"When you win a title you oft feel obliged to defend it, however what if this involved running the 110 miles of The Cleveland Way all over again? Club member Martin Dietrich went back for more......"

Martin climbs the 199 steps at Whitby, an opportunity to give the legs a bit of a workout....

Last year, I won the first running of the Hardmoors 110 and first prize was a free entry for the 2009 Hardmoors 110. I therefore returned this year to collect my free entry, defend my title and return the Hardmoors Sword back to it’s allocated spot in my house.

I spent many hours training and preparing for the event and all went well, until about a week before the start when I received a call from Neil Ridsdale informing me that he had entered this year’s event as well. Last year Neil had supported (accompanied) me on the night section, and then run off ahead at Saltburn to get to the finish some 2 hours ahead of me but luckily for me he had not officially entered the race. now with Neil’s entry pressure was on and there was no more time left for extra training.

Preparations concluded Friday morning with the provision of a mountain of food which ensured that a little of everything was on hand, during the event, to fulfil any possible cravings I may have. For the first time, I had bought some powdered food specifically prepared for refuelling during ultra events and hoped it would be the trump card up my sleeve. Some food was dropped at Kildale and Slapewath for the night section. Then I had a few carbs for lunch, a nap in the early afternoon, some more food after lunch, then final preparations and off to Filey for registration before 18:00 for the start at about 19:00. The Hardmoors race director always has plenty to say, and therefore, the start tends to be a bit delayed although only by about 5 minutes this year, which wasn’t too bad.

The plan for the race was a copy of last year’s plan. Neil and I would keep each other company during the night, while sharing the support. After Saltburn, each one was going to be on his own, with his own support crew. Pre-race investigations had revealed that some strong runners had entered the race this year and top of the list was John Kynaston, who had completed the West Highland Way race in less than 20 hours. To take advantage of our route knowledge, a strategy with a fast start was quickly developed which would hopefully get us out of sight of everybody else and force others to do their own navigation.

Once the start signal was given, we were off. My GPS initially showed 7 minute miling and I realised that at this pace, we would finish in about 13 hours, if only… After a couple of miles, the pace reduced to something more sensible, but it was still a reasonably brisk pace. I had already prepared a schedule based on being just slightly faster than last year’s result. However by the first checkpoint on Sutton Bank, we were some 10 minutes ahead of schedule. For this initial 20 miles, I had prepared some of the powdered food in my drinks bottle, which I kept consuming regularly. It worked very well, and there were no indications of hunger. Only later did cravings for different foods start to set in, so when we met our support at the top of Drover’s road, I ate some rice pudding. Fairly quickly, some twinges in the stomach indicated that I had consumed too much food, however nothing that would stop me running and making good progress. By Osmotherly, we were still about 10 minutes ahead of schedule and some hot soup was consumed to lift the spirits for the night. I had a few more stomach twinges during the next section, but nothing too significant. This section included all the Cleveland Hills, where I occasionally slipped on the wet stones on the path. We inevitably slowing our pace down a little, included a fair amount of walking, to ensure the steps were taken carefully.

At Clay Bank, we met our support again, and more soup and a banana were consumed to meet the cravings. The food, together with the powder in my drink, was proving too much, and the twinges became uncomfortable. Now that we were back on more runnable ground, with the fast downhill section after Bloworth Crossing, I could have done without these twinges. A plan was therefore made to change the feeding strategy at Kildale, the point where food was dropped off. The bottle was filled with plain water, and only a small amount of rice pudding was consumed, but hopefully sufficient food to see me to the next drop point at Slapewath. Between Captain Cooks Monument and Roseberry Topping, the stomach twinges started to disappear and by the time we got to Slapewath, I was quite hungry and ready for some food. From there on, the powder content in my drinks was reduced to about half of the recommendation, which left sufficient room for some solid food and to satisfy the many cravings for proper food, which seemed to work very well for the rest of the event.

In terms of progress, we were still on schedule at Slapewath and when we arrived at Saltburn too. From there on, ‘our’ run turned into a race but only briefly however. I finished my breakfast ahead of Neil and set off for Skinningrove first. But shortly before getting to Skinningrove, Neil passed me running at a very strong pace. I had little chance to keep up with him, unless he suddenly went through a really bad patch. Therefore it was back to Plan B. The schedule I had prepared was for a finishing time of 22:44, with a main aim of finishing sub 24 hours. So, pacing it sensibly and sticking to the from now on schedule now became my main aim. Initially, this kept me only minutes behind Neil, going through Boulby and Runswick Bay. At Sandsend, the gap had increased slightly; mainly due to a stop (about 10 minutes) I took at Kettleness to change my sand filled socks with a clean pair in an attempt to stop blisters developing. Going through Whitby, a few more minutes were lost as the swing bridge had been opened for boats. However it became clearer by each stage that Neil was having an excellent run and the further he got, the faster he seemed to be running. Sticking to my schedule, I carried on towards Robin Hoods Bay and Ravenscar. However with all the sunshine and good weather on the day, the Cleveland Way became progressively more and more busier with walkers and other runners. I don’t know how many ‘good mornings’ were exchanged on these sections. Finally, the climb into Ravenscar seemed more strenuous than what I could remember of it from previous times.

Arriving at Ravenscar, I felt completely burnt out, and I started to dread the following section to Cloughton, with the descents to Hayburn Wyke and Cloughton Wyke. However, some pot noodles and coffee gave me some missing energy and motivation to move on and the Cloughton meeting point arrived much quicker than expected. Lydia was waiting there for me and joined me for the remaining distance to the finish. This was earlier than agreed, but much appreciated. The section to Scarborough was still nice to run, although, it started to feel that the change of socks had not completely stopped blister development. Once at Scarborough, there was a long road section and I ran most of the initial part to the checkpoint. After the checkpoint, the crowds got so busy that running didn’t seem appropriate, as it would have resulted in continually bumping into other people. This time it took many ‘excuse us’ to make the way through the crowd. However, I was approaching the last leg of the race and my usual leg on the Cleveland Way Relay and therefore a well known section that generally seems to pass fairly quickly which was no different this time round. With a mixture of walking and running, Filey Brigg and finally the Everon Centre at Filey were reached. While travelling through Scarborough, I had dropped behind my schedule a little, and by the end, I arrived at the finish 15 minutes behind schedule in 23 hours. I was happy to have finished under 24 hours and was ready for the Fish and Chips that were dropped off promptly by my support crew, Marc Mason and John Tierney. Many thanks for all your help guys!

Neil finished in 21 hours, with a 4 hours spurt for the last 30 miles from Ravenscar to the finish. Well done Neil! This outcome leaves the allocated space for the Hardmoors Sword in my house unoccupied. Do I have to come back next year and try to correct this?

Cheers

Martin Dietrich martin@nym.ac

Website : www.hardmoors110.co.uk

Hardmoors 110 2008 report
 

Photos courtesy of Marc Mason show (top to bottom):

1) Whitby Steps
2)  Whitby Abbey checkpoint
3) Approaching to Ravenscar
4) Ravenscar checkpoint
5) Cloughton checkpoint with Lydia (the boss)
6) Approaching Scarborough meeting point

©2009 Martin Dietrich