Hairy Helmet

This evening we have our third attempt at the Hairy Helmet which I’m surprised is even going ahead given the weather and local councils tendency to cancel things. Darley Park is known for being a bit of a mud bath at times and it’s done nothing but rain all week. However the organisers have assured us that the council have given them the go ahead with only minor tweaks to the course. That probably means it’s going to be laps around the car park because the grass is too muddy.

It’s actually sunny when I start walking across from work but that doesn’t last and the rain soon joins the party, naturally, but it’s not as torrential as it has been the rest of the week.

L says she’s nervous but then she’s always nervous. I tell her she’ll be fine once she’s had her free gin from the White Peak Distillery but she says she’s feeding that to MD. I'm not sure that would help his inherent nervousness.

Our team in the same as last year although we are now in the Super Vets category (combined aged 200+ as we add up to 201). I will go first, L’s friend second, Daughter third and L fourth doing the lap of honour. 

It goes well, despite the rain and at least we aren't dressed as dinosaurs as one poor team is.

Derby City Half Marathon

It’s the second running of the Derby City Half Marathon today which starts from Derby University. In my opinion it has a far better route than the better known Ramathon but pulls a fraction of the field, only 460 finishers today. This is mainly due, I think, to the fact that no one knows about it because it is barely advertised compared with the heavily promoted Ramathon.

The route has had a few tweaks since last year presumably to ease the traffic congestion. The first part is again a lap of Markeaton Park before heading through the city centre which is followed by a long drag through Pride Park to get to Alvaston Park then a long drag back along the river.

There was a definite attempt to keep us off the roads this year and this meant a surprise section on grass through Darley Park. I will pack my trail shoes next time.

Drinks seem to be short supply with the second drinks station at 6 miles and the third at 11 miles, which was a long time to go without a drink. They’d also left one poor bloke on his own to man it.

The mile markers were a problem last year and they didn’t look any more accurate this year either. At mile 11 I appeared to be on course for a corking time of 1:38. The next mile which was all uphill out of Darley Park put paid to this as this mile took me nine minutes but that still left me on course to break 1:40. Sadly the last mile again seem to be super long despite being mostly downhill and I finished in a devastating 1:42:08.

Probably not too devastating though as its two minutes quicker than last year. Onwards now to Leicester in two weeks’ time. Sadly I think they gave me the same medal as last year, the t-shirt was quite good though.

Derby City Half Marathon

Apparently it has been 19 years since a half marathon went through the centre of Derby but today they are putting that right. This was something I expected the resurrected Ramathon to deal with in time but they have been beaten to it by the new kid on the block, the Derby City Half. This is a new race from Sporting Futures, the charity who organise the Derby 10K. There is even talk of a full marathon in the future.

With the involvement of Sporting Futures it is perhaps not surprising that huge chucks of the 10k course are used, although in reverse. The race itself starts on Derby University’s Kedleston Road complex and incorporates three city parks into the race.

The field is relatively small with around 600 in it. I’m not sure if this is deliberate for year one but it’s actually not a bad turnout considering the lack of advertising. If it causes traffic chaos then it should achieve sufficient publicity to massively increase its numbers for next year.

First up on the route is Markeaton Park where it’s all twists and turns on gravel paths before we’re heading back past the start and off down Kedleston Road which is straight and slightly downhill. So it’s a fast start and I’m already up on schedule.

Then we are straight through the centre of town, which is nice and with plenty of people out supporting including my nearest and dearest.

The route incorporates the good bits of the 10k course but also the bad bits e.g. it’s a long dull drag across Pride Park to get to Alvaston Park then a long dull drag back alongside the A52.

We then head out to the third and finally park, Darley Park, taking in part of the course of another Derby race, the Colin Potter 10k, before heading back to the city centre and then back to the University.

All the way through I am comfortably up on my pace, I was looking for a 1:44 but should smash that. However throughout the mile markers left something to be desired and the 13 mile marker arrived with around half a mile still to run which they crammed into the alleged last .1 of a mile. Several people reported that even then it was only 12.9 miles but I can’t confirm that.

The finish was seriously uphill but other than that it was pretty flat and I finished in 1:42:49. I'll take that.

Loved the race and I'll be back next year. It’s on a great date as well, midway between the other local city halves at Nottingham and Leicester. So hopefully they won't move it. It throws down the gauntlet to the Ramathon, Derby's other half despite a cheap looking medal and t-shirt. There was also a lack of drinks stations, luckily I had my partner on hand producing extra ones for me.

Furnace Run

Today is the ‘traditional’ Darley Park 5k run from The Furnace Inn. My partner always does it. I always do it when I’m not injured enough to do so. Our older dog has done it many times and been top dog almost every year. Now he’s perhaps not young enough to do the full 5k and so our younger model has taken on the mantle. Somewhat reluctantly perhaps. This year, not only do I give it a go with him but Daughter runs it too. Her début!

Our young dog does indeed prove to be somewhat reluctant and tells me so repeatedly by biting his lead for the first hundred metres or so. Once we finally get focussed and having started in dead last, we ‘storm’ through the field. Well, it’s more of a light breeze than a storm.

Furnace 5k

This morning it’s the traditional Boxing Day run at the Furnace Inn in Derby.

I run the 5k attached to both the dogs but forget the ‘dual lead attachment’ thing and have to cobble together a replacement using the younger one's halti. They are also rather difficult to handle at the start. The eldest is hyper, which is making the other hyper and when he does hyper, he does hyper with knobs on. We stand in the next street but not only can all the other runners still hear their barking, most of Derby can.

My lead replacement doesn’t work very well and just seems to glue the two dogs together. Which isn’t too bad but I worry that it prevents the old man trying to stop when he tires. So I keep stopping and untangling them, while checking that in his advancing years is ok. He seems fine and we even have enough in the tank to overhaul a terrier near the end and perhaps be first dogs across the line. Although we’re only 84th, so not sure if anything else with four legs was further up the field.