The
'Newcastle Dales Dash' race took place on a Sunday 6th December on an overcast,
wet and windy morning. The race takes place on the 'Apedale Community Country
Park, 200 hectares of woods, meadows and pools, which is reclaimed land from
what was once coal mining land.'
Seven brave striders ventured on this overcast morning to take part in this race; Matt and Elaine, Liz, Heather, Giles Tracey and myself (Tony). We all met at the 'Apedale Heritage Centre', where the race was to start, where an army of volunteers efficiently handed out the race numbers and assisted us before the start.
With
a few heavy days rain preceding the race, and a wet morning, this was going to
be a muddy race. This year I'd come prepared with a pair of newly aquired trail
shoes, which believe me make a difference. With ten minutes to spare I had a
quick warm up, before we were gathered together and were sent of on are way.
The
race is described as 'multi terrain', which is a very apt description, as the
course took us on gravely paths, muddy fields and tarmac, you name it, what's
more it's hilly, horribly hilly. There's no easy start to this race, with
the first half mile, a steep uphill climb, which spread the field out, the path
then leveled off before a steep descent, in fact this was the story of the
race, a series of steep climbs followed by steep descents.
Giles
soon overtook me at the start but I was able to catch him up just after the
first mile. I was able to hold a steady pace and generally overtake more
runners than runners passing me. The wet blustery conditions made it hard
going, but it was almost pleasurable at the same time. It was nice to see the
nine km marker, we just another nasty uphill bit, before a run for home.
This
was a great race, very well organised with a festive feel. It's a tough race,
definitely not a PB course, but very rewarding. All the finishers received a
lovely china mug, mars bar and bottle of water, at £8 entry, it was a bargain,
I recommend this race and will hopefully be back next year.
The
results were as follows;
Tony
Taylor 43m 20s
(20th)
Heather
Carter 46m 10s (35th)
(3rd female/first age category)
Giles
Hodge 46m 50s
(40th)
Matt
Wood 59m 43s
(145th)
Liz
O'keefe 1hr 7m 32s
(190th)
Elaine
Wood 1hr 9m 26s (197th)
Tracey
Hale 1hr 11m 55s (208)
Tony
On Sunday 6 December myself, Heather and Tony set off to do the Dales Dash At Apedale Community Park. This was a first for me as its one race I never ran, purely because its off-road.
However, although it was very hilly, extremely muddy and wet it was one I actually enjoyed. The start was at 11am and the first 0.2 miles is all up hill, the course then takes you around a lot of figure of eight routes. 7 minutes, I knew it was not going to be a. There was lots of slipping and sliding and I was pleased not to have fallen flat on my face, even more pleased I managed to overtake a few folk on some of the extremely narrow paths. I finished in a time of 1hr 7 minutes, would I do it again – yes but I’d really love it to be sunny weather.
Liz