Author: Andrew Corfield

You wait 16 months for a Race and 2 come along together!

My last race was the Thirsk 10 mile, it seems like a lifetime ago. Many of you may have already had your first race of the year in club colours, this was to be mine. Once it was confirmed the Durham City Run Festival was going to be going ahead, emails pinged and race numbers dropped on the doormat soon after. This was a race deferred from last year and one I have raced every year since its inception. Was I excited? Hmmm…. Yes and No in equal measures.

The Yes bit is obvious, I absolutely love race day!  Getting stuff together, planning travel, etc etc

The No …. A little un-fitter, injury niggle for past year or so, will my race vest fit (this was a very real concern, lol), how will it work with new course and covid restrictions.

Race Day was here, I pinned my number to my vest, packed my bag and off I went.

My vest was a little snug, but still so happy to be wearing Harriers colours again. But not sure what to expect in Durham.  The race start was moved to the Racecourse, as I walked there, I was joined by a few familiar faces, and even more Harriers were at the venue. Everything seemed like normal, lots of people, different clubs represented. And it was a fantastic evening weather wise.

 

The organisation was absolutely superb. Everyone had a colour coded number, I was in the first wave, we were corralled and led to the start line, the next wave formed behind and so on. The walk to the start was a good couple of hundred yards away, all the waves in place moving very slowly to be released in a rolling start every few minutes.

As I approached the start line, I glanced across the field and saw Pete King, he was going to be the last man to cross the start line. The Americans call it playing the dead man running game, whether intentional or not, the aim is to overtake as many as possible before you cross the finish line. I on the other hand was doing the exact opposite, start first and see how many runners can pass me.

The race was off, new course and full of hope. We did a loop of the Racecourse and then headed through Old Elvet and down by the river, crossed the foot bridge and were doing the Parkrun in reverse on the undulating path next to the river. Crossed the very narrow wood bridge at about 3k (apologies for being slow and causing a bottle neck behind me) and on towards the very loud, shaky bridge at the Sports Complex.  The surprise next was a left hander and onto the running track for about 300m then off and in between the various sports pitches for a lap of the complex on the grass, which turned into another field and a lap before heading back along the river path back towards Durham.

 

This was the 5k point, and when the wheels started to fall off, my calf injury started hurting and gradually was to get worse. Slowing down even slower if that was possible, I heard Pete behind me and asked if I would do a race rundown. In a moment of weakness I said yes, no problem, he then ran off before I could change my mind!

The pace was getting slower and pain was starting to hurt, but I was determined to finish. The route was not as hilly as previous years, a good course I thought.  So we crossed the Old Elvet Bridge and ran towards the market place, through the shops and up Claypath, to turn down the steep hill towards the old ice rink site. And over the river again we go, the last painful kilometre towards the city centre.  We ended up crossing the Framwellgate Bridge and running up the steep hill towards the market place and onto a finish at The Gate, Claypath.

 

The support from fellow Harriers was as it always was, and always will be, genuine, warm and encouraging. My race was not the greatest at 1 hr 20 mins.  But on reflection I still enjoyed my race day. And another race the following day!

 

OH NO!!!  ANOTHER RACE RUNDOWN!!!

After limping the last 2 miles the previous night, I did not know what to expect from my Run Like A Legend mile race.  My preparation was lots of warm up drills, stretching on the morning and becoming best friends with my foam roller.

I was racing with 5 other people on the riverside path at 2.00pm. The course was an out and back on flat terrain, a lot easier than last time’s course.

I ran like the wind, it seemed like I did anyway, was very hot and sticky but it’s only a mile isn’t it?  I gained confidence from the fact I was not hurting and ran as fast as I could, my target was under 10 minutes, a good benchmark for the rest of the year.

A very good 9.43 which I was pleased with, all is restored in Andy World.

 

As a footnote these two races being part of the Durham City Running Festival are excellent local events in a fantastic setting, well organised and laid out, medals and T-shirts are of good quality. All in all a great experience I will continue to support.

Andy Corfield.

Time to stop doubting, and start believing!

This could be a long read, so grab a coffee or tea and make yourself comfortable. This year the race was shortened slightly to coincide with the 50^th Anniversary of The Cleveland Way and 10^th Anniversary of the running of this event.

The route of the run went from North to South, Guisborough to Helmsley via Roseberry Topping (up and over it twice!) This proved to make this race extremely difficult due to the direction of the run. Whilst the run was as long as it was difficult, the biggest factor was the weather. This proved to be the undoing of a lot of combatants; I don’t use this word lightly, because it was a battle out there between the elements and sheer willpower. During this Race Rundown, I will attempt to, not just describe the miles I crossed, but to try and convey what was going on inside my head at the time.

Friday night before the race, full of hope and optimism, I packed my race gear, a lot of essential kit to carry on an ultra. I packed two drop bags, with extra gels and Haribo for Drop 1 at Kildale, and ham and pickle sarnies and pork pies for Drop 2 at Osmotherley. All set, good to go, early night then race day! No matter what race it is, I love race day, the excitement of what’s about to unfold, the uncertainty of how it will go, the buzz of anticipation from all the runners, its palpable.

It was raining on the morning, but did not dampen anybody’s spirits, well, not yet anyway. The race was under way 15 minutes late, after registration and everyone had to have a tracker taped to their race vest.

The first couple of miles were uphill, no surprise there, and across to the Tees Link, which was a vertical mud-bath climb straight to Highcliff Nab. This was relentless, but weather wise, shielded from the wind was not too bad. Once we got to the top and a few hundred yards later the wind came into its own just as Roseberry Topping came into view, in all its rugged splendour. Runners were already streaming down one side of Roseberry and on to Captain Cook’s Monument before I even made the first climb over it. Once up and over, we turned around and did it again then on our merry way. The wind was horrific, almost catching people off balance, this was set in for the day. After 5 miles the first of the retirements were logged.

Between mile 5 and 10, I was not in a good place. The sheer difficulty of the climb with wind, and rain combined got me thinking about the next 40 miles. My legs were stiff, knees with a niggle I have had on and off for a long time, Kildale seemed an easy decision to call it a day! Gutted!

On the approach to Kildale I started running a little more freely, maybe it wasn’t gonna end here after all. I was of course soaking wet, but not cold, benefits of carrying a few extra pounds I suppose. My inner Andy told me, get inside, hot drink, grab your dropbag and go. The problem with staying too long in warm indoor checkpoints is the fact that it’s warm and indoors!! So I decided to have a go to the next check point, up and over Bloworth Crossing to Clay Bank. It was 10 miles. I had arrived at Kildale 45 minutes ahead of cut off, so to have a go and carry on was my decision, based on the fact that if I ran every now and again my legs and knees loosened up and felt better. Off we go.

10 miles crossing Bloworth I started thinking about the next big cut off point at Osmotherley, which was a further 10 miles away and included the 3 Sisters. I had until 6.00pm to do another 20 miles. There was a small group of us traversing Bloworth together, not a lot of conversation, driving rain coming at you sideways and wind gusting up to 45mph took all of our concentration. We leap-frogged each other (not literally tho! Lol! ) on that 10 mile stretch. Each time a faster person went past, words of encouragement were given…” nice one, keep it up” … “ well done, looking strong” and other short words of motivation. The runner would then stop and walk a while, others picked up the proverbial baton and it was their turn to stretch their legs….This went on for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality, 3 hours. Bloworth is bleak on a Summer day, never mind on a day like this. But all I could think of was making Clay Bank and evaluate my mind and body as to carrying on or calling it a day.

Approaching Clay Bank the 3 Sisters loomed in the distance, looking bleak and menacing. Its only 3 hills, up an over, up and over and you’ve guessed it, up and over again. I have done this section probably a dozen times, and to be fair, its one of my favourite places. Once I dropped into Clay Bank my mind was more or less made up to carry on. A lot of bodies called it a day at that point, not wanting to go any further. And who could blame them, 20 miles of being battered has taken its toll. Inner Andy told me “its not gonna end here is it? C’mon ya big Jessie, fill your bottles grab some Jaffa cakes and go!!” I would not have forgiven myself if I didn’t at least climb the next stage to Lordstones. In hindsight, Inner Andy would have being right. I had to carry on. At our amazing club at Sedgefield, I seem to have a name for liking the hills and doing reasonably well at them for a big lad. I’m not the quickest or strongest on the flat but you just have to embrace the hills, grit your teeth and grind them out. So basically I carried on, with Inner Andy and The Harriers in my mind, Wainstones 3 Sisters were smashed and dedicated to our Club & members.

I could always stop at Lordstones Café, if I was in no shape to carry on further, call my wife to collect my body from there, while I could have had a nice pint of Guinness. Mmm more internal dialogue.

To reach Osmotherley from Lordstones I had 8 miles and 2 and a half hours to cut off at 6.00pm. I was by now moving slowly so it was going to be tight on time. I discounted stopping at Lordstones and carried on. My reasoning being, Osmotherley is easier to get to for my wife and more importantly I had pork pies there! And waiting about, for an hour in wet clothes would not have being fun. So while I was still mobile, albeit wet but not cold I went onwards.

Friends of mine caught me up on the run in to Osmotherley, it was a nice distraction to chat and have a bit of banter with them, they eventually pushed on after a few miles to try and beat cut off time. I was moving slower. I knew my race was over. I made peace with Inner Andy, had an epiphany 4 miles out from Osmotherley, and looked back on the previous 9 hours and realised what I have just done in the bleakest of conditions. I was pleased with myself for giving it a proper go, no regrets, 30 miles in the bag and lots of memories.

I made the call to my wife to meet me in the village hall. I was not upset by this, or even subdued like I was at the first attempt and being timed out 3 years ago. It was the correct decision. Whilst I was wet all day, I was never cold. But as daylight faded, the temperature dropped, so for me to carry on would not have ended well. My friends missed cut off by 6 minutes, I was disappointed for them. I trundled in at 6.24pm happy in the knowledge I had given it a proper go, my wife was already there 10 minutes before me. So the day ended with coffee and pork pies, warm dry clothes and a bag of chips from around the corner. The last half mile all I could smell was fish and chips!! And they were lovely!!

Lessons learned today were, some kit worked better than others, but only a small portion of runners managed to stay dry. All sorts of big name jackets eventually failed the weather test we had, quite a few, me included were soaked after the first 3 hours. The weather made this an extremely unpredictable and difficult race for an unsupported runner like myself and many others. But the race is designed that way, to be run in one go by oneself. Even supported runners dropped out. Some guys on the race said it was the worst conditions they have encounted, and a few of them ran last year when The Beast from the East hit the race.

Will I run this next year? Of course I will, it’s one of my favourite races in the calendar.

My run by the numbers, I do love a good bit of data:

Distance – 30.5 miles

Ascent – 8855 ft – 5 hrs 27mins of climbing

Descent – 8688 ft – 4 hrs 34mins

Heart rate average for 10 hours – 132bpm

& 2 pork pies

A couple of items of kit I had are note worthy of a mention:

Runderware anti-blister, double layered ankle sock – feet were wet all day, but no chaffing or blisters and very comfortable. Feet were as good as when I started, NO HOBBIT FEET HERE!

Lanacane anti-chafing cream – one application all day, no issues at all, nuff said!

Base layer, Under Armour Cold Gear – I may have been wet because of the extreme conditions but I was never cold.

Suunto Ambit 3 Peak – Battery life amazing, only used 37% in over 10 hours of use, and I was wearing a bluetooth chest heart-rate strap.

Thank you for reading my race rundown, at the time of writing, the full set of race results have yet to be published but will appear on the Hardmoors website. The winner did finish in 8 hrs 19 mins.

https://www.hardmoors110.org.uk/hardmoors-55/

Andrew Corfield.

Sunday 9th February is the first event of the Hardmoors 26.2 Trail Series. This consists of 7 race venues throughout the year, in and around The North Yorkshire Moors. Each race day has 3 events, 10k, half marathon and full marathon. I have run this event every year since it started in
2013, mainly 10ks, but today was a half marathon for me.

The race itself starts from the Saltburn Recreation Centre and heads towards the Valley Gardens and down to the seafront within the first mile or so. This is the only flat bit on the course and from here the only way is up! We headed to the cliff tops and started a very long ascent, terrain was actually quite good for the most part (more to follow on that statement) and the weather was actually quite kind today. No driving sleet and snow like last year.

It was a little breezy on the tops, nothing like the past day or so, which actually caused the RD (Jon Steele) to divert the route as it would have been too dangerous in high winds in certain places. This shortened the route by over a mile, but we still had over 14 miles of race to complete.

Hardmoors miles are approximate!! Value for money Jon calls it.

Sadly today I was the only Harrier out there. In fact I am at most of these
events. I’m not sure what this says about me, answers on a postcard please! LOL.

The course follows the coastline for a few miles, views are fantastic, runners strung out along the cliff tops, it’s an inspirational sight. We then headed inland on the loop back, via public footpaths, country lanes and bridle paths. Some fields were a little muddy, lots of slipping about but manageable for the most part. Until that is, I came to a sharp downhill; it was very muddy and slippery, bearing in mind some 400 or so marathoners and others had made this what it was. Deadly. I nearly escaped with a controlled slide, but a fight between me and gravity was only going to end one way, me on my backside sliding down the rest of the way.

Back at the race finish I received my medal and shirt. A hot coffee, biscuits and cake, a chat to good friends I only see on race days, then start off back home, another one in the bag! Time was 3hrs 55mins, not fantastic, but a good solid training run for bigger things later and good for a kit evaluation and maybe tweaking a few things for other runs. These runs have a compulsory kit requirement which consists of : waterproof jacket with taped seems – hat – gloves – 500ml water – map and direction guide – emergency food – and survival bag.

These events are very well organised and safe, checkpoints every few miles with lots of goodies. Marshals who are experienced trail and ultra runners, look after every athlete, it’s one big family, The Hardmoors Family, and it’s open to everyone! Thank you for reading.

Results

by Andrew Corfield