Saturday 30th November 2013, Wildboarclough

Time has been very tight here at JJ Towers, there’s just been far too much stuff going on. It was something of a relief to have the excuse to get out with the Cheshire Tally-Ho! Hare & Hounds Club (Estd 1872….founder members still running I think) and trot through some lovely countryside in the good company of the Club members…and a guest: the Long Suffering Rick.
The trail, from the very excellent Crag Inn in Wildboarclough, was a little longer than it should have been. Many Hounds returned late, some running in the dark. Those who took the time to turn around and look behind them were rewarded by a breathtakingly beautiful sunset:

This is where we went (widdershins):

A little over 10 miles with around 1800’ of up and downery. And mud.
Good fun though. And Rick’s still talking to me.
And my English teacher told me not to start sentences with ‘And’. And so I’ll try not to. And I’ll be careful with the use of apostrophe’s.
And now that I’ve got a little free time I’ll attempt to fill in some gaps in the ‘ere blog.

21st August, Kit review: La Sportiva Raptors

A posting on the TGO Challenge Message Board a couple of months ago alerted me to Snow and Rock’s half price offer on La Sportiva Raptors.

I’m currently doing the groundwork for my Home to John O’Groats via the TGO Challenge Walk (HTJOGVTTGOCW….easier to remember that way) which I have pencilled in for next year. Kit choice is an important part of this groundwork.

Now it just so happened that I’d been chatting to Alan about his choice of LEJOG footwear and Raptors were mentioned…..so I legged it over to our local Snow and Rock shop to be disappointed to find they only had Size 10.5 in stock and I really need Size 11. Not deterred, I tried a pair on….and the fit was perfect. Disappointment evaporated.

My Raptors….and yes, I know I need to mop the floor – a chap only has so much spare time for doing domestic stuff. 

A couple of days later I tried the Raptors out on the Long Suffering Rick’s LDWA walk around Walton, a flat 14-15 miler. The shoes were excellent, so excellent that I went back to Snow and Rock to grab the only other pair of Size 10.5 Raptors they had in stock.

I’ve done around 150 miles in the Raptors so far, Gritstone Trail, a curry walk :-), various LDWA walks and a few brain-straightening solo walks. I’ve even done a bit of trail running.

Raptors aren’t waterproof, and on Alan’s recommendation I bought a pair of Sealskinz waterproof socks but I’ve not had the opportunity to try the combination out yet. It’s summer y’see and I’m told it doesn’t rain in Timperley. And I’m gullible, but you know that.

The shoe has a solid feel with plenty of support. Unlike some fell / trail running shoes the Raptors feel solid enough to offer good protection against bashing into rocks.

The laces are good, staying tied up nice and tight after a full day out. There’s nothing more irritating than having to stop every now and then to re-do loosening laces!

The sole is very grippy, inspiring confidence on muddy descents….and I’m not good at decents. The La Sportiva website lists a number of approved resolers, unfortunately none are in the UK. The importers, Lyon Equipment in Cumbria, may be able to help, I’ve found them to be helpful in the past.

Overall I’m delighted with the Raptors. For £45 they’re an extremely good deal. Not so sure whether I’d have been quite so happy paying £90, at the end of the day they’re a glorified pair of trainers. They’re comfortable over distance and carrying a medium-weight pack although I’ve yet to try them with a heavy pack over distance. Looking at the quality of build, which is good, I expect these shoes to last me a long while – so even at £90 they’re still a good buy.

Now the bad news. Retailers flog stuff off cheap for a very few reasons. The reason for this particular flog-off is because La Sportiva appear to have brought out a newer design. Having said that, the new design looks to be very similar to the old design and on that basis I have no reason to believe the newer design will be any less comfortable or hard wearing.

The acid test….
Q: Would I buy another pair?
A: Yes, even at 90 quid.

Sunday 24th March, A walk to the Wilmslow Half

I last ran the Wilmslow Half Marathon around 4 years ago, when my knees were in rather better nick. A couple of Tally-Ho! lads were running this year so a walk out to Mobberley to watch the race seemed like a good idea.
Rather than walk all the way from JJ Towers I drove to Ashley, just south of Altrincham, and dumped the car there. It was a freezing cold morning and I was glad to be walking and not running.
I walked a path just to the west of Mobberley Brook, easy enough to follow but one or two wobbly stiles (with added barbed wire to add to the excitement) were annoying to say the least.

 Dangerous stile adorned with barbed wire

I arrived at Four Lane Ends, my chosen vantage point, in time to see the front runners flying through:

  The race leaders

20 minutes later the bulk of the runners were coming through

The Flying Bananas

Somebody talking sense!

Tally-Ho!

After the excitement of the race it was time to move off – apart from anything else I was getting cold. My Buffalo is a great garment in cold wind but even that struggled to keep me warm in this biting easterly wind.

Walking east (east is….well, you know) to skirt the south end of Manchester Airport’s Runway Two entailed walking over exposed ground, the easterly wind was strong and absolutely freezing and I needed to don over-mitts and over-trousers to keep warm.

The airport was extremely busy, both East Midlands and Leeds Bradford airports were closed due to snow and flights were being diverted to Manchester.

The shelter offered by the River Bollin culvert was very welcome – but I started to get too warm, I needed to open the vents on my Buffalo.

 River Bollin under Runway Two

Next, Runway One:

Ready for take-off

Leaving the airport behind, the walk back to my car at Ashley was mainly over quiet tarmac – in warm sunshine.

Even routes on tarmac can be entertaining if you keep your eyes open:

What the well-dressed horse should be wearing this season

After the previous day’s abortive trip, this walk was just what the doctor ordered. Not too far at all, easy going, and plenty of interest. It would make a good run. Now there’s a thought.

Around 8 miles and flat as a pancake:

More pitchers yur.

Saturday 23rd March, ...And Snow on Northern Hills

18 (fool)hardy runners gathered at the Lantern Pike in Little Hayfield for the day’s Tally-Ho! trail run. A few feet of snow and the odd snowdrift wasn’t going to deter this lot. Good company and a good run over testing ground were promised…..it would be rude to turn down such an enticing offer.

I was supposed to be camping at Little Stretton in Shropshire for an O.M. meet this weekend but I had to pull out, I had too much going on. To be honest, although I like my camping, the idea of a weekend under canvas in these weather conditions didn’t float my boat too well.

Anyway, back to Tally-Ho!
Tales of derring-do were exchanged even before the run began – some of the journeys to the pub were quite eventful. Whitworth, Shipley and Whalley relied on a snow-plough ahead of them, clearing the road to enable the Whitworth-mobile to get through. Whitehead couldn’t even escape his hometown of Buxton, such was the depth of snow. Even the journey from Timperley had it’s problems – my idea of getting to Hayfield via the A57 was thwarted by snow-blocked roads.

The tops from Birch Vale

John Wilson had set out early to lay trail, he did a superb job of laying a shorter route than normal, around 6 miles, a sensible move considering the weather conditions.

The Taylor vs Murray pre-run fancy hat contest

As I left the pub to follow the sawdust trail I met Whitworth, Shipley and Whalley running back to the pub. They had been turned back by impassable snowdrifts and hooley-driven snow on the climb up Middle Moor. This wasn’t looking promising. Although I was equipped with map and compass in case I missed the sawdust trail, they wouldn’t help me if I got bogged down in deep snow.

The wind strengthened as I climbed up over Middle Moor. Trail was increasingly difficult to follow, wind and snow had done their best to either cover up the sawdust or just blow it away.

A (successful) attempt at keeping sawdust trail in place.

The going became harder the further I got until it became clear that it would be plain daft to attempt to continue further. Indeed, as a solo runner in these conditions it would have been downright stupid and irresponsible.

 I hadn’t even got as far as Kinder Reservoir but at least I’d had a damned good try. Just over an hour after setting out from the pub I arrived back, cold and a little down-hearted. If I’d gone off with a group I’d have almost certainly got round the route. Going off on my own it just wasn’t going to happen.

Back at the pub I changed and had a mug of coffee to defrost my bits – then it was time for a pint in the bar with the other runners who had made it back. Up until this point the only runners back at the pub were those that had been driven back or had thought better of continuing further.

   The Lantern Pike, Little Hayfield

The few runners that had made it all the way round began arriving back – more tales of derring-do! By 3.30pm everyone was back. The tin bath wasn’t used, everyone just wanted to get out of their wet running gear and into dry clothes so they could warm themselves by the pub’s blazing fire. And have a beer.

 Burston and Murray on the final run-in

Cold and knackered runners back at the pub

An excellent meal of steak & kidney pie and chips followed by apple pie and custard  hit the spot. This pub’s food has certainly improved over the last couple of years. The Timothy Taylor’s Landlord was excellent, it was just a pity I had to drive.

This is where we should have gone:

6 miles, with ups, downs and snowdrifts – map courtesy of Eastwood

In better weather this would have been a superb route – especially if it was extended by a couple of miles. Just a shame conditions were as they were.

More photos here.

Saturday 23rd February. A bit of a trot

I needed a USB wireless dongley sticky-thing – and I also needed to get out for a bit of a stretch.
Our rather good local computer shop, Grapevine Computers in Altrincham, always come up trumps for me – decent kit at the right price, off the shelf – and they know what they’re talking about.
I devised a bit of a circuitous running route that would enable me to grab a bit of exercise, take me over ground where I might spot fallen wood for the woodburner – and get into Altrincham for the computer gubbins.
Beechfields, Brook’s Drive and Altrincham Golf Course provided traffic-free bits of the route, unfortunately the rest was tarmac. We can’t all live in a part of the country with wilderness on our doorstep….worse luck!
It was to be a good morning: I spotted loads of fallen wood (a job for tomorrow), bought a rather fancier USB wireless thingy than I knew existed (it’s loads faster than other wireless dongles I’ve used previously) – and it snowed. But only a bit.
On the route back to home I spotted a bit of history:

 

I may nip back tomorrow with a tin of Brasso

Wilson’s Brewery, once of Newton Heath, Manchester, were one of the most prolific suppliers of beer to pubs in the Manchester area. After amalgamating with Websters of Halifax, the brewery closed in 1987 and the brand ceased to exist in 1998.

The whole trip took me around 90 minutes which was fine.

6.3 miles of flatness:

Saturday 16th February, Tally-Ho!

The training for training continues….

The opportunity to go “running through cow fields (and other cow things) in all weathers and conditions just for the fun of it” was not to be missed, so just before 2pm I set off to follow the sawdust trail laid by Mark Taylor and Tommy Markham. The weather was good: sunshine, warm – a pleasant change compared to the weather we had been enduring of late.
Today’s pub was an old favourite of the Cheshire Tally-Ho!, The Cross Keys at Uppermill, on the western edge of the Saddleworth Moors. I ran most of the route with Ian J – he was suffering from the back-end of a very bad cold so I thought there might be a chance I could keep up with him.

Ian running up Pots & Pans 

Running (Ho-ho!) south to climb up the local tourist honey-pot hill, Pots & Pans, was relatively easy – the ground was reasonably dry and the gradient not too steep. The views were good:
  Every ascent has a descent and our descent took us down to Dovestones Reservoir. The track was a little tricky and even with fell-running shoes I kept slipping and sliding until we got down to the bottom.

On Alderman’s Hill, above Dovestone’s Reservoir

 Dovestone’s from the dam

Continuing south, following the eastern edge of the reservoir and on good tracks, we headed to the half-way point of the trail – a footbridge across the stream that runs through Chew Valley.

It was here that some of the faster hounds caught us up:

As is often the case when following trail in company, chatting too much leads to losing the trail – even when the trails is laid as well as this one. After a good 2-3 minutes of yakking….we were lost. Well not quite lost, but we were certainly off the trail. Fortunately we had half an idea of  where the route should go and we followed our instincts – which proved to be correct.

Although the photo above shows a well-surfaced track, it wasn’t long before we we running over more typical Tally-Ho ground:

It wasn’t all as bad, and by the time Rob caught us up we were back on half-decent tracks again: 

You’ll notice that all the other runners were catching us up. In our defence, Ian and I weren’t 100%…..mind you, even if I was 100% I don’t think I’d have done much better!

Not far from the end now 

Tally-Ho! trails always feature a dinner after the run. Prior to dinner we get cleaned up and changed. Use of the club’s tin bath is the preferred method of getting clean – it certainly encourages runners to get round the route as quickly as possible – those who finish late suffer rather gritty bath water:

It was a good run – a bit heavy on tarmac, but to be honest that suited me today. I’m completely out of condition and an easy run was just what I needed.

A good dinner of meat & potato pie with mushy peas and red cabbage, followed by fruit pie and custard refuelled the runners very satisfactorily. Rehydration was made possible by consuming vast amounts of well-kept John-Willie Lees….not for me though, I was driving.

Hungry runners waiting to be fed 

8.5 miles with around 1800’ of ascent. Good.

Thanks go to Tommy Markham and Mark Taylor for a very well-laid trail.

14th February, Valentine Venture

Knackered knees, amongst many other things, have buggered up my running & walking of late. I planned a gentle (sadly mainly tarmac) run in an attempt to gain some fitness in advance of a training trip coming up.
The following route was devised as a gentle run / walk – enough to remind heart & lungs what they are there for, but not too much so as to overly jangle my knackered knees.
It all seemed to go swimmingly well with only two enforced stops to give my L knee a good talking to.
Just under 8 miles with around 300’ of up and downery. And it didn’t rain.
Nice. I’ll do it again next week, but before that there’s a 8-9 mile Tally-Ho! trail run in Saddleworth on Saturday. Well kept JW Lees, good food, good company….and hopefully a good route. And mud.

5th November, Tockholes recce

Cheshire Tally-ho! Hare & Hounds

Members of the Cheshire Tally-Ho! all have to take their turn in setting and laying a trail. To do so properly involves some planning and a recce of the route – the route needs to be runnable and have a nice balance of tracks, hills, fetid swamps, bogs…and a good pub at the end.
And so it was that Fast Blackshaw, who had planned this route on behalf of the two of us, drove me north, on a very sunny morning, to Tockholes, near Darwen (‘Darren’ as it’s pronounced locally) in Lancashire.
Parking next to the Royal Arms at Ryal Fold, we walked (no running today!) SE up to Darwen Moor. Autumn colours were still very much in evidence:
Our sometimes muddy route included a brief liaison with the Witton Weavers Way before going over the northern edge of Turton Moor.

The Peak and Northern Footpaths Society have done a good job in signposting many of the paths around here:
We continued east-ish almost as far as the A666 before turning north-ish, skirting Darwen Moor.


There were good views over Darwen and Blackburn, and over to Pendle Hill. Then it was time for lunch and messing about with the camera on my Bat-phone, the poor phone may never recover:

Suitably refreshed, we continued our recce around Darwen Moor in the continuing sunshine.

 Near Cadshaw: trees in winter mode

As Darwen Hill came into view we saw what appeared to be the prototype for Thunderbird 3 in the distance:

 

The Jubilee Tower, Darwen Hill

The tower, which dates from 1898, was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The old wooden dome at the top of the tower blew off in high winds and was replaced with a fibreglass in 1971. That dome suffered a similar fate to the old wooden one a couple of years ago. A new powder-coated stainless steel dome was winched into position from a helicopter earlier this year – I wonder how long it with stay put? The winds can be quite strong around here.
Shadows lengthened as we dropped off the moor, the autumn sun colouring the landscape beautifully:
Four hours after setting off on our recce we arrived back at the car to find a huge bonfire being built for the evening’s festivities. Tockholes has hosted a bonfire party for the last ninety years, the very excellent Royal Arms playing a key role in the organisation of the event.
‘Tis a good route, if a little longer than is the general rule for Tally-Ho! trails. The route is highly runnable, even the boggy bits. Hopefully the extra distance won’t be noticed by the hounds.
This is what we did:

Approx 9.5 miles with 1500ft of upness. Ish.

Tuesday 9th October, Hashing in Cheshire

Cheshire Hash House Harriers (CH3) runs are always approx 7:45 pm. Always Tuesday (except sometimes). Well that’s what their website says.

My confidence in the health of my knees had been boosted in recent days.

Q: What’s the best way to try to knacker them up again?

A: Go for a run with the Hash.

Last night they ran from the Rifleman in Wilmslow, a rather posh town in north Cheshire. At approx 7:45pm a group of 35 runners set off from the pub to follow a trail made up of bits of tissue paper – usually stuck in hedges or wrapped around bits of barbed wire fence.

5 miles 1 furlong, very little ascent, lots of fun. And mud.

As it was dark I have very little idea of where we actually ran. I can only say that the route was 5 miles 1 furlong in length – which meant we probably ran rather further than that, perhaps 5.5 miles in total. The blue blobs on the map show the VERY approximate route we followed, there could have been more…or less. The run is somewhat shorter than a normal Cheshire Hash, the reason being that the pub had put a fine spread of food on for the runners – and everyone wanted to be back in good time to partake.

The distance was more than adequate for a midweek stretch through muddy fields & tracks, and muddy it was. All the runners were armed with torches, some used head torches, others preferred hand-held torches. Charging around muddy (and worse) fields looking for trail markers is fun, in the dark it’s hilarious!

Heaven knows what the gentlefolk of Wilmslow thought at the strange sight of 35 lights bounding around in the darkness. Occasionally a light would disappear momentarily – usually accompanied by cursing…then followed by laughter. Bogs are easily missed in the dark, even with a decent torch. Judging by the very muddy runners rolling up at the Rifleman at 9pm there must have been plenty of bogs, or we all fell into the same one!

I hadn’t been out with the Hash for a while, my knees being the main reason. I was a little surprised at the pace, I’m sure they didn’t run as fast the last time I was out with them. Later in the evening it was clear that the pace had indeed been faster, mainly because of a number of new and much younger members. It was a good run anyway, I just need to clean the crud of my shoes now.

No photographs of the runners, perhaps next time.

Thanks to Nick & Heather for laying an excellent trail, choosing a very good venue….and sorting the food. Top stuff!