SportsShoes Blog

33 miles - 4400ft of climb - Haworth - Stoodley Pike (Todmorden) and back.

Around 300 runners set out on this Yorkshire classic yesterday on a fine, cool but blustery day.

The start is on the steep old cobbled mainstreet of Haworth but as it kicks off at 8am we didn’t have too many tourists to contend with.

The large field of runners and walkers quickly strung out on the relatively quick run out to Top Withins (the ruin high on Haworth moor which is thought to be the inspiration for the house in the Bronte novel Wuthering Heights).

The very windy conditions made the first 10 miles of running from Haworth out to Long Causeway via Widdop reservoir very tough going.

As we crossed the dam wall at Widdop the wind was blowing that hard that spray was being thrown across the path reminding me of my time in the yacht last June….

At this point I was in 7th position running with two chaps and with the leading group of 4 ahead of us by a couple of minutes.

As we started to descend down the Calderdale Way track towards Todmorden,  I got ahead of the pair and created a bit of gap to secure 5th position in the race.

As I ran along the track at the foot of the Stoodley Pike climb I could see the lead pack already nearing the moument - about 4 mins ahead at a guess but I could also see that one of the 4 had been dropped and was about a minute behind the leading 3.

I climbed to the Pike feeling strong whilst munching on a hot cross bun that I’d picked up at the last checkpoint then started the long descent down into Hebden Bridge. The town was as busy as ever and I always wonder what the folk must think as a group of snotty, sweaty runners come rampaging across the main road and dissappear up a tiny passageway to start the climb to Hepptonstall.

As I approached the road to Hepptonstall I caught the runner who’d been dropped from the lead pack - he’d blown and told me he’d have to walk back from there (nearly 10 miles!!!)

This put me in 4th place but as I still had a long way to go I couldn’t relax so I just concentrated on steadily tapping out the climbs.

At the penultimate checkpoint I still felt strong and powered up the track alongside hardcastle craggs and over the moor to the final check at Stairs lane. Here I had a quick drink and then struck out for home keen on defending my 4th place.

On the final climb of the day up to Penistone Hill I caught site of the 3rd place runner well ahead of me but moving slowly. I thought there was no chance of catching him so just concentrated on putting the climb behind me and then giving it my all for the last mile over the moor to Haworth.

Despite already having run for 32 miles I think my last mile was the quickest and I absolutely romped down the mainstreet and into the finish. When I got there I was amazed to be told I’d finished 3rd having passed the other chap coming over Penistone Hill. He’d taken the more direct but steeper route across the moor where I’d skirted round the back which was further on the ground but obviously saved a stack of time.

I finished in a pb of 4 hours and 27 mins and after some stew and 6 pots of tea I began to feel human again.

Results here - http://www.keighleyandcravenac.co.uk/kc_races/pdf/hobble/09_haworth_hobble.html

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Andy Nicoll, Diaries & training blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.