A relatively quiet week on the racing front for the award winning Postal Harriers albeit those who did run went for it and went long.
First up we had Danny Clayton taking on the LDWA event at Blubberhouses Moor. Mileage is always a bit vague when you enter some of the trail stuff and Si Entries shows it in the classic format of 23+ miles. Is it 23.5? Is it 100? Who knows. Just head off into Nidderdale and enjoy the hills and views. Danny reports back that he had a nice day out covering the 38.34K in an official time of 4:38. In what is going to become a theme of this week, no photographic evidence exists of his exploits other than what Strava tells us, so it must have happened?
Elsewhere we had the first outing this week of one of Postal's superwomen. Dee Bouderba was taking on the Hardmoors 55. Something that I can write much more about, pages in fact but you'd all get bored with me pretty quickly.
The 55 is the 2nd race in the Hardmoors Super Slam series that Dee is taking on this year. After completing the 30 on New Year's Day and the 55 at the weekend, she now has the small matter of the 110 at the end of May, the 60 in September and the 80 in November. The 55 is a mere warm up for the bigger challenges to come.
Snow has been a contributory factor in past 55's but not this year although the sun can be just as challenging as they set out from Guisborough for a series of climbs. Starting with the Tees Link just to warm you up with a trot up Roseberry Topping followed by the Three Sisters. Those hills are the gift that keeps on giving resulting in a higher than usual number of retirements. Not our Dee though who battled onto the end to finish in a very creditable 15:23:26.
Both Mrs Barrett and myself have struggled to find photographic evidence of Dee's achievement other than an image of the map produced by her tracker. Looks like the 55 course to me!
Later this week Dee will pass her ultra baton over to her great mate Jo Barrett who is taking on the Northern Traverse event. It's worth reading the info to get the measure of what Jo is taking on. 300K from St Bees on the West Coast to Robin Hood's Bay on the East Coast and taking in the Lakes, the Dales and the NY Moors. More ascent than your average Garmin can measure, I think the watch will blow up! I know I'll be dot watching for sure, check out the details for more info, https://www.northerntraverse.com/ Best of luck Jo!
Parkrun wasn't going to be left in the shade this week with some monumental performances to shout about. Andy Heather and Di Campbell both recording new PB's over the distance plus Jordan Howe going sub 16 and Elliot Cole going sub 17. No time to shout about for me but if you're in the Lakes on a Saturday morning you must go and do Whinlatter Forest. It's not just the hills that will take your breath away! Here's a taster:
Fountains Abbey
124th Kev Armstrong 26.31
Heslington
172nd Amy Johnson 34.23
New Earswick
4th Ben Briffaud 21.55
18th Alex Davis 26.22
North Yorkshire Water Park
17th Jon Davies 21.34
Potternewton
16th Jamie Butler 25.17
18th Robert Butler 26.04
Wetherby
29th Andrew Halcro-Johnston 24.32
64th Phil Raddall 28.37
Whinlatter Forest
28th Simon Middleton 31.28
58th Lucy Turner 39.39
York
1st Jordan Howe 15.44
6th Elliot Cole 16.56
20th Dom Carter 18.51
51st Andy Heather 20.29
54th Patrick Hough 20.36
79th Di Campbell 21.50
80th Jim Carter 21.50
124th Sean Withill 23.45
184th Jason Platten 25.56
185th Ian Smithson 25.57
255th Sophie Cole 27.47
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