Marching into April

Good morning folks

I hope you are in fine spring fettle.
Been a while since my last ramblings, busy old time.
3 races in 3 weeks, for an unprolific racer like me, that is heaps!
Apologies in advance, the blog is a bit running-centric again.
Glad to see the back of winter and hopefully things will be a tad warmer with more daffodils, rabbits jumping around and blackbirds building their nests 🙂

The girls are both full of the lurgy, as it seems are half the population right now 😦

The Nipper is 11

How did that happen?
Thankfully before the lurgy.

Fish and Chip birthday tea and a lively party with her mates.
All good fun 🙂

Haworth Hobbling

After the Wadsworth Trog I wasn’t exactly giddy about the prospect of a 32 mile race in the Pennines.
The Wadsworth Trog (The Beast) didn’t go too well, but to be fair, 2 weeks before the Trog, I could barley put my shoes on nor wipe my backside, so bad was my back. Thankfully this passed, but had left a hefty dint in any sembleance of training/mileage. I had done the Hobble before in 2009 (everything at the time was a lead-up to the Bob Graham Round, on which I was so focussed at the time that I can remember nothing else that happened in 2009!)

My only route knowledge was that I had run on Stoodley Pike countless times (coming from the opposite direction!)

The Haworth Hobble is BIG.
It sells out in under a day and gets about 1000 entries. I get a bit freaked out in races of over 100 people so it was a big deal. It is in essence a trail race run under FRA (Fell Runners Association) rules. As trail races go, it is cheap as chips, hence selling out so quickly.
It prides itself on the tucker available at the feed stations on course, it is basically a series of buffet tables with some running between.
From Haworth, over the tops to Todmorden, up Stoodley Pike, to Hebden Bridge and wandering back across the tops to Haworth
Hot dogs, chip butties, Thai Yum Yum soup, (non-alcoholic) lager, (alcoholic) whisky and more.

I started too close to the back and spent the first 2 miles trying to get past people, not that I was going to be anywhere near the sharp end, but as cut-offs are pretty relaxed, some folk don’t really rush.

One plus (a big plus) was that the weather was amazing!
Sunny and warm. Joy, joy, joy.

I took a while to get into my stride but after 5 miles, I started running with a lass from Bowland Fell Runners. We were running at the same pace, so kept together until the end. It is infinitely easier running and chatting, than running on your tod. The miles flew by. I resisted the temptations of hot dogs, yum-yum soup and (despite the hard sell), chip butties, saving myself for pizza at the end.
Ended up finishing 20mins quicker than my last time, so that is definitely progress in my book 🙂

Shout out to RUN.REUSE.RECYCLE for their awesome work. Check them out!

Beater Clough fell race.

This was a race I was really, really looking forward to!
Sold on the idea by the man, the legend, Doni Clarke. This low-key grassroots fell race was also Lina’s fell race debut for 2025.

Run over private land (with permission), the race has a bit of everything, including a brilliant, brilliant steeeeep descent and ascent (enjoyed twice).
We did manage to get a bit lost (on a flagged course), but it was an ace day out and a race I will go back to.
Starting in a field, registration in a lay-by, with water at the finish. No-frills racing at its best!

Muncaster Luck fell race.

As the legend goes, Henry VI, who was made King at the age of 8, had lost the throne to Henry IV and had been imprisoned at the battle of Hexham, he escaped, fled and lived rough in the fells for a year. He was found in a bit of a sorry state by a shepherd and taken to Muncaster Castle, where Sir John Pennington (owner of the castle) gave him food, water and lodgings, for as long as he needed it. In payment for this, King Henry gave a glass bowl with a prayer that the family would prosper as long as the bowl remained unbroken, (which is a miracle in itself, as the King had lived rough for a year!)
It still remains unbroken to this day and Muncaster Castle did seem to be in pretty good shape when I was there. (It is also, apparently, one of the most haunted buildlngs in Britain!)

Back to the modern day, I really, really do hang on to the past so hard.
Is this nostalgia, or just clinging onto a part of life you don’t want to end?
The race organiser is John H, an old school P&B friend, a goodfella.
He kindly offered to take me round the course on a recce the week before, on a glorious day in a corner of the Western Lakes which doesn’t get many visitors, it was a real treat to be out, but as I spent so much time chatting, taking photos and generally not paying attention, so when it came to race day, I realised I did not have “the lines” as dialled in as I should have!

The day before I headed up to the Wasdale hut and arrived very early to the race, on the most glorious of spring days, sunny and warm, clear and dry.

The race is mainly off-piste, the “lines” are the best route and a Calder Valley bloke who had been behind me at the start suddenly popped out 200yds in front and proceeded to disappear into the distance, I ran with a bloke from Black Combe and another from Macclesfield. Despite an almost certain death near miss fall on the final descent, I crossed the barely ankle deep river Esk and gurned my way up the last steep climb into the amazingly beautiful Muncaster Castle grounds to finish 5th (there were only 30-ish runners and all the best runners were getting lost in the clag at the Edale Skyline), my best run in years 🙂

The Waller’s Way.

There is hardcore, and there is Bobby Gard Storry!

Bobby is a fellrunner who I have got to know through the (ON THE BACK FOOT) podcast. A top bloke, great runner and a Dry Stone Waller.
(I have floundered whilst trying to explain this to people, so please bear with me!)
Bobby decided, for his 30th birthday, (for he is a young man) to spend 30 days and 30 nights, running from a different valley each day, over the fells, to a different valley, where he would repair dry stone walls, either camping or staying in a bothy or hut. Sounds simple, which in essence it is, carrying enough kit and food to be self sufficient and painting daily life onto a new, blank canvas every day, but the logistics, as always, are what makes simple things complicated!

As I was up in the Lakes for Muncaster (the far west Lakes, i,e. next stop Isle of Man), I told Bobby I would meet up. So I drove r-o-u-n-d to Honister (central-ish Lakes) and spent an awesome night in Warnscale Bothy. A basic but cosy stone abode overlooking Buttermere, made famous in recent times by the new breed known as “Influencers”.

Bothies are simple properties, in the mountains, in England, Scotland and Wales, which are free of charge. Facilities are basic, there may be a fireplace, or a woodburning stove, with a space to sleep, but that is about it, as that is all one needs, (it is free remember!)

So, myself, Bobby and 3 other people (we didn’t know each other beforehand, only through Bobby) spent the night in the bothy, we had all carried in firewood, so kept the woodburner going all night, and despite snorers and the scurrying of a midnight mouse, I had a great night’s kip.

The next day, which was approximately halfway through Bobby’s walling tour, I dashed back to my car (for fear of reports of Bobby being uncatchable, despite his 10kg giant rucksack), to ditch my sleeping gear for enough running kit to keep me safe on the fells, then dashed back to meet Bobby and we trotted over the Buttermere fells as far as Red Pike, where Bobby dropped into Ennerdale to find a wall to fix, and I reversed my steps over the fells back to the car.

Think my phone camera was on “False tan & extra grey hair” setting!

It was a long, but uneventful drive back home in glorious sunshine and was the start of a week, that started great and gradually turned to ratsh!t, but c’est la vie, at times!

Pennine Waying.

Long story short (not like me).
Jogging back to the start of the Calderdale Way Relays 2 years ago, I met a bloke called Scott, from Marsden. Scott was doing his Bob Graham Round that year, so I offered to help and became friends with some of his friends.

(Windy out! Jake, me & Scott on Broad Crag – July 2023)

Fast forward to winter 2025, chat group chat turned to “The Spine” race. An epic, but VERY expensive race running, walking and shivering its way up the full Pennine Way from Edale (Peak District) to Kirk Yetholm (Scottish Borders), with options of a Challenger South and North, one doing the bottom half, the other the top half.
268 miles or 431km in new money. The top half is approximately 160 miles.
“Why don’t we just do it ourselves?” was an idea floated in the group.

“Who’s in?”

One of those impulsive “why not” moments, so I said yes.

So, at the end of May, the plan is to run/walk/crawl the top half in reverse, from Kirk Yetholm to Hawes (Hardraw to be exact), taking 3 days, sleeping wherever.

There are currently 5 loonbags up for the challenge, what will happen?
Watch this space!

Up the Road

Cooking up a last minute Caledonian trip with my mate John, to Glen Shiel in April.
Not been up to Bonny Scotland since that disastrous weekend that was the Jura race last year.
No racing this time, just some big days out in the hills, in readiness for our assault on the Old County Tops race in May. The OCT is a pairs race linking Great Langdale and the Old (now current county tops, with the disgraceful abolition of Cumbria in April 2023). It climbs the highest point of Helvellyn (Westmorland), Scafell Pike (Cumberland) and the Old Man of Coniston (Furness) athen heads back to Langdale.
37 miles with 10,000ft of up and down.
A BIG day out.
Work to do for sure.

Raiders round-up.

TOP, TOP, TOP, TOP, TOP OF THE LEAGUE!!!

At least briefly!
Despite Bradford calling a Friday teatime kick-off, meaning players and fans having to take time off work, last Friday was a joyous evening!
Although it is still early days in the season, Barrow won and went top of the Betfred Championship table, briefly.

Halifax look like the team to beat this season.
In true Raiders fashion, we crumbled today against York Neets.
The Raiders were third in the league and although it was great to go top, for a fleeting moment, I am not overly confident and did say that I would do a streak around Craven Park, if Barrow do win the league.
(I think I will be keeping my clothes on).
Onwards and upwards!

DOGMAN!

The Nipper and I went to see DOGMAN at the Flicks. Thought we had a private screening and the place to ourselves, but it filled up soon after. Top film 🙂

And finally

I miss the 90’s, so much

That’s all for now folks.
Hasta la proxima.

Johnny

p.s. The Youngster made me this, the night before the Hobble 🙂