Summer Series, Race 7
Sunday May 3rd.
The Bluebell Trail is to my mind one of, if not the, outstanding race of this year’s calendar. A night of pouring rain simply made it more challenging. My race came to an end after 2 miles (stomach/heart palpitations) so others will have to give a first-hand insight into life amongst the muck and bullets.
The race is most memorable for its river crossing, but this had to be abandoned because the water was apparently neck high. The result was an extra mile, which sounded reasonable at the start but many founded draining when they were already approaching exhaustion at the end. I noted excellent runs by Louisa and Gail and Carolyn's 2015 debut but I leave the rest to others.
Ian
Well done to all who ran, I know Louisa put in great performance – out climbing me, chasing me down on the level & generally overtaking me several times. I needed all of 1760 yards of the final hard (very) extra mile to gain the summer series point!
Despite the shocking rain and it being a bank holiday Sunday, there was a good turn out in Halifax. There was disappointment on arrival when Steve, who was to be Tim Billington for the day, was informed that there were no transfers on the day. Having made the journey he donned his vest anyway and joined in the fun, which all came good in the end when he was rewarded for his efforts ‘as a counter’.
My tactic, for my first race of the season, was to try to keep Ian A in sight initially, in order to get some pacing. He, Clare and I played cat & mouse through the narrow and tricky terrain of the first mile in the woods. I emerged from the woods first (this was not the plan!) and made off to the canal stretch. I knew at some point, now we were on the flat, that Ian and Clare would come charging past. When Ian didn’t arrive, I thought that I must have gone off way too fast and would come unstuck before Trooper Lane. But sadly, Ian had dropped out of the race and I was on my own. Clare and Amanda skipped past me about mile 3.
Bluebell is a challenging race with multi terrain, which makes choosing footwear difficult. The extremely muddy downhills were good for trail shoes, but slippery cobbles and long stretches of Tarmac were not. The views from the top were somewhat disguised by a veil of wet cloud and mist. Fellow local runners assured us that the views were grand! Mile 4 is a long trudge up a steep cobbled hill, then across moorland, grass, woods, fields, trail and quarry. Mile 7-8 starts the descent back through the muddy and rooted bluebell woods.
At mile 9 we hit the main road and the canal again, and I saw in front a blue and yellow Wilmslow vest, but I couldn’t work out who it was. They became my focus, my competitive edge returned, and I passed James in the last 5m of the race, spurred on by Elspeth’s support. Rude of me, but an extra point! If the river crossing had still been at the finish, James would have finished way ahead. In this instance, I benefitted from the extra mile diversion!
There had been some great running from Wilmslow. A number of Yorkshire people had doubted the gritty determination of runners from Wilmslow, but we showed them. Great runs from Louisa, Tom and Allan. Clare came in behind me, I can only imagine she got lost, as did Di McVey and Rob Wilson. Although there were lots of marshals on the course, the woods, somewhat like Styal, were less well marked. Other highlights and low lights for some – I believe Jon got Gailed, Andy Dodd refused to run an extra mile and was seen walking, Matt, not too tired from a good parkrun the day before, romped home and Jan finished with a smile on her face, despite spending some time on her bum on the muddy downhills! And as icing on the cake, Amanda got a date with a fellow runner and the bacon butties & cake after were tremendous.
All in all, a grand day out!
Nice photos of muddy runners emerging from the Bluebells here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/124249738%40N06/sets/72157652327610472/
Beautiful course and looking forward to hearing some excellent runs being reported. My apologies to anyone I held up while tippy toeing down the slippery bits in The Wrong Shoes murmuring ‘sorry, sorry..’
Well marshalled, great support and facilities and very friendly atmosphere.
I so wished for that river crossing, the last mile was tough and me too in the wrong shoes!
Despite the whole experience leaving me breathless, I declined the date after all.