Back to the hills

Guess who got lost!

Nearly two years since I last did a fell race. Sixteen years ago I ran a couple of back to back fell races on Dartmoor, on the Saturday was the 11 mile Sticklepath Horseshoe which was followed on the Sunday by the Sourton Tor race, a 14 minute up and down quickie. This year, being in the vicinity, I spotted the Sourton Tors race - not quite the same as it started further away. This was a thoroughly enjoyable tramp on the hills, a traditional style fell race with registration and prizes out of the back of a car in a pub car park. Not that either of us won anything but it won't be two years until my next one.

A wet morning in Ulster

Recent park runs completed include Penistone in Yorkshire where we followed the flattish West Pennine Trail on an interesting surface - it looked like tarmac but was springy, nice to run on it must have had some ground up tyres mixed in. Also two in Northern Ireland - a sunny jaunt round the grounds of Stormont Castle and a very wet morning in Wallace Park in Lisburn. The latter is an undulating three loop course in a lovely park with a fine example of a band stand - I spotted myself in this photo of the race briefing - must have been about 200 runners under cover there.

Heading for Devon

Taxi!

Trundling down to our new house in Devon with all our worldly goods in a transit van, (well three vans in a row) we've been pitstopping halfway at Droitwich staying at the Chateau Impney (see post from May). This particular hotel is a popular wedding venue especially with wealthy Asian families from Birmingham. We spotted one wedding where 5 brightly coloured brand new Ferraris were revving up in the extensive and beautiful hotel grounds. On another occasion we spotted a stretch Porsche - here's Vicky trying to persuade the driver to let her go for a spin in it.

Just a quick one!

On arrival in Devon we fairly swiftly repaired to the Bell Inn, our nearest pub. We knew that a selection of real ale was on offer but this time we were delighted find Otter Brewery's OPA. The regular at the bar told us this stands for Old Peoples' Ale but of course Opa is Dutch for Grandpa so Vicky took to this quite rapidly. Other ales from local breweries were also tasty! Plenty of parkruns to go at down here and we soon ticked off several including Exmouth and Teignmouth both going up and down the sea front. Haldon Forest was a pleasant parkrun through the woods on the fringes of Dartmoor. However on August bank holiday we thought we'd better have a go at the Lustleigh Show 10K just 3 or 4 miles up the road - well this was almost a fell race with getting on for 300 metres of climbing mostly off road. And a hot day it was too. However Vicky was very well prepared and was equipped with most of the gear required for running the Marathon des Sables.

Where's my camel?

Midsummer running

Puffing bit here

Here's the new parkrun in Derby, described as flat - it wasn't quite! It's on the course of an old railway line, but I don't think an express train would have coped with the ups and downs, more likely it was an old industrial branch line. Derby may be a long way from the sea but but you may be interested to know that in the middle of the 19th century the MP for Derby was Samuel Plimsoll who gave his name to the Plimsoll Line  the indicator on shipping worldwide that shows if they're overloaded! Plimsoll's efforts to get parliament to pass legislation making his line a compulsory item were initially thwarted by lobbying from powerful shipowners but in time the law was passed and became an international standard.

Swag!

We seem to have been park running and not much else this year but Vicky had a very good go at the Denbigh Triathlon. Starting off the swim she was disconcerted to find that she was in the same lane as our friend Tony who had announced that he was using an unconventional swimming stroke. Sure enough there he was all six feet two of him swimming the back stroke! She got comfortably ahead of him and managed to avoid colliding as they passed, had an excellent cycle and run and then went on to win the ladies over 60 award - here's a photo of the haul of goodies she was presented with: a nice medal, a super trophy, useful buff and a rather odd star prize (for June) a woolly bobble hat!

Cruising along

Meanwhile I had a crack at the Ruthin evening 5K, I'd done this race three years ago and despite all the shenanigans with my health issues since then I managed 21:51, less than a minute outside my previous time - so smiles all round, that's me in the blue with the fancy shades with Paul G on my left, he's been running very well lately but with about a K to go I got past him as he blew up a bit. More parkruns to report on include Conwy a couple of times, Conkers (down in south Derbyshire in the National Forest no less), Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough and a parkrun in one of the loveliest of settings at Fountains Abbey - the slightly undulating course goes right round the abbey twice. And here it is:

What's this doing in the middle of our parkrun course?