NewsieBlack Combe Runners August 2008: the sun has got his hat on issue. Editor’s obvious filler Another newsie limps off the presses and it’s been such a long time since the last one that nobody can remember what happened. The editor is very sorry about that. Next one will be quicker and thinner. And so will he. Meanwhile: Pete went for a long run with some friends. Sue and James had very different marathon experiences. The Black Combe race was frozen, the Duddon roasted, and the Great Lakes drowned. The superlongs plodded by and it seemed that nothing would stop Sue from completing the full classics series and probably getting all sorts of prizes, but then she made the fatal pre-race mistake of ordering a seafood dish at the Newfield. At Ennerdale I knocked an hour and 20 minutes off my PB. I still think you should get a prize for that, even if your You’d take a long time to get round Ennerdale if you hopped, too. old PB was the result of doing the last half of the race on hands and knees while hallucinating caterpillars. Sue and Impassable Bog, the (probably very similar) one mile Follow Andy weren’t far behind and a tired but very happy picnic Parmy, the Up Great Stickle, the Down Great Stickle and followed. the 110m sheepfold hurdles. Some of these may come with alcohol-related handicapping, and there will be style and The summer Black Combe race was another happy difficulty points for all falls. shambles. The Summer Relay on the other hand was a great disappointment to everybody: due to an oversight by the As I write this I’m wondering how much red bull I will organiser, James and I were not given the same leg to run have to drink to beat Pete in the Grasmere Senior Guides and as a result the whole thing went like clockwork. The on Saturday – more than my own volume, probably – baton was handed over with dreary regularity despite thick and looking forward to the autumn race season. We’re cloud and rain, everybody had a great day out and I had putting together a team for the UK Fell and Hill relay to get lost in the Broughton Mills race just to give people championships, which we will almost certainly win, and something to talk about at the barbecue. before you know it the Dunnerdale will be upon us and the days very short. By the way, James, we’re all very sorry about the ping pong damage and traumatised pets. Just after that there should be another newsie: I’m aiming for somewhere between the end of the racing and the In other news, we have lots of new members, and if Christmas do, so please send your articles, photographs, this was a proper note from the captain they would be announcements and adverts to [email protected]. welcomed nicely and their names read out. Since it’s not (I As usual, the newsie’s strict editorial policy means that we’ll told him there was no room) I will just point out that it is print anything that appears to be in English and isn’t entirely the height of bad manners to turn up and immediately start in capitals. running quicker than me. The next one will be about training, so watch out. There is a great deal of talk going on about new events next year including a team entry in the Helvellyn triathlon, a Will Black Combe Heptathlon made up of events like the 200m Cover picture of Darren enjoying the Black Combe race was taken by Val. Newsie printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper Contacts: race results to Mike (716772 or [email protected]). Official-type proposals for discussion to Andy, Our Leader, on a Tuesday or to [email protected]. Photographs, ads, announcements and newsletter stories to Will on [email protected]. Relevant announcements to [email protected], and almost anything is welcome at the forum on www.bcrunners.org.uk. Marathon Gosforth 10m Hawkshead 10k Ulverston 10k Best 5 so far Road Keswick to Buttermere Haweswater Half Marathon Con iston14 Dalton 10k Windermere Fell Loughrigg Coniston Helvellyn Ennerdale Skiddaw Blisco Sedbergh (est) Best 5 so far L M L S L M S S S M M L M S L Hannah Appleton 60 68 62 71 Hannah Appleton 60 68 59 67 58 66 58 65 Mike Berry 67 78 72 83 Darren Foote 62 62 58 58 66 66 John Chattaway 63 68 Karl Fursey 62 62 58 58 58 58 Darren Foote 68 68 56 56 Neil Gibbison 69 79 Jo Francis-Nichols 53 65 Andy Gittins 71 76 61 65 60 64 Karl Fursey 62 62 55 55 67 67 61 61 67 67 59 59 68 68 325 325 James Goffe 70 76 68 74 Neil Gibbison 79 91 78 90 Kevin Hodgson 66 66 Andy Gittins 66 71 71 76 Sue Hodkinson 75 85 70 79 69 78 66 75 69 78 71 80 354 400 James Goffe 68 73 75 81 71 78 75 81 77 84 366 397 Mike Jewell 65 72 Peter Grayson 73 84 76 88 73 84 75 86 Pat McIver 71 75 Kevin Hodgson 71 71 Will Ross 77 77 74 74 70 70 72 72 Sue Hodkinson 78 88 73 83 77 87 79 90 Dave Scott-Max 68 71 Mike Jewell 74 82 75 83 74 82 Hazel Tayler 60 74 57 71 57 71 Mac Knowles 76 85 Pete Tayler 86 91 84 89 78 83 82 87 83 88 413 438 Penny Moreton 56 70 49 61 56 70 55 69 59 74 275 344 Dave Watson 66 73 56 62 Phil Newton 74 84 74 85 Richard Wilkes 77 77 76 76 Will Ross 71 71 72 72 76 76 Hazel Tayler 63 78 Championships so far Peter Tayler 80 85 83 88 85 90 To qualify, you have to finish five races including at least one each of short, medium and long. Both championships are still enterable: there are races of each kind still to go (but only four left on the Claire Watson 59 73 56 69 62 77 59 74 61 76 297 369 road so you have to have run one already). Still to come on the road: The Ulverston 5k, Langdale Dave Watson 71 78 66 73 71 79 71 78 Marathon, Carlisle Half and Brampton to Carlisle 10 miler. On the fell: Grasmere, Grizedale, Three Shires, Langdale and Dunnerdale. Oh, that wall I didn’t really believe in the wall before the marathon. I to walk but I knew if I did I would never get going again. I didn’t know what it was and thought it was just people began to feel quite tearful. I just wanted it all to stop, but so whinging when they got tired, but here it was, so quick, close to the end you really can’t give up like that. so textbook, and so utterly complete. The marathon takes in some pretty dull places in London, All of a sudden, my legs stopped working. I had no control and I was looking forward to the final stretch so I could do over them and they were doing their own thing. Luckily a bit of sightseeing. Unfortunately I didn’t see a thing. I saw they were running, but I had no control over the pace at all. blurred visions of legs, some running, some walking and It was like trying to whip a dying donkey into action, only some, like me, shuffling painfully along. to find that it was in fact dead. It was like they weren’t my I saw tarmac, and lines on the tarmac and the odd bottle of legs at all, except the increasing pain told me they were. Vittel. I saw the inside of my eyes, but I missed the London Eye, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace. The only thing I saw My quads began to twang with every stride, the blisters that was the finish, but I really don’t know how I got there. It I’d had all the way now became raw, my hips joints ached, was the longest most excruciating hour of my life. my lower back ached, and then it got worse – nausea and stomach cramps, and I just got slower and slower. I wanted Sue Hodkinson James at Tower Bridge not hitting the wall. He was instructed by his family to smile this year. Sue: I knew it would be well supported, 1:34:44: A half marathon PB! Woo hoo! Oh but I didn’t realise how well supported. wait, that’s not very bright is it? 13 miles to Every part of the route was lined with go, and I had to admit that I wasn’t really people cheering, with bands and music feeling like it. The cheering had worn off. I at every pub. I was encouraged. A bit saw the elite men come out of canary wharf too encouraged perhaps as my fourth in a compact ball, like an efficient machine. mile was a 6.34 – a stupid pace for a Blank faces showing no sign of effort and a marathon - but I was finding it hard not pace I could not begin to imagine. to be swept along. At the first Lucozade The finish line stop I accidentally squeezed most of the contents of my bottle onto the face of the man behind.