There were two fell races (one a good deal easier to get to from home) on the same night as the inaugral Run North West Lyme Park 10k so I am not entirely sure how I ended up signing up to this which was by far more expensive and a route I have (mostly) run several times before. Curiosity maybe? Or a chance to see some nice Chorlton Runner faces? Who knows! But Martin and I loaded the dog in the car to join the mad 5pm traffic and headed south.
I must admit, I do love Lyme Park. It is a mini Peak District landscape but with that semi-safe feel of being on a National Trust property that when you run on your own as woman (especially in winter) has its perks. And it has excellent views of the nearby Peaks as well as over Manchester. But I always avoid Lyme Park when it is crowded and with 800 people signed up to race it was actually bordering on Bedlam before the start. We had made it in reasonable time so I picked up my number and Martin and I strolled a bit with the dog, trying to avoid over heating in 25 degrees celsius head and fretting about dog child and his furry coat. I'd been nervous in the car but then a Catherine and Sue appeared from nowhere and suddenly I wanted to be there and run and have a good time. Clearly, I just needed my friends.
The start line was the round driveway outside the main house which is rather impressive, and the race started nearly 15 minutes late due to parking issues. But it was the first event and there was a train strike so I am willing to forgive this. There was a bottleneck through the house archway as we all spilled out on to the course at the start. In my mind we were going to effectively run the trust 10k route which, but after a short drop we climbed up to run along the reverse of the end of the parkrun course. It was very busy (800 people is a lot of people, even if not everyone turned up!) and it was hard to get going as all speeds had jumbled together. It was a very mixed bag of abilities and trail experience judging by the comments and kit. It is grassy track here so pretty easy under foot and you could sort of go in to the longer grass to over take if needed.
We dropped on to the drive briefly then around one of the gate houses to rejoin the trust 10 k route and cross past the entrance booth to climb the hill. I had a little bit more space but not much here. A little in front of me, someone ran straight in to a tree branch and crumpled but then got straight back up; latter it seemed he was covered in blood but kudos for carrying straight on. The climb to the Cage starts on the grass and has a few steep sections before joining a rockier firmer track that goes up. It is always a lot longer than I remember and I did a bit of running and a bit of walking like most people around me. I was holding something back for the big ascent to Latern woods.
At the Cage, there was a crowd and a bagpiper which was a lovely touch. It brought to mind the Half Peakskyline race from last year, and how I haven't seen it advertised this year....Things to ponder as we did the steady grassy downhill back towards the house before dropping on to the tarmac drive towards the East Lodge. I think I got over taken here a fair bit as road capable people enjoyed the tarmac, and I did not. There was a water station here too, and whilst I ran past, I drowning in my own sweat and with sweat and suncream in my eye, I do believe an effort had been made to source recyclable plastic bottles for this.
Instead of sending us all over the stile to climb the field to Latern woods, very sensibly we were sent to the five bar gate which was held open by a marshal. On the otherside, the ground was very uneven and boggy, even by the normal standards of this field, as it wasn't a usual footpath. But we soon rejoined the main path and the lovely Jerry from club was there to cheer us on with a few chaps from Bollington. However I was soon walking up the tussocky field with most other people to join the queue to go over the lowered section of wall two at a time (I did not do this elegantly). The queue here was moving, and being hot and sweaty from the climb it was okay to wait.
The path through Latern woods is always fun, but they did loop us round the Latern itself just so we could hear the fiddler playing inside (another nice touch). I love running through the pine woods here, even with the roots. After the woods, we popped out on the only mildly technical part of the course which is the descent towards the estate wall. Its only a bit rocky so I made short work of it and managed to pass one or two people before the long undulating (net uphill) track that runs around the outer wall of the estate. I prefer doing this track the other way on parkrun as its up and down and up but this way round it gradually climbs rather than the other way. Its a good enough track underfoot though, and people can pass each other with reasonable care.
At the gate in to Knightlow woods, the marshal was struggling with some highland cattle who had seen the open gate as an invitation to enter the woods from the hill side, and I tried not to dwell on the implications for the farmer/ rangers later. We dashed along the main track through the woods, another deviation from the trust 10k course, but then turned left along the wall and....straight in the queue for the next stile. This queue took ages and people were getting a bit agitated. I was also starting to cool down. There wasn't even much of a view to admire in the woods. then a group of ladies came past saying they were going to use the dog hole, including Sue and Catherine (who somehow I was ahead of). With the queue barely moving I decided to join them. As my turn to crawl through the hole came (much to the displeasure of the marshal) I had a sudden panic I wouldn't fit! But I was there now so I got on my knees and fortunately squeezed through with no elegance. I stood and held the hatch for the next lady and then ran on, on the narrow path around the clough.
I had now ended up behind some slower people on this narrow path and so couldn't really open up, but as we got to the pink house I managed to get some speed up and run along the short ridge and descend the grass then rocky path quite fast to the Shrigley track, where Martin and Oscar were waiting to cheer me. However, I could see Catherine ahead and knew I had less than a mile to make up some time so pushed up the road and round the knoll. One lady I overtook was having a bit of a sulk about how much further it was...it was literally down the hill and round the mill pond. One bad point though was that as we were coming down the hill, cars were coming down from the top car park and people were walking up the course towards us, not all of them respecting those of us who were still running! I kicked a bit around the mill pond and managed to over take one more person before arriving to a very animated and supportive crown (a special shout out to Style RC who gave me a lovely cheer) and over the finish line in a sweaty mess.
There were bottles of water and flap jacks as well as a medal for everyone. Lizzie, who I hadn't seen at the start as she had struggled to park, was stood chatting to John and Catherine and Sue soon joined us. We all agreed it was a beautiful race but the queue for the stile out of the woods was a bit of a let down. I'd run relatively well, but it was hard to tell if this was fitness or just being held back by the crowds. It had been a glorious evening and the views had been stunning but it was just too busy for the course and infrastructure. I was glad I had done it but wouldn't rush back, especially as I can do the original trust 10k course on my own any time. Martin arrived and berated me as the dog had misbehaved in my absence and then was so rude we had to leave early before he embarrassed me, which rather soured an otherwise pleasant evening. Plus I had another race at the weekend to get to!
No comments:
Post a Comment