I discovered whilst organising my maps) and now twice. This was looking good. Reoriented, headed towards 13. Ran past 13. Realised I had run past 13. Ran back to 13. About 8 minutes lost on this. All of this had taken me 40 minutes to get 4. I should have been on at least 6 by now, as it was all easy running. Fuming.
From there on, I didn't miss any checkpoints, however my route choices were still suspect, always when there was an option, I'd end up taking the longer one. Frustrating. Except for the last checkpoint I got - was getting low on time, so decided not to go for an extra control, got in with 8 minutes spare. I really could have nabbed that extra one.
Jogged it in nice and easy (usually desperately sprinting in so I don't lose points from being over time), having missed a total of 3 checkpoints, kicking myself as I should have cleared the course. I was running well, just let down by some dodgy nav.
Ended the day 12th overall, which is my worst result in a very long time, but was still 2nd senior (all the fast lads must have done Long Tour of Bradwell the day before), and the guy who was first hadn't done any of the others in the series, so by my (crude, and unverified) reckoning, I may have just come first senior. Possibly. Fingers crossed.
Here's the Strava link: http://www.strava.com/activities/74129380
Monday 12 August 2013
Sunday 4 August 2013
Dark and White Trail Race - Report
I hadn't originally planned on doing this, as I was planning on being wrecked from the Lakeland 100 for at least 10 days. Well, that didn't go to plan, so my recovery was a load quicker. Legs started feeling good again by Tuesday, but strangely my back wasn't. Not sure exactly what I did, but all of the muscles in the top of my back were as tight as, and causing me massive problems whilst running. So much so that my first run, I could only raise a jog when anyone could see me. And walked when they couldn't. So todays race was starting to look doubtful.
5 days solid of slightly increasing runs, and massaging Antiflam cream into my back finally got me to a place where I could run again. The final test was Saturday afternoon's 5 mile run. If I could hammer that, I felt confident I could do the 12 mile run today. My run went well, slight pain on the flats, but manageable, less pain on the ups, but on the downs I had to throttle back, as it hurt too much. So I entered.
Sunday morning shoe dilemma - what to wear. Plumped for the Hoka One One Rapa-Nui. Feeling the love for this shoe at the moment. 60 miles out of the box at the L100, perfect. Would they handle a faster pace, though, as my previous (Combo XT's) couldn't. Well...
Arrived at the Longshaw Estate, registered, then got ready to start. Now, this trail race is slightly different, in that for the 12 mile route, you can start any time between 8:15 and 9:30, which brings in it's own set of challenges. If you are running alone, it's easy to lose focus and button off slightly. You don't have leaders to follow, to keep you pushing. You don't know how you have done relative to everyone else when you finish.
Anyway, had a chat to a few people, got my excuses in early just in case my back really went awol, then switched on the Garmin, to get ready to go. Plan was simple - maintain a pace as fast as I could without my back hurting, and don't get passed. Simple.
Strava link here
Off. From Longshaw, the route went to Burbage Bridge, following the path under Burbage rocks, made quite good time along here, then across the road to go up to Stanage Edge, and on to the rough stuff. Absolutely love running over the rough stuff, and kept on cranking along here, passing people, until the turn off at the Long Causeway,down to Hathersage. Lovely descent, Hokas soaking up enough of the shock to keep me moving at a decent pace downhill, although nowhere near as fast as I am capable of. Into Hathesage, and I catch up with a bloke in Merrell Road Gloves. Hard not to think of them as the "Other Side", whilst wearing Hokas! We kept pace with each other to the checkpoint/water station at the Derwent River. He dibbedand ran, I downed 2 cups of water and an orange High Five gel. Onwards.
The second half of the race follows the river to Nether Padley, then up to the top of Haywood, before dropping back to the top of Nether Padley, back up to Longshaw Estate then into the finish.
I set off in pursuit of Mr Merrell, catching as soon as we came to a section of track with tree roots - I glided over them, not breaking stride, whilst he had to mince carefully through. Back recovered from the downhill pounding, so I started pushing along a bit faster. Lovely trail along the river, then all too soon it was time to turn uphill - I maintained my effort, but slowed a little, Mr Merrell, pushing me on faster. I ran most of the way to the top of Haywood, but needed a bit of power-hiking near the top. A nice fast downhill to the top of Nether Padley township, the up again, forcing my legs to keep running as we climbed. This is definitely an area I need to work on - I can see a horrendous amount of squats for me in my future!
Into Longshaw Estate, only 2.5km to go. On to the main path,then foot down to the finish. Except there was a sneaky uphill to Little John's Well. Back to a jog-shuffle to get to the top of that! Then down the final stretch and the finish, hammering, dibbed, done.
Managed to complete the race in 1:32:57, which was about 15 minutes faster than I thought I would! Decided to hang around to 11am, by which time anyone who was going to beat me would be in..and both of them were! Lee Rawson managed to get me by 45 seconds or so,and another guy got me by 4 minutes (if my back was ok...) so I managed 3rd overall, but, as they were both vets, snuck 1st Senior Male. Happy days. (Results still not officially confirmed, but pretty sure I'm right).
Dark and White Mini Mountain Marathon series, race 3 next weekend. Currently in 1st place in that, with good route choice, hopefully I can keep it there!
5 days solid of slightly increasing runs, and massaging Antiflam cream into my back finally got me to a place where I could run again. The final test was Saturday afternoon's 5 mile run. If I could hammer that, I felt confident I could do the 12 mile run today. My run went well, slight pain on the flats, but manageable, less pain on the ups, but on the downs I had to throttle back, as it hurt too much. So I entered.
Sunday morning shoe dilemma - what to wear. Plumped for the Hoka One One Rapa-Nui. Feeling the love for this shoe at the moment. 60 miles out of the box at the L100, perfect. Would they handle a faster pace, though, as my previous (Combo XT's) couldn't. Well...
Arrived at the Longshaw Estate, registered, then got ready to start. Now, this trail race is slightly different, in that for the 12 mile route, you can start any time between 8:15 and 9:30, which brings in it's own set of challenges. If you are running alone, it's easy to lose focus and button off slightly. You don't have leaders to follow, to keep you pushing. You don't know how you have done relative to everyone else when you finish.
Anyway, had a chat to a few people, got my excuses in early just in case my back really went awol, then switched on the Garmin, to get ready to go. Plan was simple - maintain a pace as fast as I could without my back hurting, and don't get passed. Simple.
Strava link here
Off. From Longshaw, the route went to Burbage Bridge, following the path under Burbage rocks, made quite good time along here, then across the road to go up to Stanage Edge, and on to the rough stuff. Absolutely love running over the rough stuff, and kept on cranking along here, passing people, until the turn off at the Long Causeway,down to Hathersage. Lovely descent, Hokas soaking up enough of the shock to keep me moving at a decent pace downhill, although nowhere near as fast as I am capable of. Into Hathesage, and I catch up with a bloke in Merrell Road Gloves. Hard not to think of them as the "Other Side", whilst wearing Hokas! We kept pace with each other to the checkpoint/water station at the Derwent River. He dibbedand ran, I downed 2 cups of water and an orange High Five gel. Onwards.
The second half of the race follows the river to Nether Padley, then up to the top of Haywood, before dropping back to the top of Nether Padley, back up to Longshaw Estate then into the finish.
I set off in pursuit of Mr Merrell, catching as soon as we came to a section of track with tree roots - I glided over them, not breaking stride, whilst he had to mince carefully through. Back recovered from the downhill pounding, so I started pushing along a bit faster. Lovely trail along the river, then all too soon it was time to turn uphill - I maintained my effort, but slowed a little, Mr Merrell, pushing me on faster. I ran most of the way to the top of Haywood, but needed a bit of power-hiking near the top. A nice fast downhill to the top of Nether Padley township, the up again, forcing my legs to keep running as we climbed. This is definitely an area I need to work on - I can see a horrendous amount of squats for me in my future!
Into Longshaw Estate, only 2.5km to go. On to the main path,then foot down to the finish. Except there was a sneaky uphill to Little John's Well. Back to a jog-shuffle to get to the top of that! Then down the final stretch and the finish, hammering, dibbed, done.
Managed to complete the race in 1:32:57, which was about 15 minutes faster than I thought I would! Decided to hang around to 11am, by which time anyone who was going to beat me would be in..and both of them were! Lee Rawson managed to get me by 45 seconds or so,and another guy got me by 4 minutes (if my back was ok...) so I managed 3rd overall, but, as they were both vets, snuck 1st Senior Male. Happy days. (Results still not officially confirmed, but pretty sure I'm right).
Dark and White Mini Mountain Marathon series, race 3 next weekend. Currently in 1st place in that, with good route choice, hopefully I can keep it there!
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