Sunday 28 November 2010

Black Rocks, White over

From Black Rocks. Overlooking  Cromford & the Derwent Valley 

An early finish on Friday coinciding with clear blue skies, tempted Billy and I out for a short  run and  play at Black Rocks.  A Gritstone outcrop set aboveWirksworth and Cromford with trails to run/walk and the Black Rocks to climb. It  featured in the film Hard Grit and even the Villan himself Don Whillans once came down for a go.





After a quick lap of the blue trail (ok, it wasn't that quick), Billy and I stopped for a scramble on one of the easier sections. Unlike the other dogs we have had, Billy doesn't seem to have grasped the concept of hieght and its dangers, which keeps me on my toes. 



We reached the point where Billy's legs were too short for him to go on, turned  round and finished off with a couple of hill reps. Not a bad start to the weekend.



Saturday morning, like much of the UK we woke up to this. Cool! Isnt snow BRILLIANT ? We only had time for a brief run up to Bunkers Hill and back but as you can see from the picture below, Billy enjoyed it.







Saturday 20 November 2010

Adventures in Blunder Land

Ray on his way up from the Edale Valley.
 the backdrop is the Win Hill to Mam Tor ridge (the Great Ridge)
Rab Mini Mountain Marathon, 14th Nov, Edale

No epics, neither of us had to saw a trapped limb off, cut the rope or survive on bracken and Kinder bog water. Just  a lack of concentration, scratching our heads and looking at the map when we should have been running. 

The truth is, it was probably all my fault. Being last race of the year for us, I took my camera along (a bit like last day of school before Xmas, when kids take games and toys in). Instead of map reading, I was wasting my limited supply of brain cells, taking photos.
Typical Dark Peak Terrain 

The Race started from Edale Village Hall. We collected our dibbers and dibbed in at the start line, at which point we were given a pre marked map and a piece of paper with control descriptions. All nicely sealed in a placky, ziplock bag. You can see the course @  RouteBrowser & RouteGadget.


Into the unknown. Looking north east over the Woodlands Valley
The visibility was good, a rarity around Kinder so instead of playing safe, we decided try somewhere new to us. The scary wilds of north eastern Kinder. Its not really wilderness, we could see the A57 Snake Pass from Crookstone Knoll and you are never far from civilisation in the Peak.

We faffed about trying to find the control on Crookstone Knoll ( #14 Crag foot E end of spur summit) but our climb gave us a great view across the Woodlands Valley and after a short run, we could look down to see the re-entrant, that lead us to our next control.
This of course meant we had to run down the hill only to climb back up again, to reach the next checkpoint. The slog back up was not squandered on photography this time. Too steep to run, meant time to plan the next couple of legs and have a swig of water.


Hare today gone tomorrow 

I had been concerned about the next section, a short bog trot over Kinder but it turned out to be my highlight of the day. As we started to cross the narrow plateaux, a Mountain Hare appeared. Wow! this was a  real treat for me. I had never seen one with its winter coat on before. I was so exited I had to get the camera out to take a blurry photo.
The rest of the race went well. A nice touch was that the last control we visited was just a few hundred metres, from the first one we found, on the first Mini MM that Ray and I did together, back in 2008.


We finished with just 5 minutes to spare. If you  take any longer than 3 hours, lateness penalties are incurred and points are deducted. Team Ibuprofen  collected  150 points of 315 and came 63rd of 143. 6th in class.

Another very enjoyable event. Many thanks to all at Dark & White Challenge Events.




Thursday 11 November 2010

Dash, dawdle, dash.



The Dovedale Dash has been going in various forms since 1953. The Dash is a four and 3/4 mile cross country race. The course is set in one of the most famous and picturesque parts of the White Peak and recent winners have included Simon Bailey, Stuart Bond and Lloyd Taggart.  

Ray and I warmed up with an anxious run to the registration marquee. Dovedale is only a short drive for us but being complacent we hadn't allowed quite enough time. After signing on it was strait to the start line to join the 1477 other runners. Looking around, amongst the starters there were plenty of fast looking racers in club vests, a gorilla and a group of Smurfs.

The race started with nearly fifteen hundred of us funnelling downhill into Lin Dale. I had decided to go for it from the off, I love descending, the feeling of only just being in control, letting go and allowing gravity to do its thing, always puts a smile on my face. It wasn't a steep descent by fell race standards but with so many other runners about it was entertaining, with the mud and wet limestone catching a few out.

On to the bottom of Lin Dale and the much photographed Stepping Stones. Instead of using the stepping stones, the organisers gave us the chance to clean our shoes with a wade across the river Dove, Some chose to take a dive and wash all their kit. 

The next few miles, fairly steady, at least for me they were. I had slowed to a plod, hoping to save enough for the final climb, from the bottom of the small but perfectly formed Thorpe Cloud, back up Lin Dale. My pace or lack of it, meant I was passed by loads of faster runners but fortunately no gorillas and only one Smurf.

Stuart Bond was first home with a time of 26min 46seconds. I dawdled over the line 325th, 13 minutes later  and Ray came in not long after. What pleasantly surprised us was that we had beaten over 1000 other runners. I guess there must have been a lot more Smurfs than I first thought.