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A Short Circuit (Nicola Forwood, Jack Rose, Phil Hammond & Matt Armstrong take on a Punk Panther Ultramarathon)
It’s important to get a good night’s sleep before a big event so I wasn’t particularly excited to be still up at 1am chatting to a guy from Yorkshire Water about the water flooding up through the floor into my kitchen and hallway. In the end I got 2 hours sleep and had to get up and sort breakfast and final bits of kit while wearing wellies…not the best of starts! Luckily I had been super (and unusually) organised and packed my kit about 3 days prior so there wasn’t much to do. I dragged Poppy out of bed just in time to bundle her into Jack’s car and we were off (after a last minute dash back to the house to turn off the isolation valve to make myself feel better about not coming back to a swimming pool instead of a kitchen).
We pulled up to a gravel car park in Otley as I said ‘Oh, they all look pretty normal?!’ Jack asked me what I was expecting ultra-runners to look like and I’m not sure I really knew. But for one I wasn’t expecting so many women and I guess I was expecting them to look a bit more edgy. Like an elite breed of runner or something, they weren’t, they were all totally normal, actually they all turned out to be really, really lovely.
We headed down to Yorkshire Runner for registration and kit check. Does everybody get the feeling that they’ve forgotten something when they’re having a kit check?! I hate that feeling! Oh, actually it was real for Phil who had forgotten to pack his emergency blanket! Schoolboy error Phil – and you’re meant to be a pro at this. It was really exciting to have 4 Hyde Park Harriers on the start line as 3 of us were competing and Matt was Tail Runner.
Team HPH ready to roll!We all set off and headed up the long climb to the top of the Chevin. It was pretty bizarre to me to start a race and be walking within the first 50m but I guess that just reflected the terrain and the distance (I clearly need to spend more time talking to professionals like Steve Rhodes, and apparently Naomi Farrar has a rule about a marble?!). Within the first 2 miles we saw several people go wrong multiple times which was a decent reminder to concentrate and to really look for the tape (but yellow tape in autumn when tied to trees was interesting to look for). I was a little concerned at how wet and muddy my feet were so early on. It had rained all night the night before, and although we’d been blessed by the Running Weather Fairies on the day, it did mean we got the best of the mud. I realised that although I was confident running over 30 miles in trail shoes that I’d done a maximum of 15 miles in I wasn’t so confident about running for 6 or 7 hours with wet feet!
We ran through Bramhope and Jack was particularly tickled by the days headline so actually backtracked to take a photo which it would be rude not to include:
Slow news day!
Before we knew it we were on familiar ground running the reverse section of Leg 4 of the LCW (it was nice to run down the biggest hill on Leg 4 rather than up it!) which made me smile and relive some of the funnier moments from my recce with CPM. We soon hit CP1 (Cookridge ~5.5 miles) and ran straight on at this checkpoint after having our numbers noted down (we didn’t want any time penalties for missing a checkpoint). Leaving the LCW we headed on towards the airport. This section was one of my favourites as it was the most bizarre running I’ve ever done. We were running in deep mud between two high fences through the airport and it felt like you were in prison. Jack thought it was a bit claustrophobic but I was excited as I just pretended that I was doing the new parkrun in Haverigg Prison which made me feel slightly better about missing my weekly parkrun fix! Something was aggravating Jack’s foot which he tried to run with but as soon as we hit harder ground we had to stop so he could take his horrifically muddy shoe off, only for him to wrestle a 2 inch thorn from the sole of his trainer with his teeth! Shoes back on and we skirted the rest of the airport wondering what on earth we looked like to all the nice clean people in the planes taking off for their holidays. I bet they thought we were mad. To be honest I think I was thinking the same!
We ran around Yeadon Tarn (I love to take Poppy there so I enjoyed that bit) and on to hit CP2 (New Scarborough ~11.5 miles). We stopped to grab some coke/brownie/flapjack/crisps/peanuts and headed into Guiseley (although I was swearing at myself for not grabbing some Jaffa Cakes too…fuelling is important right?!). We felt confident about this section as we’d done a 10 mile recce a few weeks before so as we headed through the woods to Esholt it was comfortable and familiar running. Next was Hollins Hall and across the golf course, luckily the route had changed here as the original route wasn’t the best from a golfers perspective and we’d received a few interesting comments on our recce. Then we headed into Menston (while I chatted to Yorkshire Water on the phone – no, now was not the best time to carry out on-site investigations, I’m a bit busy) and on to CP3 (Menston ~16 miles). Up to this point we’d pretty much always had people in view, occasionally switching positions with people as we stopped, or they slowed, and at the checkpoint about 6 of us stopped for a decent refuel. Jack was particularly excited about the ‘real’ Fanta while I was disappointed because I’d decided to fill one of my bottles with coke which was not ‘real coke’ at this checkpoint but (what I thought at the time) was nasty Asda coke (which by mile 25 tasted AMAZING!).
We knew we were due some HPH support around here from Lucy Killick so as we climbed up onto Ilkley Moor it was a huge boost to hear some cheering and barking (thanks Bruce) at the top of the hill (oh and the offer of pancakes – thanks Lucy).
Thanks for the photo Lucy, we look pretty fresh for 19 miles!
After a chat, photo-stop and some hugs we were on our way again across Ilkley Moor to the Cow and Calf rocks. We’d been instructed that, while not an official checkpoint, numbers would be checked here and that we had to go around the back of the rocks. After getting checked-off we headed down into Ben Rhydding after some crazy, and somewhat dangerous, rock climbing to avoid the extra ¼ mile safer route (this probably cost us some time because it was windy up on the moor and the descent was hard with cold hands and over 20 miles of tough running in your legs). We lost a few positions to people that knew the best climbing route down, although we were also overtaken by a lady who had been way ahead but who had gotten lost on the Moor so things definitely could have been worse. After running on some seriously tough and muddy terrain we were thankful to have a decent section on road to CP4 (Denton ~22 miles).
Still happy at mile 25.
We couldn’t have been luckier with the weather, it was a stunning day.
After an uphill section on road, perfect for walking while eating cheese sandwiches and crisps, we climbed up onto Askwith Moor. The weather had been beautiful all day but the light was particularly stunning as we crossed the very boggy Moor, and while the running was tough, it was definitely good for the soul. Continuing on there were gorgeous views across to Blubberhouses and out over the reservoirs.
We passed through Timble (somewhere around here Jack accidentally ripped his number off which I figured meant I’d beaten him by default) and ran down towards some familiar roads from rides with Farhad and Jack as we dropped into Norwood to find the only indoor checkpoint of the day, CP5, inside a church (Norwood ~ 28 miles). The best thing about an indoor checkpoint was being able to wash our muddy hands which we’d been eating with for hours plus this checkpoint had Babybels AND really good SIS energy bars, as well as hot drinks if you were interested. We spent a decent amount of time here eating pretty much everything before establishing that we were doing pretty well position wise and may as well keep pressing on to the finish.
The final section was probably my favourite (despite my feet now complaining about the length of time they’d been in wet, muddy shoes). We’d long lost sight of anyone in front or behind us so there was little rush. As we skirted Lindley Wood Reservoir we ate trail-mix as the sun shone through the trees and I was pretty happy, especially as my Garmin clocked 30 miles. I’ve never run 30 miles before and it felt like a major milestone. Staying in familiar cycling territory we passed through Leathley and before we knew it we were crossing the final few fields of Cows to enter Pool-in-Wharfdale. We found the church and went in to a lovely round of applause and cheering. Although we arrived together I think Jack must have slipped them some money as they placed him one second ahead of me in the results (ladies first Jack!). We finished in 18th (7.13.54) and 19th place (7.13.55) and I finished as 4th female which I was pretty pleased with for my first ultra. Phil finished in 34th place (8.31.26) after a couple of falls (one at mile 6 and one at mile 32 which was testament to how tough the conditions were, the mud was just crazy but luckily Phil is hard as nails). As tail runner Matt finished just after the 10 hour cut-off at 10.15.00, which was an impressive time to spend on your feet in the mud. The race started with 48 people of which 18 were female.
The technical T-shirt says it was a 50 km race (31 miles), the finisher’s certificate says it was a 53 km race but we ran around 55 km (34 miles) with well over 1200 meters (4000 feet) of climbing. Still, what’s an extra parkrun between friends! The terrain was much tougher than I’d expected mainly due to the heavy rain the night before and the amount of time spent in ankle deep muddy fields and boggy moors. We even had several sections of running through, what felt like rivers, but which was just water run-off.
In the church hall we were rewarded with a hot meal, snacks and drinks while we checked out our T-shirt and medal and Jack and I collected our lovely Punk Panther Ultramarathon hoodies. We changed into clean dry clothes and shoes (well mostly, Jack’s shoes were still by his front door waiting to be put in the car!). Everyone had a brilliant, if tough, day and I think we’d all do it again next year (Matt has already entered one of the 70 mile options for next year). So take this as a definite recommendation for the Punk Panther events and maybe we can get even more Hyde Park Harriers on the start line next year (http://punkpanther.co.uk/).
It was honestly much easier than racing a road marathon: The hills, the descents, running on your toes through deep mud, climbing over stiles, going up and down steps, and even rock climbing all keeps your body much looser than the monotony of distance running on road. Running with kit was easier than I thought it would be but my back ached a lot the next day (I might put a FEW less snacks in next time, I packed the entire kitchen cupboard this time, but hey, it is good to be self-reliant). Apart from a couple of small blisters I’m relatively well recovered and back to running with no problems (I’ve ordered my Injinji socks for next time). Hang on, did I just say next time?! That’s right, I think I did, I quite fancy 50 km (ish) as a distance to race. This time Jack and I just enjoyed it but next time I think it’d be fun to push on and see what I can do… watch this space!
Nicola Forwood
http://nicolaforwood.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/a-short-circuit-nicola-forwood-jack.html