Pennine Ridge Fell Runner: December 2012

This is a road race so stop now if not interested. My wife done this a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. Last year I entered to give here moral support for her second attempt. I would not have entered only there are two considerable hills in the race both in the second half at 6 miles and cruelty 8.5 miles to give a total assent of about 550 feet, which is a lot for a road race. Last year I done no training for the Stockport 10. Probably 3 years(ish) since I done that distance on the road and I done a five hour reccie for "The Trigger" the Thursday before. So I was pretty chuffed to come in 1:16 in position 268ish out of 780ish finishers. Twelve months later my wife wanted to do it again. I knew entries were open but I was not bothered about it so for a few days I did not mention it hoping it would fill up. Finally I decided I had better mention it is open so ended up paying 17 quid each to enter (ouch!). Soon after entering she got injured and just too busy with the new job so she cried off and deferred the entry until next year, which was nice by the organisers. So here I was doing it on my own. This year I actually done a hand full of 4 mile sprints around Marple thinking I should at least try for the Stockport race this year. But then on the Thursday before the long distance coordinator at Pennine scheduled her 3 hr training run for that night. I was not missing that! It turned out to be a horrible night with driving rain and sleet so it got cut back to 2 hours which suited me.

Up on Saturday morning and it was horrible oh well what do you expect in December. Got to Woodbank Stadium in Woodbank Park to retrieve my number.
It was a nice touch having my name on it, but caused some confusion during the race as a couple of time people called out "come-on Patrick" and I was looking at them trying to work out who they are as they must know me and I have no idea who they are!!. The race number also had a little chip bonded to the back for the automated chip timing.

Puma Stockport 10 - Come-on Patrick!

The conditions actually improved by the time the race started we had one heavy shower within the first couple of miles but after that conditions just continued to improve. Actually turned out to be a perfect day for running. There were so many people who were over dressed for it with long running leggins and/or jackets. Some people are such whimps at the beginning of a race and do not appreciate how much they will warm up once it gets started. Early in the race I recognised a Glossopdale vest in front of me, I pulled along side and commented it was nice to see another Fell Runner to be informed that this was actually on the Glossopdale club championship and there are 14 of them out. We would have a riot in Pennine if they tried to put a road race in our championship.

The first down downhill,which was on a rough track

The two big climbs are both in the second half. Despite this my split for the second 5 miles, the previous year, was a couple of seconds faster that the first five. At the start of the first climb I said to myself Pat you are a fell runner lets show them what you can do so I started to push up the hill overtaking quite a few people and just kept it up for the rest of the race. Done the same this year and near the top of the climb I caught site of my club-mate "Barnaby". Now there was a target. Every so slowly I was pulling him in. Until we got to the big decent at about 7 miles and he was just faster than me on the downhill. He ended up finishing 15 places (50 seconds) ahead of me. The real sting in this race is the 1 mile climb up New Zeeland Road at 8.5 miles. It suits me as everybody is knackered at that stage and I was able to gain a hand full of places.

Stockport 10 relief map

I dropped my phone in the first mile and it turned itself off when it hit the ground so I had no idea how I was going so on re-entering the park I was ecstatic to see the clock just turn 1:09 with a Km to go. I had a great opportunity to get below the 1:15 that I was hoping for so doing something resembling a sprint.

Competition!

I had just overtaken this bloke in the white tee shirt, he was not having it we had 200 m to go on the track and he over took me again I had nothing left to hold him off.
I got home in 1:13:21 to give me position 204. There were 749 starters so just outside the top quarter.
The overall winner came home in 49:55 and my category winner (MV 45) was 55:53, 9th overall!
I am amazed by how few finishers there were. The race was full at 1000 what happened to the other 251. I suppose there would be a few DNFs but the vast majority probably just did not turn up! Nearly quarter of the field that is appalling.

Within a couple of minutes of finishing I received a text message congratulating me on finishing the Stockport 10 in a time of 1:09:21 eh? Apparently it was the same for most people having 4 minutes taken off their time.

Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I do it again? I don't know!

Back in Ireland for a family reunion when in the pub on Thursday night my twin informs me of a Trail Race (Run the Line) through the Dublin Mountains on Saturday in aid of Dublin and Wicklow Mountain Rescue. It is a 28 Km (17.5 mile) long linear race starting in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght and heading generally south east around South Dublin to finish near Glencullen, close to the well known pub, Johnnie Fox's. This place has been around since 1798 and claims to be the highest pub in Ireland but apparently it is not! With a few pints of Guinness down 36 hrs notice is more than enough time to get my head around doing a 28 Km run. Luckily I had a pair of trainers and running trousers (but no waterproofs of any kind so just hope the weather will be OK). Short run Friday then an unholy early start on Saturday morning to drive to Dublin for the race start. Join the queue to get a shock when asked for 37 euro my brother somehow thought it was 20. Well we are here now and it is a good cause so just pay up.

It was a glorious morning and approximately 60 real man (and ladies) were ready for the off on the full "Run the Line". Another 60 odd lightweights were getting ready to board a bus to be ferried to the half way point for the start of the 14 km race. A bit of banter as my identical twin brother is a regular at IMRA events so I had a number of complete strangers come chatting to as if I was a close friend - weird.

Run the Line Trail Race Fell Race Dublin Mountains Pennine Fell Runners

The Wicked Witch of the East and her ugly sister

Just before the race I realised that the I had left my water bottle in the car, well too late to worry about it now just have to rely on the water station, risky as it was a warm morning and it will only get hotter. Eventually called to order given some safety instructions as the early stage of the race is on public roads. then we were off.

And we are "off" to Run the Line

The first few Km were pretty flat initially along public then private roads to get to the reservoir at Bohernabreena. As so often happens I went off pretty fast with Runkeeper on my phone informing me how fast I was going. After 3 km I decided I was going too fast and slowed up quite a bit. This allowed another runner to slowly catch up with me and as he came along side we started chatting and ended up staying together for the next few Km. The run along Bohernabreena reservoir was amazing with the autumn trees in the morning sunshine.

Bohernabreena Reservoir

At 6 Km got to the end of the first reservoir cross the dam then the first climb of the day up to the second reservoir. RunKeeper was now telling me I was going even faster but I felt OK so, "why not" - lets see what I am capable of?

The Upper Reservoir, Bohernabreena waterworks

We pulled in and passed quite a few runners until the climbing started to get more serious. My companion was training for the Dublin Marathon later in October so while a decent runner on the flat he did not have it for the long climbs on the road. I could see quite a few runners scattered along the hill in front of me and feeling like a bit of a "Show Off" Fell Runner I put the pressure on to drop my companion and overtake quite a few runners on that long climb. Eventually arrive at the water station, at 14 Km, to down a few cups of water and grabbed a couple of handfuls of Jelly Babies. Then off down the Forest trails.

A lot of work has been done in the Dublin mountains to build very good quality walking routes for people who would not be confident in true mountain terrain. For the most part from this point on the race followed forestry roads and these good quality foot paths. Caught up with another runner who was not enjoying the descending, I passed on a hint to try to stop his stride getting too long on the decents to protect his knees. Dropped him on the next climb, not expecting to see him again. By this stage I was running on my own as the 60 odd runners were pretty well scattered along the course and I had yet to begin to catch up the the back-markers in the "1/2" "Run the Line" race. A long decent down the forest trail to Killakee car park and the bloke from earlier comes bombing past me. He shouts out his thanks for passing on the down hill running advice. Last time I pass on useful info during a race. I was now starting to catch the 14 Km back-markers, which helped massively in setting a target to reel them in. As the race progressed the frequency of catching them increased considerably. One of the nicest parts of the race was now coming up as we left the road after 16 Km to enter Cruagh Wood. A nice foot path and climb to cross a style then a long section with a narrow path through dense woodland and a forest road to Tibradden car-park at 20 Km.

Cruagh Wood

Into the car park and an unexpected surprise a water station that had bottles he could give out. "I will have one of those, thanks" and then probably the longest climb of the day including the dreaded "boneshaker" to the summit of Two Rock Mountain, more commonly known as “Fairy Castle”, at 22 Km. This is the highest point of the Dublin Mountains at 536 m/1,759 ft. Just 6 Km to go now and in theory it is all down hill :)

The "boneshaker" is a popular mountain bike challenge

Approaching "Fairy Castle" - the summit of Tibradden Mountain

The remains of the chambered cairn at the summit of Tibradden Mountain

We were unlucky and did not see anything but on some days, fairies can be seen dancing around the pile of stones which covers an old megalithic tomb. According to a popular belief, fairies live among the old stones of prehistoric tombs and this is why the mountain was given its name.

Initially the decent from Tibradden along the board walks and well maintained foot path was pretty easy but as we passed "Three Rocks" the foot path deteriorated considerably. At this stage I was in the thick of the 14 Km runners and hill walkers. It is very difficult to plan a safe decent over rough ground when there are so many people close by. I ended up following a bloke who had a nice descending technique, so I stuck in behind him as he weaved his way between, the walkers/runners/rocks/etc. down the hill.

Descending from Tibradden Mountain via the Board Walks

Eventually get to yet another unexpected water station at "Three Rocks" (26 Km) that I passed by as I was OK and only 2 to 3 Km to go. This was a long decent on a forestry trail containing a couple of small re-assents that felt like I was climbing Everest. I was really hoovering up the "struggling" back markers from the shorter race at this stage so it was a real motivator to keep pushing.

Late in the race and a tired looking heel strike! with my "roll your own" 3/4 running trousers.

Looking Better!

Little sting in the tail near the end as we had to leave the forest trail to run along a very muddy footpath through the woods for a couple of hundred meters to break out onto another trail for the final half Km to the finish. Rounded a bend to see a large "blow up" finish arc. It's done "I ran the Line"

This is the End

My finish time was 2:47 to give me 24th place out of 60 odd runners. Beat the brother by 15 minutes or so. Then a 1Km walk down the road to a very welcome pint (or two, or three...)

"Run the Line" RunKeeper Race Route

This was the inaugural (and low key) running of the "Run the Line" event so on the organization front it did not exactly all go to plan. At the finish line we had to give in our race numbers so they would have hard evidence of who arrived back OK. After a rest and drink, off to bag drop to retrieve our bags that were all identical brown paper bags identified by (you guessed it) race numbers. Now who actually remembers their race number once it is finished? We had loads of people peeping into each bag to try to identify which bag was theirs. There was also the issue of a rather impatient bus driver that left loads of us in the pub. Usually having to stay in a pub for another 90 minutes is not the worst thing in the world but we had a family dinner to get to - appreciated the lift in the Mountain Rescue Land Rover. The results published by the organisers were not presented that well so I hacked them together a bit better here.

http://www.imra.ie/forum/topic/id/3193/

Hopefully it will be back next year and if in the country I would do it again.