small town that parking is very difficult and the very kind offer of a lift via facebook from another member of the Hardmoors family that I had never met. True to his word he picked me up at 7-30 am accompanied by his friend whom was running the half marathon. The talk soon got down to running and James transpired to be a sub 20 min park runner. This worried me somewhat but I thought better of it knowing that this was his 3rd ultra event and that the Yorkshire moors is an unforgiving place for speed merchants! However I was giving him 20 years on me and the worry I had was that he would be finished packed up and gone home by the time I hit mile 20 and thus leaving me a very difficult phone call to Nikki to collect me in the camper.
All checked in nice and quickly thanks to the wonderful smooth Hardmoors team and a chance to catch up with a few of my fellow sufferers I know from previous events whom have become like family thanks’ to the wonderful internet and Facebook allowing us to keep each other up to date with our achievements / failures. It was great to see Emily again whom I had began running the tour de Helvellyn (TDH) with when I sadly badly turned my ankle leaving her and a fellow marathon friend Jason to continue alone.
That brings me to the Injury list- Firstly when running the TDH I had a nightmare when my ankle rolled over nothing more than a stone at 5 miles resulting in me having to limp back to the start. The swelling was quite immense and despite the ice and Arnica cream the cure took at least a week before I could run again. Judging by the photos at the time that was pretty good progress. Just as I got back to fitness and a training exercise of running the Anglesey mara followed the next day by the Four Villages half marathon disaster struck again. Whilst out on the fabulous striders torchlight night runs I literally stepped off a style and with a loud crack had gone over on my other ankle!!.
This led me to the start line of the Osmotherly marathon wondering if I had it in me to succeed and to actually get around. I contemplated dropping to the half but knew if I done the half and felt well then I would regret not doing the full. The half on its own is 18 miles and the 10 k came in at 8 miles in typical Hardmoors fashion.
Following the briefing we set off on our way and on this occasion I had a secret weapon. This was a new pair of Inov8 ultra trail shoes. These I was promised would offer me comfort and grip and considering there was a fair bit of snow around on the hills and much of the run over big paving slabs I lived in hope. Following the start I felt fairly comfortable as we hit one small of many many climbs that would appear. The route this year had been changed slightly with one reason in mind and that being the race director wanted to make it harder than the last few years. This meant that the race would basically go uphill and then uphill some more. In total there was just short of 5000ft of climb over the mileage with over 5000ft of decent according to my garmin.
At approximately 15 miles climbing up probably the biggest hill of the day, my lift came past me. He was about 6ft 2 so his long legs helped him pull away from me on the climbs and that was the last I was to see of James until the end. As we passed every friendly encouraging marshal the miles got eaten up. I could feel my ankle and knew it was injured but it was nothing more than uncomfortable. As we cut through the very last path to find the Village hall and finish appear I felt shear elation that I was back running not just a marathon again but a Hardmoors marathon amongst friends.
Till next time, keep plodding.
For more information visit the race website.
Thanks
Paul