50 Wold-erful miles



"Welcome to the Wolds"

 Wolds way memories

People I know, particularly runners can probably attest to the fact that I talk about doing the Wolds way in one go last year a lot! It was a real experiance pitching myself against the 79 mile undulating point-to-point Long Distance footpath. Running over a cool, drizzly summer Friday night, into a peaceful raining morning before completing on a cool, but sunny Saturday afternoon. With just a packful of food and drink and no outside assistance (barring a lift home from Filey at the end) it was one of the most fulfilling experiances I've ever had.

With this in mind an entry in the Woldsman 50 event this year seemed well overdue. With a circuit running the flat countryside away from Driffield, into the hills and almost unique Wold-land chalk valleys with trademark steep, short, ascents in and out of the almost symetrical and V-shaped valleys, before returning to Driffield. Another draw was that this would also be my first 50 - I've done 55 miles at Hardmoors a few times and several longer events. Finally there was the lure of LDWA hospitality.

Saturday morning and things didn't start particularly well, perhaps too relaxed with a rare, short 30min drive to the start line of a long event I set off in good time, but then on the edge of Hull remembered I'd left my pre-mixed energy drink, water and recovery drink bottles in the fridge. I'm a bit peeved with myself, but remind myself it's no big issue and even after retuning to collect I step into the hall at the Driffield showground nearly 45 minutes before the start.

A nights dining in Driffield and the Nemesis

After check in I caught up with Mark (Dalton) and Dave (Cremins) who travelled down together to this event and "bunked" in the hall. They filled me in on their interesting night attempting to tap in to Driffield's fine dining scene and finding a high carb feast of Chinese takeaway followed by cakes from tesco.

They'd had a disturbed nights sleep I learnt through the day of one guy who turned up to bunk without a sleeping bag, cover or cushioning and proceeded to almost freeze, his shaking audible to all. There was also a "cougher", who had driven the room mad of course (always one).


But a more mysterious presence was that of "the smoker" at the bunkhouse, recognised by Dave. Stories of whom make me think about the mysterious character from the X-Files. I wouldn't have thought long-distance running and smoking really worked together and this disconcerting mix - according to Dave - had wound up Jon (Steele) and Dave a bit a few weeks previously at the Calderdale Hike. He'd turn up before them at each check point, look all casual having a drag whilst Jon and Dave worked hard to find their way around the new route. I guess he was much aided by good nav choices as Jon and Dave aren't slouches. Though the teenager in me likes to imagine he actually stepped out of a blacked-out limousene a few hundred yards from each CP and trotted up.


Ready for the off



There was then fun and games with event HQ toilets. The blokes had one cubicle and a long queue, the womens had about 5, but were blocked. Thankfully I'd gone "a bit" before leaving home, but still had the feeling I was takiin g something out onto the course with me.

 So it begins



8am and we were off, I got an uneasy feeling (no, not the guts yet) as there were only a few in front of use in the first few hundred yards off the showground. Was I going way too fast? as I was almost involved in the cat and mouse game at the front of 'I'll follow you for a while so I don't have to bother navving as long as possible'.



Sledmere's Eleanor Cross



But as we left the outskirts of Driffield on a good track Dave, Mark and I formed a small second group. The group in front contained speedy Chris Brown, who usually finishes events ahead of us - he's having a bad day or me a good if I'm near or ahead. The others I didn't know and they were soon ahead and a few others caught from behind and ran along with us. Our early pace was fast, faster than 6mph and settled slightly as we reached more undulating ground towards CP2 at Sledmere and many fine momuments and statues - location of the grand Sledmere House stately home. The indoor CP further held us up with a delightful array or food. Mark was barely exaggerating when he said there were weddings with poorer buffets!

On towards the hills and after a steady track descent the first real climb, which took us to a farm with dogs which barked at everybody who went passed, this was even pre-warned on th route-descrip - they must have drove the owners mad that day as maybe 100 woldsman-ers would have passed through in dribs-and-drabs.

One of the early climbs

We must have climbed a bit in the route to here as we had a fairly big drop down towards an outlying eastern tentacle of Thixendale - the village of the dales name sits in a central part of the dale which the extends out in many different directions. A bit about Thixendale here.

But we didn't head into Thixendale yet, but the hills were here to stay for awhile and we started the walk-steep road climb out of Fairy Dale, which the levelled out at the car park for Wharram Percy and CP3.

The Wolds

Climbing Fairy Dale

After snacking at CP3 it was a downhill track to the site of the Medieval village of Wharram Percy. I need to spend some time looking around here one day as I always seem to just "pass through" on runs (this is part of the Wolds Way long distance footpath). We passed the foundations of medieval buildings and the major remaining structure, the roofless church, which has in part existed here since the 12th century. About this time my bowels made it known that I could really do with a pit-stop at Thixendale.

Wharram Percy Medieval church

We then climbed the muddy bank up to Deep dale. It briefly started to rain again as we plodded along the muddy dale top track. It soon stopped, but this didn't make trying hard to maintain a forward momentum on a mud path any more fun. After quite a long section Dave, Mark and I were glad to turn south and cut through another dale before the picturesque descent into pretty Thixendale.

An unexpected pleasure at Thixendale was a choice of hot food! Barely before I'd mixed another bottle of energy drink and changed maps my pasta with spicy sauce was served up. Very nice - Mark and Dave even found room for desert! I was also pleased to make use of the indoor WC to shut my bowel up.



Along plod along the top of Deep dale

 Outside it had started raining quite heavily so it was also time for all to don waterproofs. We took a walk down Thixendale main street and outta town digesting our early lunch and dodging puddles. We were soon off-road again and following a sedate southward bound dale bottom path out of Thixendale.

The heaviest shower of the day was soon over, but I chose to keep my waterpoof smock on and just adjust the zip-neck to regulate heat. It wasn't a warm day and the cold, strengthening wind from the north sea - often channelled through the dales - and frequent showers made the smock very useful as wind and cold protection. Being the kind of day it was I never overheated sufficiently the rest of the day to take off this protective layer.

Irrisistable lamb picture

It was a mostly dale bottom path to the next CP. First Thixendale south and past a large earth sculpture (which couldn't really be appreciated by running past it and must have been designed to be appreciated by Wolds wayers descending into the dale. Then a right branch to Bradeham dale, left branch to Wayrham dale - past an army of molehills - before climbin g to cross the A166 (York to Driffield road). After a climb up Callis wold we had the most fun descent of the day into - another - Deep dale. We then followed, pretty, Deep dale until a brief right turn to the Givendale scout hut, CP5.

Swooping down to Thixendale

The hilliest bit

We briefly retraced our tracks to then leave Givendale via an initially fairly steep plod uphill to then drop into Millington dale. My Grough route made this the toughest section of the route by climb - less than 5m but over 1000ft ascent makes this about as hilly a few miles as you can run in East Yorkshire.



The most fun descent of the day, to Deep Dale.... 2



Through Millington including down the drive of somebodies swanky modern pad before taking a snicket path - am I in Calderdale? - to the big grassy bank which is the other sidewall of the dale. We pretty much walked all of this near 350ft+ in less than 1/4 mile climb. Joining the Wolds way at the top for our second stint along this route.

Much as I like the Way this section is a bit of a head-doer. A slight climb along a field edge before a descent to cross, striking, Sylvan dale with 150ft stepped and on toes climb to bruise the calves a bit. Then follows another gentle rise and fall along a field edge before descending and ascending semi-steeply across a second branch dale from Millington dale. Once this levels out you then rejoin the main dale running on a muddy, narrow path (Huggate Sheepwalk) along the edge of the dale, slightly climbing and today into that wind!

A tough climb from Sylvan dale

I got my head down and decided to run this bit to get it over with - I'm happy enough running into a wind and seem to find it easier than some who seem to switch to walk mode when faced with a headwind. Nevertheless I was glad to reach the end of the dale and exit across a road to a tend picthed to block the wind and the next CP.

All downhill from here...



Grey sky consumes Millington dale



....said somebody at the checkpoint. After a chat and a yoghurt (nice change) it was on again along the Wolds way to roll over the fields above 700ft, often in wind and then drop down to meet a small road north of Huggate where we branched off the Wolds way for the last time today and took a pleasurable gradually descent along Cow dale, before branching left into Rabbit dale for a long stretch of running straight into "that wind". It doesn't look long on the map, but against strengthening resistance, Mark, Dave and I even took it in turn front running peleton style to share the workload and increase efficiency.



Some welcome light on a grey day



This only half worked as I put a fair bit of effort into getting through this wind tunnel quickly and probably went into the red that bit too long. Once we'd climbed out of the dale and along the road into Wetwang I struggled to keep up with Mark and Dave as they bounded down the road to the next CP.

Another good-humoured CP and we had a good laugh about the conditions and a few double-entendres as Mark got a vaseline rub-down on his back where his pack was chaffing. A bit of rice-pudding gave me some energy to go and it was on we go.

"Healing hands" at Wetwang

After a slight climb from Wetwang on road and hard track , there was a Driffield-bound turn and then a very long straight section of trail and track for the best part of the remaining distance, punctuated by a final CP at around 5m. Our pace had slipped a bit from looking like sub-10 earlier in the day, now to likely 10:30. And whilst I could still run my plod speed had dropped a bit below Mark and Dave's on this section.

As we cut through Little driffield in the last few miles I found some pace again and we all had a good run in. Chasing down another two just in front of us to finish joint 8th, 10:35, about one hour behind the first back. Quite happy with that as the wind made things hard work in sections, but with better pacing I probably should have gone under 10 on this course even this day. On the other hand.... a pat on the back, joint 8th of 166th finishers ain't bad.

After a bit of stew to put something back quick, our little group took advantage of quite an early finish for a long event and headed off home. A good soak and a good sleep the order or the evening and awake up refreshed on my birthday the next day, when I lavishly indulged in a breakfast and pub lunch out.

The Woldsman - 28th April 2012 - 10'35" - 50m - 4535 feet asc and desc (90.7 per mile)

Injury, self doubt and 60 fantastic miles coming soon?

Call me a wimp, but I didn't want to write a more thorough report of what happened at the UTMB. It was such a great atmosphere pre and post race and at times great fun taking part. A lot of the detail isn't reflected in my 'picture tour' blog entry before.

The eventual end to my event was pain slowing me down and tiredness making my progression unsafe. I think without the combination of the two I could have got on ok. As it was after losing loads of time on my ultimate stage, cooling down too much and just making a cut off at Arnuva it would have been foolish to go on and attempt Grand Col Ferret. Maybe with a few strong coffees and a bout of 'runners high' I might have made the next cut-off, but it may have just been several miles of misery and the further ruining of what had been a great experiance for the most part.

So injury, I mentioned this was a factor in my UTMB performance. The sore knee seemed to disappear almost straight after stopping. The ankle was worse, distinct swelling a few inches above my foot at the front of my ankle afterwards. I might have been ok with pain management during the event. But the aggrevation mentioned in my post-UTMB blog, catching my toe on a tree root or planted stone before Refuge Bonnetti, really didn't help. I was running along, not knowing what was causing the pain, whether it was serious or not.

After the event, with RICE, the swelling and pain both went. All was looking good, but then last Thursday on my first hard outing since - 13 days post-UTMB - I was burning up local hilly trail, pushing hard on the 7 hills route that my club regularly run in training. I was well up in the group of club runners, I'd regrouped twice, but then ran straight on as others stopped for another regoup - only one descent and ascent from the last... stopping would have been lazy. I was feeling pretty good, I felt I could tackle the remaining 3 hills in one blast at pace without too much hardship.

Then it happened, slam! So fast.... descending fairly steeply, but at controlled pace, I landed on the outside of my ankle and it rolled over so fast I didn't, seemingly couldn't, react to prevent a sprain. I held the fence, grimacing as others went passed. I was offered help but I said I'd "run it off", in reality this didn't feel like something I could run off. I ended up limping back several miles to the start point, via a road shortcut, somebody kindly picking me up as soon as they'd finished so my pain wasn't prolonged.

I'd sprained my ankle, probably not badly, from Internet research it looks like 'bad' grade 1 at the worst. I visited the doctor the next day, who didn't seem concerned enough to even examine my claim (maybe I didn't look "pained" enough?), but he did prescibe some heat rub and a tubigrip bandage. The combo and innactivity have helped. I even ran a few miles this Tuesday - probably too soon - but I felt good, ableit at very slow pace on very flat ground in a very supportive road shoe. And the a similar distance tonight, but slightly faster.

The mental aspect - self doubt - is something I really need to work on. Why have I retired after roughly 60m of my last two 100's. I'm not overly bothered that I didn't complete, 60m is good distance but I would like to have and wonder if some mental weakness is just jumping on convenient excuses, making pain and tiredness (both muscular and sleepiness) bigger issues then they actually were? Maybe thats an easy presumption in hindsight and now the reality of the moments is a somewhat hazy summary in my mind. Was UTLD 2010 a fluke? Am I not prepared to work that hard, suffer that much again. The answer seems to be, right now..... yes. I have no guarantee of improvement every time at any distance even if I've trained hard. So when you factor in the mental battle of a 100, the miles may have been run to prepare my legs, but were they in my head. Or am I just overthinking this?

There is no clear answer. But it seems sensiblethat I change something and that something would be to back off from and remove the 100mile obstacle - respect the distance (and the big hills). 100 is just a big number in terms of miles, but 60 is still a good one, 79 was also a good one when I completed the Wold's way unaided a few months ago. So I figure I'll bring in a three-figure mileage embargo for 2012, see how that goes. There are some great events that must be classified as long, tough ultra's I can test myself on, but are 99.9 miles or less.

How about the Hardmoors 55 (March) to start with, it's got a deceivingly easy opening 22m, which in two attempts has lulled me into an over-eagerly paced start. I can do better here, a great first long ultra of the year.

Then a step up to the Lakeland 50. Even with the 100 on offer by no means am I shirking if I train hard and do this one justice, finishing before the sun dawns on Sunday (e.g. sub 15 hours or so).

And how about the TDS (Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie), the tough little brother of the UTMB at 70-or-so miles. Ok, so its shorter than the UTMB, but it packs in more elevation change per mile, a tougher 70m is hard to imagine.

A return to the Fellsman is also a must, even if they move the date. The Woldsman will be a good substitute in the space between Hardmoors 55 and Lakeland 50.

Before all this I hope I have the potential to complete 60 fantastic miles in the inaugural Hardmoors 60. It will be a joy to run along this part of Yorkshires undulating, hilly and often wild coast and to complete the course would be a 60 mile run I could be very satisfied with. And satisfaction that I can still complete a long event. Here's hoping the sprain keeps healing quickly and I can have a steady and safe saunter around this one.

Under starters orders.....

I kind of feel I'm back at the start of something again. The last 6 months have been fantastic and have delivered me back after a wild, circular ride, hopefully at a higher base fitness than I started with. I did "kind of" a schedule to prepare for the 3in3 and Snowdonia, but it was all good fun, LDWA events and fell races for long runs. Thursday speedwork with club, not caring what I did just wanting to keep my finger in and enjoy the banter. The other runs are just a blur, some weeks I probably only ran 4 sessions but was doing 30-50 miles. I've run new parts of the country, met new and interesting people, had some of the best carb-reloads ever and now its all over....

Targets met.....
what now?.....
Sit around, get fat, work too hard?
Nooooo..... though I have piled on a few pounds this week whilst layed off due to an aggressive cold. Lets call it winter layering.
So?....... what?

I may be short, slow and untalented, but otherwise I'm just like Usain Bolt. Right now I'm just loosening up, doing strides along the first few yards of the track, thinking about the next race, my target, then its in the blocks and I'll go for it. Not 100m mind you, comparison ends there, but it will be bigger, better, maybe faster than the last. How else would I be satisfied?

I'll get around to updating my Hit list soon and hope to catchup with many a member of the off-road community this winter. Afterall, we don't take winter breaks do we? I'll be doing Rudolph's Romp, a speedy little LDWA event in my nearby, this December. Then I'll see if I can improve last years mark in the formula 1 event of the English Fell racing scene, the Auld Lang Syne, hopfully sharp from regular cross country races. Then a rare excursion back onto the roads for the Brass Monkey Half in January. Is a PB (92mins) now beyond me or can I build speed on my solid endurance foundation? Then its back to endurance and I want to really push it in the first few months. I have eyes on the Woldsman as my first 50. However, even before that I quite fancy the Hardmoors 55 - look it up, sounds great. If I don't do that I'll probably do the Jurassic Coast Challenge - another 3 mara in 3 days. One thing I defiantely want to do is the Yorkshire 3 peaks race. I've wanted to do that since before I even ran! Its a great feeling that the qualification of to long A/B cat fell races (or med A) that scared me more than the race I bagged in a few short months this summer.... and enjoyed them enough to do more.