On sunday 4th february I took part in the hardmoors marathon series up in saltburn. A wooping 46km which makes you question if it should be classes as a marathon or an ultra at that stage but none the less a good day out.
Think this was my second race with hardmoors? I usually marshal, so a week onwards from the let run 55 mile recce was a tight one. I had booked onto saltburn before I had planned on doing the 55 as a way to do they whole marathon series and get entered into the overall results at the end of the year. Obvioulsy that plan changed when I went for the 55 miler instead.
I will say the first 25km was going really strong for me, I must admit I was running a bit too fast I reckon and the whole plan was to take it easy at my recce pace the week before and just enjoy myself. That very quickly went to pot as I got swept up in the race pace squeeze.
The first 10-13km was along the cliffside on the coast. You do drop down to the beach which was a slog to run on but not too bad none the less. The next 10-13km section took you back in land which was along the cleveland way so the path was quite nice to run on. A bit more road than I would’ve liked and trying to cross the roads was a bit naff but other than that it was enjoyable.
Now the second half the race is where I got my knickers in a twist and started to throw my toys out of the pram. We went through a motorbike enduro training area which was fine, bit muddy but runable and up along the same cleveland way path for the 55 out near guisborough. A training ground that I know all too well. What I did not realise is that I was gooing to be going up the tees link and even further up to get onto the moor. To be honest I should have seen this coming as it was a hardmoors event!
The tees link hill is about 25km in and that is when I really started to let my rag get lose.
The tees link is part of a path that goes from middlesborough to hutton village just outside of guisborough. The hill in theory if you where doing it the right way you would’ve been coming down it not up it. It is a fairly steep hill and with the amount of mud that was on it you just couldn’t get any grip up there. Once you get to the flat you have to take an additional load of steep steps to get up along the top to make your way onto the moor.
Its a nasty thing to put 25km in and also because of the mud you couldn’t get a proper rhythm going up it. In all honesty it wasn’t as bad as when we went up it for roseberry topping half because you literally had to skate up it to get anywhere.
Tees link from middlesborough to hutton village
Once we got on top for the moor, it was just pure bog. You had to dance around the mud and it was runable in places and then you had to start walking again. That is definflty the part that gave me a wabble because all I wanted to do was run and get it over and done with. Only problem is that if I did press on to run I probably would have done myself some damage and with the 55 being only so many weeks away I didn’t feel like I should risk it. One thing I didn’t need after my strut on the car went on the saturday was a shitty ankle and a boat load of recovery to fix it.
I got to the second to last check point and got given a hug, got some words of encouragment and got the last 10km done. It was pretty runable at that stage and I caaught my third wind into pushing for home. I had to give one of the guys that I had been running with some motivation to get the last 3km down. Started talking about motorbikes and it helped to take my mind off the last bit of road and the pain that had crept into my knees.
SALTBURN MARATHON TIME: 5:59 PACE: 7:45 PER KM DISTANCE: 46.46KM
Am I happy with that time? No. Am I happy I finished without getting an injury? Yes.
My perfomace wasn’t what I had hoped for, it is not the best but its not the worst either. After the lets run recce I was a bit gutted.
I will admit that between the lets run recce and the hardmoors race, I had not slept well at all and the whole week I had felt like I had been bulldozed by a truck. Not sure if that was my body telling me something or not because the saturday I slept in till 8-ish and I was still knackered. I was sorting my bags out at 11:30pm on saturday umming and aaring if I even wanted to do the race itself in the first place.
Overall I got some more experience and by the end of it I reminded myself “why do you care about times etc? You decided this was going to be a fun run”.
Once I thought about it, I didn’t do too bad for the circumstances and also didn’t do too bad overall. Definitly started mid to back pack on the 55 so I don’t get caught up in the race pace and adreneline rush. I actually find if I start at the back I do a bit better as I don’t go rushing off as quick.
All my nutrition and hydration all worked really well again and continuing with my hip strengthening exercises is halping with my back and hip ache. I need to work a bit more on my quads to help with the knee pain though!
Also new gear test: Gaitors
I tried gators out for the first time on this run and let me tell you they are the best things I have ever bought. They kept all the mud and grit out of my trainers and it made for a pleasent run, even when my feet got bogged in the bogs!
Overall and category result places:
40th out of 122 overall
9th female overall
7th in age category
LCW FITNESS 