Race Report: Goathland Marathon 09/11/2013

The Hard(as nails)moors Goathland Ultra.

Well, what can I say about this event?  Shall I start at the beginning? Ok! I had seen this race a little while back and just thought, “this is surely a must do”.  However, at £30 the entry wasn’t too much, but the drive to the fabulous North Yorkshire moors and somewhere to stay would bump the cost up.

Why a must do? Well I am a Heartbeat phobia madman, for those too young amongst us, that's the series Heartbeat staring Nick Berry amongst others that aired from about 92- 2007 when the recession took it off air. However, having visited the area where they filmed it, I knew how beautiful the area was. I also knew how challenging and hostile the place could and would be.

The event was part of the Hardmoors series of events. These are serious events spanning from 10ks to 110 mile runs ( yes you read that right) organised by an Ex Para and personal trainer called John Steele. I emailed John about the race requesting somewhere to park the camper and some info about the race, ie navigation etc. John was a true gent and I was able to park my camper in the car park of the Goathland village hall, basically the place where Heartbeat was filmed, and there I was allowed to be staying there!!!  Wow.

I drove up  Friday after work, 150 miles in total arriving in an impressive 3 hours, and parked up in the village hall car park. I was soon awoken by the sound of a little silver Peugeot pulling in to the car park. Mat (SImister) had arrived.  He must of arrived about 0600 having set off about 0300, how does he do it? He’s like a Duracell bunny!!!  However I am glad he did as it was great to have some company. We walked around the village about 06-30 with the dog and I gave Mat a guided tour of where all the Heartbeat stuff happened.  At this time it was not cold, but freezing!!!. Not to worry though as the sky was clear and beautiful which meant it was time to get ready. After cooking a croissant for me and Mat we had a 50 min conversation about what we should wear? It was tough as although cold it was dry, but knowing the moors like I do, and remembering heartbeat series 4 episode 9, I knew  how quick the weather could change. We registered and passed the kit inspection and got ready at the start to go. Not before we had had a few words about it being Shirley (Johns partners) 100th marathon.

So after a round of applause, we were off. The start was quite nice as it was mainly down hill maybe for a mile or two. We were though about to pay for this, of course we were, we were faced with a large stepped climb which was extremely steep. On the plus side though, it was a beautiful water fall and Mat had to stop and take some great pic’s.  The scenery was more akin to a Thailand Jungle than the Yorkie moors, but so so gorgeous.

After about 6 miles, I split from Mat plugged my head phones in and ran what must have been the most awesome 10 miles of my life. With fantastic scenery, mist climbing over the moors, bog underneath foot It was evident that this was going to be a tough run.

At about 12 miles I started to mop up a few ladies that had gone out to fast and then my self got caught by a Face book friend that I knew was running.  We ran as a group for a couple of miles until we reached the check point.  Here one of group had had a nasty fall and had opened quite a gash on her knee. I performed some quick first aid to help out, using only basic first aid kit (No Mik She didn’t have dementia) I fished out the bit of broken rock that had gone inside, patched her up, cleaned up the wound and suggested we ran to the next check point and reassess when we got there.

The next checkpoint came and went and before I knew it we were running together having left the rest of the group behind. The knee had stopped bleeding and this girl being a tough Yorkshire Lass just kept going.

Soon she was leaving me behind and took off to show me her up hill running skills (it was her first mara) I followed her up what is known as Blakely topping, a rather large hill, no sorry a mountain…We had followed the yellow tape which suddenly disappeared.  As I watched her ahead of me, I began to realise that we were alone. When she reached the summit she kept going, when I reached the summit, I realised instantly that we had missed a sign and made an error. This hill had been removed from the course as it passed though a track that the organisers thought unfair to use. However, there I was at the top and this young lady with her knee probably still bleeding, freezing cold, watching all the other runners we had overtaken running about a 1.5 miles from where we were.
 

I had been a complete idiot to follow this girl, but having said that, she could be in trouble if lost, so I would have to find her. I began calling her and looking around the top of the mountain for her. At this point the freezing rain had started and I was starting to get rather peed off. However, I caught sight of her wondering around the heather and bog, completely lost. Therefore I managed to run and get her and then run back over the Blakely topping and back to the course. To say she was grateful would be an understatement.

Being angry we pushed on, still along way from the back of the field despite adding about 40 mins on to our run we kept going. We ran past Fylingdales listening centre which was quite and experience and rather creepy.

The bog got worse, the hills got bigger, but the feed station had doughnuts. Me being expert on running and eating doughnuts had no problem refuelling on these at all. The last 10 miles were to be tough. Tough because I had already added at least 2 miles to my run, tough because it was cold, very cold, tough because I was in the moors, my feet were wet through, my face freezing cold from the wind, daylight falling away and of course rain. At this point I felt like jacking it all in, but strangely, I have to say, out on those moors, I felt alive, really really alive.  I plodded on alone now having left my new friend at the feed station. Climbing and moving,  just keeping going that was all I would now do.
Then, like a scene from a painting, I could see it, “ Goathland” or Aidensfield if you prefer, I was looking down on it from way up on the moors but new my epic adventure would soon be over. As I ran back in to Goathland, Nikki and Mat along with Tara were waiting at the finish.

I had made it, I had survived the Hardmoors experience. The girl I left behind followed me in about 20 minutes later with some other guys. The organisers back at the start laid on cake and allsorts, I got my medal and t-shirt and thought WOW… I had a quick massage and a chat with the organisers  to say thank you.

This race was not for the faint-hearted, Mat rated it as his toughest marathon and I probably agree. The good news was that despite running approximately 30 miles, I had managed to do so in 6hr30. That was at least 1hr 20 – 2 hours quicker than I done similar events last year. So that is a massive improvement.

Soon as I got home, I could not wait to get the go ahead to return for the Roseberry topping Marathon in December.

This is a great series,

For more information visit the website.

Paul N.