Grindleford Gallop – Saturday 13th March
An excellent day for the Grindleford, some mist on the hills for the 10am start, but the sun burnt through quickly leaving clear skies and some impressive views from the high parts of the course. The Gallop maintains its unique character, with walkers using the same course as the runners, and all organised by a very professional local village group. This year the field was bigger again, but the organisation was well up to the challenge and the recent dry weather meant we even had a large field to park in.
The start was the normal scrum, with some early stiles causing queing, but the hill about a mile in sorted the field very effectively, and the running from then on was unobstructed. The walking heritage brings some variety to the drinks stops, with tea, coffee and cake being available as well as the normal orange juice and water. A piece of flapjack at 15 miles is really appealing, but experience tells that it takes about 3 miles to eat it all, as it seems to turn to cotton wool in the mouth!
The Grindleford is a tough race, with 3000ft of climb and about 21 miles of distance. The final section is along Froggat Edge, which is a high rocky section reminiscent of the Roaches, but much longer. It seems to circle the village, which was visible in bright sunlight in the valley to the West. Finally the route hurtles down the hill and back to Grindleford. The organisers, true to form, organise soup, tea, coffee and the inevitable cake – I think the good ladies of Grindleford have been making cakes for months in preparation!
Six Wilmslow runners participated, with excellent support from Tom McGaff on his bike, and Sally's husband who appeared many times along the course. Results were:-
Winner was Andy Pead from Goyt Valley in 2:24:32
Mike Cooper, 17th in 2:54:00
Ray Eagle, 23rd in 2:56:12
Andy Watts, 43rd in 3:07:20
Sally Gilliver, 72nd in 3:20:42
Nicky Mowat, 162nd in 3:41:29
Don Bullough, 163rd in 3:41:33
310 runners finished.
Andy