Helsby Weekly Blog 10/10/16-16/10/16

Hello Green Army

Big mention to all the warriors who turned up last week and again this morning to my Runcorn Town park XC recce, this mornings run consisted of really cold temperatures compared to what we have been used to recently and everyone was moaning which was a good sign as we trundled our way around 5 muddy and enjoyable miles. If i haven’t put anyone off yet then its a 6am meet up with a 6.05am start at Runcorn Ski slope car park every Friday morning, all speeds catered for. Head torch is recommended.

Whilst i’m talking about training runs, we hold a session at Castle Park, Frodsham on Monday nights 6.30pm, which consists of hill repeats, tempo and interval training. Club nights as per normal are on Wednesday nights at 6.30pm from Helsby Community Sports Club, and Thursdays our very own Roy Gaskill runs a 5 ish mile road run around the Norton 5 route, 6.30pm again from Tudor Road, Runcorn. Plenty to keep you fit through the winter months.

Also, for anyone new to the club, and old who haven’t tried them before, this Sunday see’s the start of the cross country season, and similarly to the Borders league races, they are completely free of charge, you just turn up in your club vest and run…simples. The venue for this weekend is Clarke Gardens in Liverpool, 10am start, post code L19 5NF. These really are brilliant races to take part in.

Right, onto the serious stuff…..PARK RUN!

Full list of consolidated results below, but we had runners out in Warrington,Chester, Ellesmere Port, Widnes, and Wepre (where on earth is Wepre?)

http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1721

First of this weeks reports comes in from El Capitano, over to Col.

Myself and Ivan took part in the inaugural Manchester Half Marathon on Sunday and I must say I was very impressed with the organisation of this race. Parking was a doddle at Old Trafford (spaces are pre-booked online), the course was actually pretty flat for once and the support from the marshals and crowds of people who came out to cheer on the runners was brilliant. We also had a choir half way around the course which is a first for me. The only thing the organisers couldn’t control was the weather, the heavens opened up as we were lining up for the start but it is Manchester after all so is to be expected! 🙂

Unfortunately both myself and Ivan were suffering from the dreaded man-flu, although you would never had known, we both soldiered on without any fuss 😉 We were a way off our best times but I would recommend this HM to anyone chasing a PB, I think after the success of this event it will be become a very popular fixture in the north west. Also big thanks for the shout out of Green Army! from Daz O’Connor who was dressed as a giant banana and running the opposite way, great to see him back running again!

Helsby results below:

135^th Colin Thompson 1.20.38

481^st Ivan Davies 1.29.54

 Full results here http://www.manchesterhalfmarathon.com/

 

Good work by mummy’s brave little soldiers, men just get on with stuff don’t they, even with man-flu. What i really wan to know is why was Darren dressed as a giant banana?

It was the Fell relays last Saturday up in Loch Lomond, Scotland, and for anyone who hasn’t done them before i would really recommend it having done the previous 2 years, even as a road runner I really enjoyed the days out, this time it was overnight stays and a party afterwards, sounds boss! Over to fell running legend CBH (who I always beat by the way!) 

Ben and I took on the navigation leg for the fell relays this year and even before I got into the holding pen I knew there was a good chance of issues. I use a thumb compass and the strap was set for thick gloves…. Clearly I’ve not been out Nav-ing since last Christmas then! Steve had got us off to a cracking start and with our two fastest runners out on the course Ben and I got into the holding pen and scrutinised the map. It was a huge bonus to get the map before we started as we were able to take some time to review the macro route choices we had, identify attack points and thus not make a silly mistake/ not miss an obvious feature we could use to help us in the thick clag.

Max rounded the corner putting on a show looking calm as if he’d been out for a jog whilst Jimmy looked like he was hanging on his chin strap. Max confessed later he was just working it for the crowd and he was really dying on the inside, but they had just scorched the course gaining almost 50 places and were 27^th fastest overall. I felt I was in for a very long day as I was really struggling to keep up with Ben on the track, but in a flash we were at check point one and in for a steep climb.

Our original plan had been to take the fence line and then drop down and up (route 1) but once on the terrain we had a rethink and decided to contour around. The rough ground evened out our speeds a bit and confidence grew as we started ticking off our collecting features. As we zeroed in on CP2 I suddenly convinced myself we’d overshot it which lost us a few minutes as if we’d have kept going we’d have pretty much hit it spot on. Thankfully we saw a number of teams lost and even split in the clag so we cracked on for CP3.

CP3 turned into a nightmare. We dropped into the wrong re-entrant and lost a lot of time desperately searching in zero visibility. Once we’d finally got it we ran on a bearing straight to CP and would have hit it spot on if we weren’t temporarily redirected by Nicky Spinks. At this stage though I was doubting my micro nav so another few minutes went by. The ground was rough, big peat hags and tussocks galore – both Ben and I were immobilised in bogs on several occasions. Nav was spot on for the final two and we were then on the race in for the finish. To our shame we arrived just as the mass start went out – gutting as we’d lost time on three CPs despite being within 50m of each one. Lesson is to practice micro nav more as the macro is pretty spot on. Still, it was a great day out and the support was awesome.

The evening do was terrific as was the postrace food, lots of familiar faces and some new friends made. Think I tucked into the beers a little bit too much though :oO

Hope you are well,

CBH

 

I couldn’t make the Fell relays this year because it was my most important race of the year, and it didn’t disappoint, Hellrunner, which is described as the UK’s toughest half marathon (not sure about that). 13.1 miles of mud, hills of hell, lucifers lido, and the famous bog of doom. It didn’t disappoint yet again, i’ve done this every year since it started in 2009 and love it, my best finish to date coming in 11th place in 2hrs 4 mins, and i think i was the only representative this year, although Tanya took a cracking photo pf me in the bog of doom below. I would love to do something for charity next year, and get as many involved from Helsby RC as possible. Just think its like a long cross country race.

That’s all for this week, sorry it’s taken a while to send out. Happy running 🙂

 

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