Tuesday 21 July 2015

Plodding in July

Hello everybody, the Plogger (Plodder blogger) is back from holiday and can’t wait to update his avid readership on the club’s activities so far in July! 

1st July: Hope Fell Race – by Anna.

It was the hottest July day on record for the Plodders’ away day at Hope Fell Race.  We had already worked up a healthy sweat just standing at the start line!  Some had hoped that they would place well because surely most runners would have more sense than race on a 30°C+ evening.  It wasn’t the case though, with a great turnout of 219 runners.

Hope Fell Race 2015

 After a lap of the sports pitch to spread out the field, the race skirts through the houses in Hope, goes under the railway, then starts the 650ft climb to the col near Wooler Knoll, north-west of Win Hill.  The heat dried mouths and added some uncertainty on how hard to push - it’d be easy to trigger heat exhaustion - so the drop over the col into the shade of the plantation was welcome!

The respite was short-lived though, and the route quickly turns steeply uphill to Win Hill summit.  A glance at the view, a few breaths of recovery, then it’s straight down to Twitchill Farm and Hope beyond.

Congrats to first Plodder, Mike, in 25th place.  Kudos also to John for racing after his BG attempt at the weekend.  And well done to all 12 Plodders who were mad enough to run!

Plodders 'quanitfy their suffering'

In a very uncharacteristic turn of events, the Plodder contingent decided against the pub due to extreme sweat levels, but some pints will be enjoyed in lieu next Wednesday.  The cake and flapjacks went down well instead.

It’s a great route - one to do again in hopefully cooler temperatures!

Results
25           00:53:50               Michael
111         01:05:34               Shaun
128         01:07:23               John B
134         01:08:02               Andy P
139         01:09:07               James
157         01:11:55               Steve B
176         01:14:40               Maeve (27th lady)
193         01:19:14               Anna (32nd lady)
199         01:20:18               Susan (34th lady)
203         01:21:40               Rob E
204         01:21:41               Samantha C (38th lady)
206         01:23:04               Hannah (39th lady)


6th July: Hathersage Fell Race

The Hathersage Fell Race is  a 4.5 mile race with 1050 feet of climb.  Beginning in the village, the route climbs relentlessly past High Lees and Whim Plantation to Over Owler Tor before peaking on Higger Tor and returning to the village.


Andrew's invisible parachute was unhelpful on the descents.
Results
75           00:40:03               Shau
92           00:41:27               Andrew R
145         00:44:58               James


5th July: Great Hucklow – by Maeve

A brilliant course and a very well-marshalled race. The first hill was a bit of a killer but the marshal shouting plenty of encouragement from the top more than made up for it. It was quite a muggy day but despite the warm weather the rain the previous night had made the muddy bits quite muddy and the man in front of me disappeared into mid-thigh deep mud at one point. I nearly lost a shoe several times.

The course starts quite high up and then you run even higher up the hill to where the glider planes were taking off and hovering above us like birds. The views are lovely but I needed to be careful to watch my feet as the ground was quite bumpy at times and the route was a bit narrow in places. The route undulates a lot so it’s hard to tell what’s coming up next which made it quite fun and interesting. You get a bit of everything on the route – lovely grassy fields to start, up the hill over boggy-ish moorland and then nipping around all the corners of a valley, through little woods and over ditches and streams, then up the last hill with the friendly photographer and back to the finish on a bit of downhill meaning you can really go for it.

Open terrain and gliders over Gt Hucklow
I can recommend the apricot and ginger flapjack at the end and we were all very grateful to the lovely elderly couple who were handing out water halfway round.


Results
19           00:55:06               Martyn
64           01:01:17               Andrew R
100         01:07:39               Maeve  (20th lady)
102         01:07:51               Steve B
131         01:14:50               Anna (27th lady)


19th July: Holme Moss

The Holme Moss Fell Race is a 15.8 mile race with 4215 feet of ascent.  It takes place on the open moors to the north of Woodhead Reservoir.

Results
At time of writing the results were not available.


In Other News…

One Plodder in particular is having an exceptional July: Liz made the Sheffield Telegraph for her Habitat for Humanity project, building homes for orphans in Malawi.  I hope all Plodders will remember to sponsor Liz and send her a message of support!

The Plogger assumes this photo was not taken in Malawi.

Finally…

Thanks to Anna and Maeve for being guest writers.  Remember Plodders: if you want your achievements immortalised in digital prose, write me a race report!  

Tune in next week to hear about the Plogger’s wardrobe malfunction during the Hathersage Hilly Triathlon.  I’ll give you a clue: “drawstring”.