Sunday 11th September 2022

Report by Jane Huws

At the start of the year, I toyed with the idea of doing this PB HM course ‘to see what I was capable of’ but then was swayed by the more scenic Bawtry Trail race on the same day.  When the Bawtry race was cancelled, I thought I’d give it a go.  Never a fan of long runs, I had got a bit distracted with some cycling in the preceding weeks.  Sunday morning found me on the start line with no runs over 8 miles for several months.  My main worry was getting injured and I was far from thinking ‘let’s see what I’m capable of’.  As ever, Jo Gleig was counselling me about how I’d be fine and cycling was the same muscles etc.  I wasn’t completely certain about that but it was too late by then.

Headphones were allowed so Kevin Wong, and Nada and countless others were sorted.  I had to make up my own tunes which were mainly about how many miles to go.  I sang in my head so no one knew.    I quite like hills in races and this was a race with only one slight rise to cross a railway so it was never going to be my favourite.    It was tough because there was not much to split the race up, in my mind.  The water stations was one way to break it up and luckily there were 3 water stops, as it was hotter than expected.  Passing the carpark and the spectators was another distraction, but it’s a bit demoralising being back where you started part way through a race.  It was great to hear Dave Birch’s shout out though.  It definitely helped.  The other way to break the race up mentally was to count the number of times you passed the dead squirrel.

I paced it carefully as I was worried about my lack of training and wanted to take it steady.  It worked pretty well except in the last 2 miles which were really tough.  The last 200m seemed to go on for about 10 mins as you could see the finish arch but it didn’t seem to get any closer.  I got over the finish line with a PB – 8 mins improvement on my pb from Sheffield Half.  Considering the lack of training, I was very very pleased with that.   The first aider handed me water – either I looked pretty bad, or he was trying to get rid of it so he didn’t have to carry it back.  I’ll go with the former.

There were Striders gathering for a chat and a post-race photo.  Jo, James E and I missed it somehow, but it was a very sociable event.  Lots of people also got PBs – Robert Hoffman, Jonathan Legon, Sarah Allcard, Robin Nelson, Steve Blake, Cara Hanson, Kevin Haighton, Kevin Wong, and Jo Gleig.  Well done to all of them.  Robert Byers only missed out on a podium position by about 20 secs – a very quick race.

So in summary – this is a good race ‘to see what you are capable of’ (77ft of ascent) Good road surface, well marshalled,  good parking, plenty of toilets with minimal queues, choc bar to finish and optional bright green teeshirt (modelled below by some of the finishers).  Headphones might be a good idea unless you are going to be very quick.

The HM race was won by Lewis Gamble-Thompson (MSen, New Marske Harriers) in 1:07:26 and by Faye Birkby (FSen Pudsey Pacers) in 1:20:30.  25 Striders ran the HM and 1 ran the 10k.  The 10k was won by Adam Dalton (M35 Cleethorpes and District AC) in 33:58 and by Charlotte Mason (FSen, City of York AC) in 35:53.

For full results see https://racebest.com/results/ttr57?