Towpath and Trail 10k

Today the Towpath and Trail 10K at the Shireoaks Bowling Club, near Worksop and with a leisurely 11am start.

The route starts off with a little climb through what is now a nature reserve but used to be Shireoaks Colliery. We do a full loop around this before heading back to where we started and then down to the Chesterfield Canal which we head along before looping around a lake and returning pretty much along the same route. There's a bit on tarmac, a bit on grass and a lot on towpath and trail, as you’d expect.

There’s a few of those ‘cyclist maiming’ gates to squeeze through, kissing gates to negotiate and, oh my, two stiles to climb over in the last kilometre, just when that’s the last thing you want to do.

A decent run though, well organised and well marshalled. Although they did let themselves down at the end my making everyone queue to fill their own cups from two water buts. The queue was huge and many like me were at fainting point. The cups were actually souvenir mugs but it would have been even better if they’d pre-filled them.

There were also flapjacks at the end which go down well with us and the dogs. Everyone has a dog with them, not just us and there’s a football field to give them a run on afterwards.

The course is quite tight in places and not fast. I’m not terribly impressed with my time but a placing inside the top 50 of a race of around 250, points to it being better than I thought.

Sheffield Half Marathon

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" - Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 13th May 1940.

Of course he never, to my knowledge, ran a half marathon.

Today we’re in Sheffield, without the dogs, as we’re expecting a fair hike from parking at the Sheffield Arena to the start line inside the Don Valley Stadium. The distance is not too bad in the end but the race isn’t particularly dog friend. This is no great surprise with nearly 6000 entrants.

Starting the race in the stadium is a nice idea, if a little congested. After which it’s a three or so mile tour of some of the least aesthetically inspiring parts of Sheffield. Things pick up when we leave all that industrial dereliction behind and head into the city centre. Which apart from being much better on the eye becomes a bit of a tour of some of our favourite Sheffield watering holes - Ahh the Old House, the Devonshire Cat, over there the Sheffield Tap etc etc.

Also once in the city centre the crowd come into play and the sheer weight of numbers is worth an extra gear. Mind you if the city centre was an extra gear, the Ecclesall Road was a whole extra engine. The support there was simply awesome.

 

There are downsides of course. A race of this stature shouldn't have drinks in cups, which are clumsy and difficult to drink from. I have to stop to drink from them, which costs time. They should also offer sports drinks but the sponges were a positive. I do like a sponge.

I also didn't think the mile markers were terribly visible and missed a lot of them. This made it difficult to keep track of how I was doing and perhaps is why, rather unbelievably, with 2 miles to go I was on for a 1:41.

Then nine minutes to the 12 mile marker seemed to have put paid to anything under 1:43 or so I thought. As the 13 mile point and the condemned Don Valley came into view a few minutes earlier than expected, I come to the conclusion the ‘12’ had wandered from where it was meant to be and a time of 1:41:46 is mine.

Even I’m impressed. I would have taken a time 1:45 in my arms and snogged the life out of it. A 1:41, considering my current state of unfitness, is well... in for a very good night indeed.

L of course has been just as injured, if not more so than me. She had threatened to take a book around to read as she was ambling round. Yet, I think, even she was pleased with her performance. 

We both get a post-race massage which should help prevent those injuries reoccurring.

The stadium finish was great and it’s scandalous that the stadium will not be around to host the race next year. Which poses the organisers a bit of a challenge for the future. Good luck with that.

The wristband at the end was also a nice touch. Not that I spotted them but L did and got me one. Sadly though both the small t-shirts and more horrifically the water had run out by the time she finished and there were still almost a thousand people behind her.

On the whole a well organised and enjoyable race with a nice-ish route, good bits and bad bits like most races. I guessed a race in Sheffield was unlikely to be flat and it certainly wasn't but it was probably as flat as they’re going to get it.