Hardmoors 55 – 19/03/2016

The Hardmoors 55 is a 55ish mile ultramarathon following the Cleveland Way from Helmsley to Guisborough with a total ascent of around 8,800 feet.

My weekend started off with a long train journey down to Sunderland (over 7 hours) where I was staying at a friend’s house who was also doing the race.  I was bedded at 10pm as the next morning the alarm went off at 4.15 am, eek.

With it being a point to point race, we had to drive to the finish, park up, and then get on buses to take us to the start.  Once at Helmsley everyone had to pass a kit check (compulsory items including survival bag, spare layers, waterproofs amongst other things) before we were given our race numbers.  That done, we met up with the rest of the Scottish contingent for quite a bit of hanging about until the race start at 9am.  Fortunately we found a nice indoor place to sit as it was a bit parky outside!

The field soon spread out, and I found myself in the company of two ladies until the first checkpoint and timed cut off at 9 miles, which we made with half an hour to spare.  No blethering, and out of that checkpoint in two minutes.  The first section had been relatively flat other than a couple of short steep climbs, coming out of the checkpoint, we were faced with the White Horse stairs.  Thank goodness for the handrails.  We were barely getting our breath back from the stairs, when we turned the corner and were faced with race photographers, I looked significantly better in the resulting photos than I felt!   Then followed some lovely ridge running, I set into my usual pace, which was a little slower than my companions and they gradually headed off.  Not to worry, I was enjoying the scenery and the weather was perfect for running.  I knew as long as I kept up an average of under 15 minute miles I would be good for the next cut off.

I passed through Checkpoint 2 (Sneck Yate, great names), and had some goodies from the table to fortify myself for the next climb.  I caught up with a bloke on this section with which I ended up running on and off with for the rest of the race.  It’s always good to have a bit of company on these races as it helps keep you going.  This was also where I had my only navigational error of the day, cleverly sending another couple of runners the wrong way!  I realised fairly swiftly that it wasn’t right, we hollered and whistled to the other two, but they sped off into the distance.  Ooops.

The next Checkpoint at Osmotherly (22 miles) was also a cut off point and a drop bag point.  There was a long descent into the very pretty village on rocky slabs.  I bounced into the checkpoint full of good cheer as I was about 25 minutes under the cut off time.  Then I looked behind the desk and realised there was quite an air of doom and despair, with broken runners sat in gloomy states due to having had to retire from the race.  So, I nipped off to use the facilities and then very quickly filled up with water and goodies and removed myself from the hall! The couple which went the wrong way arrived just as we were leaving, so I apologised profusely!!!  My new friend Luke had caught me up again, so we strode up and out of the village chomping away.  As we left the road and back onto the trail I realised that the descent into the checkpoint had impacted on my left foot, so I told Luke to go on and I stopped to take some paracetamol.  I also put my borrowed running poles together, to help me out.   These are not allowed in the majority of Scottish races, but with this being in Englandshire, I was going to take whatever help I could!!   Onwards and upwards, and through Checkpoint 4, which was a self clip.  My foot was really hurting now, the paracetamol hadn’t really made much difference, so the pace had slowed a bit.

Through checkpoint 5 at 27 miles (Scugdale!) before another very steep climb up onto Carlton Bank, every ascent and descent was causing quite a bit of pain, the ground underfoot not helping at all, as it was pretty much all uneven stone slab.  I was still able to run on the flat(ish) bits though, and the poles were definitely helping me along.  I caught up with Luke again, and we also had the company of the three sweepers of the Apocolypse now as we were at the back.  We were now on the rollercoaster of the The Three Sisters, steep ascents and equally steep descents, all on the slabs.  We passed through another checkpoint at 31 miles (a poor bloke in a high vis at the bottom of the third sister.  I stopped to have something to eat before the next ascent, up to the Wainstones.   Headtorch on as well as it was getting dark.  At the top of the Wainstones, we had to scramble up and down through the big rocks following a narrow path, then another steep descent, this time in the dark, so really tricky.  The weather had turned as well, so great care was needed.

I made the decision coming down from Wainstones that there was no point in carrying on.  My foot was not happy and it would now be incredibly tight to make the cutoff at 42 miles.   To add the icing to the cake as I came down to Clay Bank checkpoint at 33 miles I went over on my right ankle!

So, annoyingly, I handed over my race number to the marshall.  However, he did have a rather nice warm car that I settled into!   My companion Luke also threw in the towel here.  My Hardmoors 55 was Hardmoors 33, with about 4,700 feet of ascent.

So, back to the finish to await the arrival of the rest of the Scottish contingent.   Out of the six Scottish gurruls who started, three finished and three of us dropped out.   A very tough course.  Would I attempt it again?  On Saturday I said definitely not, now I say yes, but I need to find somewhere with rocky slabs to train on!   My legs and the rest of me were fine, so it was the underfoot conditions which defeated me rather than my fitness.   Roll on next year ….  and roll on the next adventure, the Highland Fling at the end of April!!