Hardmoors 30 - 01/01/2017

The world is mud-licious and puddle-wonderful - E E Cummings

So for most people going to bed before ten on New Years Eve is not their idea of fun.  But for me the first of January is my birthday and my idea of a fun birthday is not to spend it with the hangover from hell.  This year would be different, I resolved to ignore the call of the bottle and spend it doing something I love, running on the trails of the Yorkshire Moors.

Need a new pose for these photos!

The Hardmoors 30 is the first of Jon and Shirley Steele's Hardmoors ultra series and previous readers of my posts will know that I am a huge fan of these races.  Racing with the Hardmoors guys was all the excuse I needed to bail out of the festivities in exchange for a righteously smug New Years Day.

At the end of last year I decided to enter all of the races to make the Hardmoors 'grand slam' a major target for 2017.  Since my success in the UTMB draw last week though I will have to see whether it is possible to complete the slam with the final event, the Hardmoors 60 coming only two weeks after the little trot around Mont Blanc.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things pan out. Nevertheless, I will still be towing the start line at the 55 again and the 110 for the first time.

Bobby on the 15 route

Starting at Robin Hoods Bay the route for the 30 (miles) follows the Cleveland Way coastal path between Whitby and Ravenscar linking them with the disused railway line cinder track.  Unlike some of the shorter Hardmoors races, this one didn't have any 'bonus' miles which was a relief so early in the year!  I had run the coastal section several times before including at the Hardmoors 60 in 2015 so knew how beautiful the route would be but also how tough the climbs could be up and down to the bays and beaches.

Ben was there again using the event as a good warm up for his first 50 miler at the 55 (good luck with your training buddy) in March and Paul making his marathon debut (why make things easy with a road marathon eh?).  Bobby would be trying the 15 taking in the Whitby loop of the 30 route.

No finish - No shirt!

I have made huge progress with my road times in the past 18 months but not so much on the trail. This year I need to make some headway off-road so my target was to get under 5 hours and get towards the top ten percent which would be an improvement on my last few outings.

The weather was what you would expect from the Yorkshire Coast in January.  Cold and windy (think waterfalls being blown upwards and then showering down on you) and the coastal trail was very muddy but this is what we came for right!? Despite this I knew that some serious headway could be made on the flat, sheltered and runnable Cinder Track if I kept enough back in my legs from the muddy coastal sections.

What better way to spend New Years Day?

I dithered a little over the right shoes (good grip but less comfort or less grip and more comfort).  In the end comfort won but at the cost of some seriously sketchy mud sliding.

The race was hard but I managed my mental state well even when the inevitable cramp struck after 20 miles or so.  Keeping a steady pace and finally emerging after the killer climb up to the Village Hall at Robin Hoods Bay in 4hrs 50 mins.  My position was 22 out of 217 finishers which is much higher up the order than I have been in my last few runs on the trail.

I was quite chuffed with how the race went.  Starting a bit more conservatively meant that I was still passing runners all the way to the finish which is a far more satisfying way to race than be hanging on as everyone streams past at the end.

Well done to Ben and Paul who both finished under their target times and to Bobby for finishing strongly in the 15.  We're starting to accrue a proper little trail running posse, I wonder who we can rope in next!?

I am so happy and proud to have finally earned my place on the start line of this years UTMB.  To say finishing this race would be a step up would be a massive understatement but I earned the right to be there the same as the others. I need to up my game on the training front and give this race my full focus to maximise my chances of a finish.  As a result, I still intend to run the Hardmoors 55 and 110 but they will be part of my preparation now rather than as being the major targets for the year.

From here all roads lead to Chamonix for the race of my life...