16th November 2024

The Beast of Bamford is a new event and is part of the Christmas market fundraising event with all proceeds going  towards the refurbishment of the play park on Bamford with Thornhill Recreation Ground.  The route was about 15k, going up Bamford Edge , then up Winn Hill before heading back to Bamford recreation ground.

I can’t resist a race going up Winn hill so when I saw this, I signed up straight away. The route wouldn’t be marked so I decided to do a recce along with Darrel (who had also entered) and Steve . After the recce came the shoe dilemma. For a fell race there’s a fair bit of tarmac but also the usual technical bits. It took me about a week to choose between my Trailfly ultras and Trail Talons, I finally decided I would sacrifice myself on the tarmac rather than the technical bits and went for the Trail Talons.

The race didn’t start until 11 am, plenty of time to get the train and a decent coffee. I met Darrel at the station and we spent the journey studying the map. We would have 6 checkpoints to get to but the route we chose between them was up to us, so we discussed if the shorts cuts were actually faster or not.

Registration was at the recreation ground,  where the Christmas market was being set up.  There wasn’t a bag drop as such but we could leave our stuff in the changing rooms.

After a few activation exercises we jogged to the start which had moved from the bottom of Saltergate lane to the top, cutting out a pretty steep start, I was definitely not complaining.

Soon we were off , with a couple of KMs of tarmac to climb. My only aim for this race was to get to Bamford Edge without feeling f**ked, uphill’s  aren’t my strength and I had no shame in walking a bit.  We got to the paths going up to Bamford Edge and everyone seemed to be taking the high route, I decided not to follow them and take the lower one and sure enough I gained some places and got to the top feeling good. Going along the top was great fun and so was the descent despite the queue of people walking in the opposite direction.  The climb up Winn hill was brutal as always but I managed to overtake a few, even though I was walking.  Now for the best bit, all downhill to finish. Wrong ! Once you get on the road there’s a few cheeky climbs which could be energy sapping if you’re not expecting them.  I managed to overtake the pack of runners who’d I’d been with for a while despite my feet not being happy with the tarmac  pounding.   After stopping some runners going the wrong way, I promptly led them into someone’s garden, doh. Luckily someone was in the garden and showed me a gap in the fence that would take us onto the trail  we were supposed to be on.

The finish was back in the recreation ground. There was a good selection of free cake to choose from, it definitely went down well, as did the mulled wine I treated myself to.

I would definitely do this again, it’s great fun and obviously the views were amazing.

There were 169 finishers and first female was Leanne Lacey in 1:13:58, first male was Philip Montgomery in 1:04:52

Strider results