Race Reporting: Windgather 2011

Report By Mark Hobbs, who had a 'pretty good Series'...

The last event in this year's Gritstone Series and also in the local Goyt Valley series saw a good turnout of over 200 runners. It was the first time I'd run it, having been too ill to do it last year . I'd been on parts of the course before though (including on the Whalley Waltz race earlier this year) so at least I had some idea of what to expect. Somehow I'd managed to cling on to 6th in the series after Longshaw, although I expected to drop quite a few places with other faster runners making up enough races to count. After a reasonably heavy couple of weeks of training I wasn't really anticipating having a particularly fast run either, but figured that a sub-2-hour time would probably still be a reasonable aim.

After a few wise words from one of the organisers, we were off. The start was a bit of a dull slog along a road until we hit some woods and the route suddenly got a lot more interesting. I'd been pessimistic about the weather and wore a long sleeve top but it turned out to be plenty warm enough once we got going and I wished I'd opted for something lighter. The undulating track over towards the reservoirs was generally runnable, apart from the wooden planks we'd been warned about which were as slippery as advertised and I nearly went over a couple of times. Found the part between crossing the reservoirs and the first drinks station really tough, in hindsight I don't think I paced myself particularly well at the start.

I really enjoyed the long gradual ascent up the flagstone path to Shining Tor; fairly windy and the clag was down but that just made things more interesting! Unfortunately I lost a bit of time stopping to adjust a loose insole (maybe that'll finally teach me to tape them down properly). I stopped counting after the seventh runner (and his dog!) flew past. The descent was challenging, quite rocky and technical, but I managed to claw back a few of the places I'd dropped. Felt rather sorry for a group of walkers wading through a deep puddle to avoid people hurtling past them.

“At least it's not raining, eh?” said the attendant as I gratefully collected some water at the last drinks station a couple of miles from the end. I replied that he'd probably jinxed it. Going up Berry Clough felt an awful lot longer than it had looked on the map – always seems to be the case when you know you're on the final long climb of a race! Fortunately there was another runner just behind me so I had enough motivation to run all of it at an honest pace. Typically, in our brief post-race chat we each thought it'd been the other who'd spurred us on...

One final bit through past a farm and some fields to the finish and that was that. Managed to pass a runner I'd been with for a long time at the 'Grin N Bear It' race last Saturday so knew I was in roughly the area of the field I'd like to be. Fortunately the rain just about held off until the end.

Just under 2 hours 3 minutes for me. Reckon I might have been able to slip under the 2 hour mark if I hadn't had to stop for the loose insole. A bit disappointing but never mind, sometimes those things happen and it was a pretty arbitrary target anyway. My minor difficulty was promptly put into perspective when one of the runners a few minutes behind me finished wearing just one shoe!

As usual many thanks to all the organisers, water-station attendants, marshals, etc. who made everything go smoothly. Particular thanks to whoever made the excellent post-race soup.

So, guess it's time to start counting down to the start of the Gritstone Series 2012 then!

Mark approaches the finish line... just before the gathering rain clouds...

The 2011 Accelerate Gritstone Series Partners

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