Stumbling into 2025

Good morning folks

I trust you are in fine post festive season form and that the fat bloke in red was good to you.
Scribbled a very quick new year blog, here goes.

Seeing out the old year.

We had been tipped off about a cracking little race in Calderdale by our good friend, Doni.
The Bilberry Fields fell race makes good use of every inch of climbing out of Todmorden and I thought it would be a good winter AS fell race for Lina to get her shoes muddy, get a bit of fresh air and most importantly WEAR HER NEW PUDSEY & BRAMLEY VEST!
(Lina is now second claim for P&B on the fells, but remains first claim with Tad Harriers).

Although there is nothing better (in my eyes) than a long Lakeland round, when you finish absolutely destroyed, I do love a Pennine race.
Different terrain, different people and the novelty of being able to walk normally the next day.

Lina said to me afterwards that fell races are “hard”. I said that it was hard for everyone, for the winners, for midfielders, for tail-end Charlies, and if it wasn’t hard, you’re simply not pushing it enough (or you’re a freak of nature!)

Top morning out followed by a brew and possibly the best cake I have ever eaten, at Doni’s.

Todmorden is a top spot, I could happily move there, but we ain’t moving house for a while just yet, still got a score of boxes to sort from the last move (and the one before that, and the one before that…)

The legendary Olga was out and about and filming. Olga makes great videos and here is her film of the race itself.

Año Nuevo.

(You need to have the little squiggle above the n, otherwise it translates as new bumhole!)

NYE is a funny old night!

I gave up the pop 4 years ago on final day of 2020 (what a year that was for everyone). I don’t miss drinking beer, but I do honestly miss getting wrecked.
Nights out are not quite the same without a tipple, and you do feel on a different wavelength if you are sober with Tipplers as the night/alcohol wears on. The decision to give up alcohol wasn’t difficult, nor was giving it up. I was a weekend warrior binge drinker, but things tipped over the edge a bit in lockdown and as I am absolutely crap at moderation, it was much easier to give it up completely.

All or absolutely nothing at all!

I did it off my own back, but I do owe a lot to my friend Neil. B for his support and advice on this matter.

So, NYE, is it potentially one of the most overrated nights of the year, or simply a chance to reflect/dream? You decide.

As a young man, it to feel ridiculous and almost unfair that the 2 of the biggest nights of the year were only a week apart. NYE nowadays for us is normally spent at a Latino house party, which is good crack, with plenty of decent tucker, 12 grapes at midnight.

New Year’s Tradition: Twelve Grapes on the Glasses and a Festive Tree.

Then a quick sprint round the block carrying suitcases, for if you would like to travel in the ensuing year (we almost did travel in 2007, to the local police cells via a Bridewell Taxi, when the Old Bill in Morley saw us both dashing round the block at midnight with 2 suitcases! It took some explaining to the Old Bill…)

(I didn’t take my suitcase this year, plus it was tipping it down, so I probably won’t get far this year).

Reflection on 2024?
Daydreams for 2025?

Both of which left more question marks than answers, but hopefully a generally positive feeling.
It was a late night and an early morning.

In with the new.

New Year’s Day is normally a complete write-off, but now I am a self righteous teetotaller (!), I set my alarm early and headed off towards Cleckhuddersfax for the Giant’s Tooth fell race, on a very soggy morning, with an 11am kick-off.

A good turnout from Pudsey & Bramley and a course I had not looked at, and one that I really should have at least looked at on the map…

Ogden Water (named after Hilda) is a lovely little corner of Calderdale, well worth a visit.

https://www.ogdenwater.org.uk/index.php

“Flagged” courses mean that you don’t need to read a map nor navigate your way round the route. GPS devices are banned in fell races (although not in trail races). As this was a flagged course and confident that I definitely would not be in the lead, I relaxed a bit too much. All I knew was that it had a fast start and a fast finish, with a climb in the middle.
Prior to the deep freeze, it had been rain, rain, rain and this left the course rather muddy and with treacherous tree roots extra treacherous. (Not a fan of roots personally).
Less than 3 miles meant it would be a sprint, and it was.

!On your marks, get set, GO!”
Head down, followining the bloke in front, watching out for bloody tree roots, the slippiest surface known to man, the race was over before I realised and somehow I managed to scoop first V50 prize. My first pot in years.
(I coudn’t hang around for prizegiving, so I missed my 5 seconds of fame!)

Chuffed to bits, totally over the moon. A great way to start the year/season 🙂

(Whilst eating this in a blustery lay-by outside Bradford, I could have been in a warm pub receiving my sportsshoes.com voucher, to a round of rapturous applause!)

Stumbling blocks.

As the saying goes.

Knacked my back
My back has been pretty good for a few months, but then I knacked it 2 days after NYD and now I am struggling to get dressed and wipe my backside!

A lifetime of bad posture? (I blame being tall and then living in Peru, with too much time on buses/Combis too low for a man of my height).

I must remember that I am not:
– Just about to pull on a GB vest, (well, maybe one for moaning).
– A professonal. Running is only a hobby.
– Going to die (yet, nor through not running, although I might be a bit more grumpy than usual!)

It’s a bad back, get over it man!

T’Lakes

We had Lina’s brother and wife (her brother’s wife, not Lina’s, that would be awkward) visiting over New Year, so keen to show them Blighty at its best, I became totally obsessed with the weather and started fretting when the forecast 4 days of “Full Sun”, changed to generally crappy weather over the course of a week, just before they arrived.
Thursday 02/01 looked spectacular in the west and Friday looked ace on the east coast, so that is where we headed.

Stonehenge had been mentioned, but Castlerigg Stone Circle is:
a) Closer.
b) Cheaper (free in fact)
c) In Cumbria!

So we did a full day driving tour of the Lakes, taking in Penrith, Castlerigg, Keswick, Ambleside and Kendal.

Just a shame I didn’t have chance to set a foot upon the fells, as the weather was glorious.

Up the Road…

Latinos are an impulsive bunch (I try, but I am not!)
I love planning stuff and being semi-prepared, I think I lost any spontaneity I had when the Nipper was born.
I had suggested a day trip to Whitby, then Northumbria was mentioned and Scotland looked close, on a map, on a phone screen, so Edinburgh was nominated!

We got there and found some digs, and then wandered into town.

Now I confess I am the world’s worst tourist for countless reasons:
– I hate crowds.
– I hate being blatantly ripped off.
– I hate cities.
– I am the reincarnation of Victor Meldrew.

Edinboghorror ticked all these boxes:
– It was rammed.
– £3.90 for a lime & soda for the young ‘un. (That must be a 4000% mark up).
– Edinburgh is a city. A busy one, full of tourists.
– Within one hour of wandering around, I was ready to kill someone/myself.
(Tourist spots are naturally/obviously/inevitably busy, I get that, they are just not for me).

I didn’t exactly have a J-Lo style meltdown, but my back was giving me a lot of jip and I made it clear I wasn’t really having fun. So, I headed back to the digs and did my last Carla Molinaro work-out of my subscription and probably knackered my knackered back just a little bit more.

The next day it was decided as best that I should do my own thing, so everyone was happy.

I have been to Edinburgh twice, once on a stag do and the other on a Heineken trip, neither of which gave me time to go up Arthur’s Seat, possibly the most urban hill ever! It just stands there, proud, begging to be climbed.

With yellow warnings of ice, it was a spicy mixture of black ice, verglas, bullet ice and generally frozen surfaces that would put one on one’s ar$e quicker than Giant Haystacks. That didn’t deter the 20,000 tourists teetering up and slipping down this diminuitive lump, to get an aerial view of the city, the amazingly Alpine looking Pentland Hills and the Firth of Forth, (* I scoured the internet for Border TV’s birthday greetings with Uncle John and Eric the Monkey and Fearless Fred the fire fighting fusileer from the Firth of Forth, and failed).

After 90mins, I was about frozen, so headed back to the car and tried to get changed/dressed with useless frozen claws for hands and a jeffed back, which made it difficult to get changed, put my shoes, socks and trousers back on, in a (very) residential street, and then waited (& waited) for the others to get back.
It was a long, dark drive back to Taddyland, but I do love Bonny Scotland.

* If you are of a certain age, and you grew up in Cumbria, you will remember “Uncle” John Myers & Eric the Monkey, who sadly passed away in 2019.

Winter Wainwrights record!

Apart from my V50 victory at the Giant’s Tooth, one other thing that really caught the attention of the fellrunning world was the news that Carol Morgan was to attempt a winter Wainwrights round.

Now putting this into context…

Alfred Wainwright was a hillwalker and artist who completed a multitude of routes up and down 214 of his own favourite fells. He created some amazing drawings of his chosen 214 peaks in his 7 volume pictorial guidebooks, over his lifetime. Most people are happy to complete the Wainwrights in their lifetime.

There are 214 peaks, some popular, some obscure, some are remote.
I have 32 left on my list, but it would take me 32 separate day outs to do them all. There is no natural route, nor line to link them up, as AW would never have dreamt that anyone would be mad enough to do so, even less so in winter!

The late, great Joss Naylor set the record in 1986, when he was 50.
A record that stood from 1986 until 2014. Steve Birkinshaw broke that record, captured magnificently on film by Al Lee here

https://britrockfilms.com/running-films/Wainwright/Wainwright.html

Also documeted in the harrowing read that is “There is no map in Hell”.

The (summer) record currently stands at 5d 12h 14m 43s, by American athlete, John Kelly, who was “good but not great” at running at school!
That was in summer, tough enough.

Imagine it in winter?!
Snow, ice, cold, generally crappy weather and not a lot of daylight.
James Gibson held the previous winter record of 8d 6h 44m 0s.

***Photo thanks to Stephen Wilson Photography***

Carol knocked 5hrs of this with an imcomprehensible time of 193 hours, 51 minutes and 47 seconds or 8 days, 1 hour, 51 minutes and 47 seconds.

The 320-mile (515km) challenge, which includes England’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike (& a multitude of obscure and rarely visited peaks), involves a total ascent of 36,000m (118,000ft).

Bonkers award of 2025 (so far) goes to Carol Morgan 🙂

Almost as bonkers!

The Spine Race is a good way to “do” the Pennine Way in a week.
At 268 miles/431km, the PW is England’s longest footpath, starting at Edale, Peak District, and finishing in Kirk Yetholm, in the Scottish Borders, passing over all the bumpy, lumpy and boggy bits in between.
Joss Naylor (that man again) used to hold the record (3 days, 4hrs & 36mins in 1974), but that was on his own. The Spine is a race, and it is a serious race, held in the middle of winter. There are checkpoints, but if you sleep, the clock does not stop.
The winners will take just over 3 days to finish and the cut-off is 168hrs or one week.
The current deep freeze weather is due to give way to milder climes midweek, so the going will go from frozen to firm to good to boggy as hell!

The compulsive pastime of what is called “Dotwatching” can be pursued here:
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/spinerace25/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1iTvtDXn6jw5lzpGmzvreAIxNLqzmqv-kRw65JDGMmlj0mTO0Uf5gFBCc_aem_ZTDnpd_jvXdSJ4bG2IXh-A

Raiders round-up.

First of the pre-season friendlies fell foul of the weather and thus was postponed , but the mighty Raiders opened up the season with a superb win over local jam eating Marra rivals, Whitehaven, with a conclusive 42:4 victory.

Next up are Workington and then Superleage Salford Red Devils, before the season proper, when we face newly promoted Hunslet RL at home.
Big season ahead.

COYR!

And finally

Stay warm this winter!