Otley Athletic Club

In Scotland fell races are called hill races; and in a moment of madness two years ago I entered the Beinn Resipol Hill Race knowing that I’d be on holiday nearby on the day of the race (I was actually about 100-miles away).

However, the day before I was in Plockton and I’d never been there before and I was such a beautiful place – it’s not the Jewel in the Highlands for nothing – that I decided it was too lovely to leave so I missed the first edition of the race; although I did email an apology – how very English.

Two years on, and in another moment of madness, I decided to enter it again and also use it as an excuse to walk the final part of the Rob Roy Way afterwards. Read the rest of this entry »

We hear Edward Davies was third in the Yorkshireman marathon and Nick Hodgkinson completed the half.

Report from Laura H:

With terrible weather forecast for the day, Hannah Lupton, Sara Richard, Liz Fawcett and I set off early for the 8.30am start to the brilliantly named ‘One Foot in the Gargrave’, a 23 mile LDWA organised event. We’d entered this months ago following a couple of other enjoyable trots around at similar ‘races’. What’s not to like about a day out with some friends where you can eat and chat your way around the course?

And Gargrave did not disappoint. Some early drizzle cleared to leave us with large patches of blue sky as we made our way out of the village, along to Bell Busk, Otterburn and across some fields, where we had our only cow encounter of the day. This would have been fine as our bovine friends were moving across the field out of our way, followed by a very large bull. Unfortunately, the marshall at the first checkpoint thought he was rescuing us from the bull by coming into the field, which caused the bull to freeze, and led to us making for a sharp dash to the gate as another cow and a calf bolted!

A good selection of homemade cakes greeted us at every checkpoint, cut into perfectly bitesize pieces! We eventually down towards Kirkby Malham, then onto Janet’s Foss, which was resplendent in the late summer’s green fringe. It was so pretty, it’s made me feel poetic! From there, after a few Kodak moments, we climbed a steep hill, from which we had a great view of Gordale Scar. In what is becoming a bit of a regular occurrence, we came across a wriggling sheep which needed righting, which we duly did. As we were the only folk in club vests, we fielded a few queries about what the AC stood for. Following the sheep rescue, one of our options is Animal Carers. Another might be Athletic Comedians, or obviously Alcohol Club, but that’s usually reserved for post racing…

A fair bit of trail, tarmac and bog followed, including Boss Moor, where we survived some trainer sucking mud and enjoyed some wide puddles which briefly reminded Hannah and I of a slightly warmer version of our Icelandic river crossing. A bit of a wrong turn saw us add a little extra to our run, but we soon got back on track and started a bit of a trot towards the end. As we came into Gargrave and hit the towpath, the heavens opened, making the rest of us as soggy as our footwear!
Homemade quiche and salad, plus more cake at the end! All done and dusted in 5 hours 49, not bad considering we’d not had quite the training we’d planned. For the grand total of £14 and with friendly marshalls and participants to boot, I’ll definitely be back again next year!

Report from Billy:

After what was hopefully going to be a good turn out for the Black & Whites only four of us travelled to Sherburn in Elmet for the Vale of York Half Marathon. Conditions were perfect  with a slight breeze but after a a busy week marathon training I was not expecting a good time. As the race progressed my legs started to feel better but although not as quick as I could be, I finished strongly to pass a number of people who had passed me earlier in the race.

The race was won by Daniel Kestrel of Barnsley AC in 1:09:14 (Gun and chip time) and 1st lady was Faye Banks of Pontefract AC in 1:17:48 (Chip)

Mark Hall was first home for Otley AC (and 1st V55) in a chip time of 1:19:33, followed by Ged Peacock (1:51:32), Billy Rayner (1:56:42) and Martin Gaskin (1:59:04).

Report from Tamara:

As Neil and I got out of the car on Station Top at 8.29am, I was very grateful to Sarah Fuller for lending me a waterproof that actually works – this weather would be nowt compared to the Spine, but still it was wet. Having never raced more than a half marathon before, I was a little apprehensive as to how this would pan out. The plan was to go slow, walk up anything even remotely resembling a hill, keep the heart rate down, and if in doubt, walk: it worked a treat. I hadn’t believed Neil, saying that 17 mile training runs were enough and steady time on feet was all that mattered, but I was proved wrong. I’d also never started a race walking but I thoroughly recommend this approach when the race goes straight up the Chevin steps to Surprise View and is longer than 3 miles 🙂

Punk Panther ultras always have an option on the distance, which makes it less daunting for novices like myself and anyone having an off day, we all do! The Urban Legend had a choice of 50k, 57k and 66k, and the climbing looked moderate, from 3000-4300ft. Plus no navigation skills required, hurray! This was as much within my comfort zone as it was going to get.

Starting on home territory felt good. Off the Chevin, we took the fields to Yeadon, wiggled around to end up at the Tarn, stopped to use the facilities there; more fields and woods to Horsforth, stopped at a shop to get some Lucozade because we could; down the hill along the river a ways; coat on, coat off numerous times; then through loads of mini nature reserves and parks in Kirkstall and Burley – who knew?! Somewhere in all that we made the decision to do the longer route. I was very encouraged to get to 21miles in Hyde Park feeling remarkably fresh and knowing we were facing in the right direction – homewards! We had a pleasant stretch along the Meanwood Valley Trail through woods, over streams, past the llamas at the Urban Farm – and my first ever marathon distance ticked off. Thereafter, it was mostly fields and trail with a bit of road up to Eccup, Adel, through Golden Acre Park (another proper toilet, luxury ultra!), Cookridge – my fans cheering me on out their car window 😉 – and Bramhope.

CP9, at the top of Staircase Lane in Bramhope, was the crunch point – head straight back down the hill and finish (smiley face) or add on an extra 5 miles up Pool Bank, down Barhouse field, past aggressive dogs on farm, Blue Barn pet shop and back along Pool Road (not so smiley face). This is where local knowledge was a major disadvantage, and the ‘quit while you’re still happy’ feeling kicked in! I was having a lovely day out: the weather really wasn’t that bad; I was enjoying discovering new paths and places; and only a bit tired. However, the feet were wet and starting to rub, and the thought of those farm dogs and a mile or so of Pool Road was going to totally rain on my parade. We whizzed down the hill to the finish (Pool Methodist Church Hall) and a hot meal, hot drinks, loads of cake: all free and served with a smile. We then got taxied back to Otley by Matt, who’d done a 200 mile race a couple of weeks previously.

I officially did 57k in 7hrs 44mins, but for me, for once, the time was an afterthought. It was truly liberating to be so blissfully unaware of time – I judged the race and my effort by the fact that I had 3 and a bit pages of instructions to get through. The full results will be on http://punkpanther.co.uk/.

My lesson for the day: always know the distance between feeding stations. I hadn’t appreciated quite how much food and drink I would need AND at what point. I had one 500ml water bottle, 4 gels and hadn’t thought to stock up on goodies at the earlier CP, so we had to stop at a second shop – somewhere in between CP5 and CP7 – and get a Mars bar and another water bottle. Good job it was an urban route!

This felt like a very easy, almost luxury, introduction to ultra running: well organised; taped all the way round (only once did we suspect the tape had been messed with); friendly fellow runners; lots of well-stocked checkpoints; happy, helpful marshals (including many a proper serious ultra runner!); free entry, because we had marshalled previous races; and best of all, it was local – we only left the house 25 mins before the start. I will definitely be back!

A bit of a damp evening for the first of two club runner of the year track races, the first doubling up as race 9 in the Eric Smith handicap trophy.  Off on scratch with Antonio young Ben Brunold held onto the lead until the final lap, where Charlotte passed him and took the handicap win.  New member Gavin came home in a fine third place 9 seconds ahead of Jenson.  Thanks to Russ Brogden on the stop watch and Rory chief elastic band collector.

Rob Fearnley retains his lead in the handicap table with 149 points ahead of Laura Hind, 134 and Antonio 129, see the full handicap table here.

As October is a busy month for fell relay’s and cross countries the next race is the Colin Best Calverley handicap Sat. 30th September.

Report from Matt Podd:

Mr Cardinale and myself represented the club in this race – probably the last evening race of the year.

James Hall and Jemima Elgood won in 7.12 & 9.27. I was 54th in 13.05 and Antonio (no shorts today) was 62nd in 17.45. Smaller than usual field of 63.

The Juniors had 3 teams in the relay which preceded the hill. Not sure of the results.