Race Report 2023

 Another successful year completed. I can't deny I was dissapointed with only 42 pre-entries in 2022 but then I had 15 on day so ended up with 57 starting. I was a bit more clever in 2023 and looked at clashes and decided to push it back by a week compared to the previous two years, which proved a success as I had 56 pre-entry plus thirty on the day. I think I may have to make it more than the £1 difference between pre and EOD, it just makes it easier as I already have the entrant details on line for creating the entry/results sheet.

As far as weather I think I am using up my luck. The Saturday on the previous weekend was a scorcher and a couple of people said that if it had been last week they may not have turned up. The winner Jack Scott was telling me he was over the previous weekend and the crossing from Mill Hill over Lygatehead Moor was lovely and spongy, he could not believe how wet it had got in a week. At race HQ it was lovely and sunny the whole day so I was pretty surprised by the photos the marshalls were sending back from the CPs.

I got pretty exited when I saw the club for one of the runners was club Inov-8; mentioned the name to my son Tim and he was telling me he won The Roaches by a comfortable margin (The race was won by Jack Scott (inov-8) in 2:03:11, 6 minutes clear of second place). Oh wow! this could be interesting as I have a challanging male course record by Joe Oldfield in the first year. Obviously Jack was doing his research as he had Joe's splits and was telling me he was actually down on Joe's time well into the race but in the end he took quite a bit off Joe's 02:14:40 coming home in 2:10:19.

The women's winner  Pennine's Anna Wildman (3:02:38) did not have it quite so comfortably. Anna is a very experienced distance runner having claimed an excellent Bob Graham earlier in the summer. She mentioned to me at the end she was struggling to shake off my daughter Niamh (3:04:50), who is quite a novice in comparsion. Niamh closed in on the descents while Anna pulled away on the climbs, so the tough William Clough climb near the end was enough to give Anna the margin she required.

Race Permissions

That was my third and final year of the three year Natural England permission so for next year I will need to work with the NT again to obtain the permissions to continue the race. Hopefully the regulations have not changed.

Finances

Hayfield scouts £50 for Hall booking 

Hayfiled Paris Council £60 for the finish field and parking (it really is an excellent venu to finish a race)

I will be donating £150 to the NT as without them it just would not happen.

Then loads of food for the runners and liquid "thank-you" for the excellent group of volunteers.

All going well we will be back for September 14 2024.

Getting into focus!

South Head

Edale Rocks

The Leader coming out of the mist.

Romping home to a new course record and a 16 minute margin of victory

L..R 3rd, 1st,2nd.

Some volunteers got an easier job than others.

Promising start for next year.

RaceReport2024

 Groovy (& Baby) Kinder Love done for another year. We had a few mishaps this year as there was a lot of marking by a gate for an ultra passing though the area which resulted in a number of people taking a very scenic route from broad clough (via Kinder Dam) to Benny’s Bridge at the bottom of Sandy Heys and missing the Sandy Heys CP(s) in the process.  Also, the tried-and-tested navigation technique of following the runner in front proved to be flawed because of the above and plus when there are two races the runner in front may not be going the same way as was seen by a number of people having to back track after broad clough, where the races split. It was a pity as I have a very detailed route description of that section of the race on the race website.    I believe even at the top end of both races places were being lost and gained because of site-seeing at various parts of the course. The “young ‘uns” and vets shared the top four in the GKL with U23, vet, U23 vet before we got a senior home. I have been disappointed in the number of women the have run the GKL to date, but while the “baby” had a small field it was evenly split with 11 men and 10 women. The women then did themselves proud with Pennine’s Anna Wildman coming home in 3^rd overall to be followed by three more women in positions 4, 5 and 6.

I am really running my luck with the weather on this race as this is the fourth year with good weather and this year being the best. It was especially pleasing having seen the comments about the races in very poor conditions in the lakes on the same day.

I get relatively small race numbers in this event (2021 90;  2022 50;  2023 74; 2024 61).  I know an AL is not for everyone, so I introduced the option of a “baby” version.  Not sure if it was a success or not as I had quite a few less this year than last year. With 21 in the baby and 40 in the kinder. I noticed I had a few entries from Manchester YMCA so I had a look at their club championship page and the writer described the baby as a “slightly shorter” version of the GKL. I thought to myself the writer is correct. At 18Km/900m it is still a tough race thereby attracting the same calibre of runner as the main race. So, in effect, the two races are in competition with each other. I will try again next year with the two races but, for the baby, I will remove the South Head CP (60 metres climb) and Jacob’s Ladder CP (2Km/170 metres).
So I will have:

Baby16 km/700m (approx.)

Kinder 24.5 km/1290

                                                      Groovy Kinder Love Winner Tom Perry

   Tim Barry 3rd Groovy Kinder Love Male

                                                      Anna by the Shooting Cabin GBL 3rd

Groovy Baby Love 4th  

Sunning themselves after a good days work.

Baby in height order

Kinder 3,1,2

Nice day to sit about not doing a lot😀

Payments

National Trust £120

Hayfield Paris Council £100

Hayfield Scouts £60

Miscellaneous Costs (Prizes, Food, Volunteer Drinks, First Aid Kit, etc) ~£130

Groovy Kinder Love Results 2022

Groovy Kinder Love Fell Race Results 2022

		Men's Team
	1	Chorlton
	2	Dark Peak
U23		Harvey Meredith
SEN1		Mark Burley			SEN1	Rachel Munday
SEN2		Stephen Edwards			SEN2	Anna Wildman
SEN3		Toby Gill			SEN3	Emily Sanders
Vet40		Matt Owens			Vet40	Lincs Palmer
Vet50		Ed Gamble
Vet60		David Clark
Pos	Time	No.	Surname	First name	Male / Female	Cat.	Club
1	2:24:05	87	Burley	Mark	M	SEN	Macclesfield Harriers & AC
2	2:34:10	93	Edwards	Stephen	M	40	Chorlton Runners
3	2:34:25	95	Gill	Toby	M	U23	Matlock
4	2:35:55	62	Ridgeway	Ian	M	SEN
5	2:36:05	89	Martin	Ben	M	SEN	Pennine Fell Runners
6	2:37:35	75	Owens	Matt	M	40	Chorlton Runners
7	2:38:45	64	Litherland	Ross	M	45
8	2:43:10	137	Skrimshire	Ralph	M	40	DPFR
9	2:45:15	98	Rutter	Tim	M	40	Dark Peak Fell Runners
10	2:46:25	88	Gamble	Ed	M	55	Cheshire Hill Racers
11	2:48:00	140	Spoor	Mathew	M	SEN	DPFR
12	2:48:05	86	Larratt	Phil	M	SEN	Chorlton Runners
13	2:48:30	85	Langford	George	M	SEN	Chorlton Runners
14	2:48:50	71	Hutchinson	Scott	M	45	Marsden Racers
15	2:52:25	143	Culshaw	Tim	M	SEN	Saddleworth Runners
16	2:59:20	90	Syrett	Nick	M	45	Chorlton Runners
17	2:59:30	139	Greenald	Tim	M	45	Altrincham & District AC
18	2:59:45	72	Clark	David	M	60
19	3:00:15	67	Cook	Oliver	M	55	Long Eaton RC
20	3:02:40	73	Munday	Rachel	W	40	Macclesfield Harriers & AC
21	3:02:42	66	Savage	Toby	M	50	Pennine Fell Runners
22	3:04:20	55	Bark	Stephen	M	50
23	3:05:20	77	Morgan	Keith	M	55	Ashbourne RC
24	3:05:25	58	Wildman	Anna	W	SEN	Pennine Fell Runners
25	3:45:45	56	Capponi	Simone	M	45	Bowland Fell Runners
26	3:06:40	144	Hart	Toby	M	40	Newcastle(Staffs) Tri Club
27	3:08:03	84	Gittins	Matt	M	SEN	Didsbury Runners
28	3:08:57	79	McMurtry	James	M	55	Ashbourne RC
29	3:09:10	74	Winfield	Rob	M	40
30	3:16:05	76	Giles	Samuel	M	SEN	Saddleworth Runners
31	3:16:40	65	Hallam	Jonathan	M	45	Penistone Footpath Runners & AC
32	3:24:52	92	Knowles	Daniel	M	50
33	3:25:10	68	Whitfield	David	M	50	Macclesfield Harriers & AC
34	3:25:50	59	Broadbent	David	M	55	Pennie fell runners
35	3:26:00	99	Turner	Chase	M	SEN
36	3:30:01	60	Flint	Ashley	M	SEN	Belper Harriers
37	3:30:03	63	Darling	Marcel	M	50	Belper Harriers
38	3:30:13	57	Temple	Steve	M	60	KFR
39	3:30:30	78	Sanders	Emily	W	55	Ashbourne RC
40	3:33:55	94	Govan	Matt	M	SEN	Matlock Athletic Club
41	3:51:55	141	Palfreman	Tim	M	50	Harrogate Harriers
42	3:58:08	69	Meredith	Harvey	M	U23
43	3:58:20	138	Snarr	Matthew	M	40	Manchester District Orienteering Club
44	4:02:37	80	Hickling	Richard	M	50	Belper Harriers
45	4:03:25	70	Meredith	Will	M	40	Pennine Fell Runners
46	4:04:30	97	Tappenden	Steve	M	40	Levenshulme Runners
47	4:05:05	96	Winder	Bill	M	45	Ackworth
48	4:26:00	83	Palmer	Lincs	F	50
49	4:26:30	82	Underwood	Robert	M	45	Belper Harriers
50	4:34:00	61	Phelan	Patrick	M	50