It’s zero degrees as we drive up the M1, M18, M62 and journey north of the Humber for the nowhere-near-Ferriby ten mile race. The start is in the village of Skidby and the car park half a mile away in the next village of Cottingham. This year we find somewhere to park in Skidby itself, which is much easier and we stumble across a mini race HQ at Skidby Windmill. Toilets, food, hot drinks etc. Everything you need really.
The race is set off punctually at 11am, it’s still chilly and I’ve forgotten my gloves but daren't nip back to the car to get them, in case the race goes without me, which I think it would have done. From memory I know the course is more or less uphill to halfway and then flat or downhill to the finish, apart from the final half a mile which involves another climb. Perhaps it would be nice to run it the other way around sometime...
I amble my way around to that halfway point in 37:42, 40 seconds slower than last year and pointing towards a race time of 1:15 at least. Awful. Even with the downs to come, that’s a lot to pull back to get under 1:13 which was my unstated aim. It would require a storming second half, better than 7 minute miles and I’ve been doing 7:30, 7:40 so far. Then I do a 7:00 and then a 6:50. Hmmm, possible.
My second half IS storming and I scrape home in 1:12:56, I fair sprinted up that last hill. Perhaps the training is starting to pay off. Last year’s t-shirt of the year is followed by another good one, although not quite as striking. It’s also long sleeved, which is needed this time of the year but will sadly be redundant by Easter.
While I hack 5 seconds off my time from last year, L hacks 5 minutes off hers. She does like to upstage me. That’s nearly 374 of her 500 miles down now. I wonder what my tally is, I ought to work it out and also the tally of miles to and from the races, that would be scary.
Then we do the same as last year and seek out some friends near Market Rasen, it’s been a year... and they again kindly do us a Sunday lunch.
(Sunday 29th January)
Showing posts with label Ferriby 10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ferriby 10. Show all posts
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Not Quite A Full Elephant
Today we drive up to somewhere near Hull for a ten mile race known as the Ferriby 10. A race that turns out not to go anywhere near North Ferriby, which is its spiritual home and the place that gives the race it’s name. We are directed to a car park at a High School in a place called Cottingham and then we have to walk to the start in nearby Skidby but no sign of Ferriby. We line up to start in the shadow of Skidby Windmill. Well there would be a shadow if there was any sun, which there isn’t. It’s not terribly warm, around 2 degrees I believe.
A glance at the history of the race tells me that this race has been held every winter since January 1954 and originally started at Hull’s Costello Stadium before passing through North Ferriby en route but only eight years later the race was rerouted, avoiding Ferriby due to increasing traffic levels on the main roads. The race did though remain close to Ferriby until 1991 when construction of a new road rendered the race route unusable and the whole event was moved out to Skidby, where it remains today.
The fastest time ever recorded across any of the routes used is an impressive 48.01 by some chap called Brendan Foster in 1980.
I say it’s cold today but, of course, running was colder in the 80’s.
I hesitate to use the words ‘fairly flat’ to describe the course. Those words have been misused quite a bit recently but this course does indeed fit that description... if you start running from around half way. In fact it’s probably even slightly downhill from there. The problem is the seriously ‘rolling’ first five miles. Did I say ‘rolling’? Because it felt like almost constant uphill at the time. Oh and I’m forgetting the sting in the tail, a final uphill section back to the finish by the windmill.
At the finish I’m handed a very nice technical tee shirt with quite a striking design on it that tells me I’ve just ran more than seven lengths of the Humber Bridge or 2,200 African elephants, if that’s how you prefer to measure things, or even more bizarrely 126,700 sparrows. How the hell did they work that one out?
I was pleased with my performance, mostly. I felt in quite good shape all the way around and my time was slightly quicker than the only other ten miler I can recall doing, the Chesterfield Spire 10 last year. The only real down side was that I’d been battling all the way with a ‘senior’ gentleman and was slightly gutted (ok massively gutted) when he skipped away from me on the final hill and beat me by, well, too many sparrows to mention, although probably not, thankfully, by a full elephant. So as the t-shirt says ‘1 happy runner’ (moderately).
I walk back to the next village, where the car is parked, to collect the dogs and then we all head back to meet L. We don’t quite get there before she crosses the line. Although the dogs get the good walk that they desperately needed, whereas I get a ‘good’ walk I didn’t need at all.
After the race we head down to visit an old school friend of mine somewhere near Market Rasen and they kindly do us a cracking Sunday lunch. Great post-race recovery food.
(Sunday 30th January)
A glance at the history of the race tells me that this race has been held every winter since January 1954 and originally started at Hull’s Costello Stadium before passing through North Ferriby en route but only eight years later the race was rerouted, avoiding Ferriby due to increasing traffic levels on the main roads. The race did though remain close to Ferriby until 1991 when construction of a new road rendered the race route unusable and the whole event was moved out to Skidby, where it remains today.
The fastest time ever recorded across any of the routes used is an impressive 48.01 by some chap called Brendan Foster in 1980.
I say it’s cold today but, of course, running was colder in the 80’s.
I hesitate to use the words ‘fairly flat’ to describe the course. Those words have been misused quite a bit recently but this course does indeed fit that description... if you start running from around half way. In fact it’s probably even slightly downhill from there. The problem is the seriously ‘rolling’ first five miles. Did I say ‘rolling’? Because it felt like almost constant uphill at the time. Oh and I’m forgetting the sting in the tail, a final uphill section back to the finish by the windmill.
At the finish I’m handed a very nice technical tee shirt with quite a striking design on it that tells me I’ve just ran more than seven lengths of the Humber Bridge or 2,200 African elephants, if that’s how you prefer to measure things, or even more bizarrely 126,700 sparrows. How the hell did they work that one out?
I was pleased with my performance, mostly. I felt in quite good shape all the way around and my time was slightly quicker than the only other ten miler I can recall doing, the Chesterfield Spire 10 last year. The only real down side was that I’d been battling all the way with a ‘senior’ gentleman and was slightly gutted (ok massively gutted) when he skipped away from me on the final hill and beat me by, well, too many sparrows to mention, although probably not, thankfully, by a full elephant. So as the t-shirt says ‘1 happy runner’ (moderately).
I walk back to the next village, where the car is parked, to collect the dogs and then we all head back to meet L. We don’t quite get there before she crosses the line. Although the dogs get the good walk that they desperately needed, whereas I get a ‘good’ walk I didn’t need at all.
After the race we head down to visit an old school friend of mine somewhere near Market Rasen and they kindly do us a cracking Sunday lunch. Great post-race recovery food.
(Sunday 30th January)
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Ingrained On The Mind
I ran in to work and it wasn’t too bad. I felt fit-ish. Although I did think I was having a heart attack as I came round Pride Park stadium, so I had to stop for a second but I think it was just a flashback to the horror of Saturday’s match or perhaps even the arm removing moment in Sunday’s film. Fine now.
Later I run home and having GPSs-ed the route from Bramcote I’m horrified to find it’s only 3.8 miles, so I haven’t done as far today as I would have liked to have done. I’ve not even done, in two stints, the race distance for this coming Sunday.
I thoughtfully remind L about our plans for Sunday, just in case she may have forgotten. She claims to be very forgetful at the moment. As it happens the Ferriby 10 is ingrained on her mind.
Oh and I’m reliability informed that it’s fairly flat. Not really but that’s what every other hilly race has been claiming recently. It is though described as scenic and starts at a windmill. She’ll love it.
She saves her run until the evening and typically seems to outdo me. She first does a run alone and then does a stint with each of the two dogs. At least we’ll all sleep tonight, certain canines have been a bit lively of late come bedtime.
(Tuesday 25th January)
Later I run home and having GPSs-ed the route from Bramcote I’m horrified to find it’s only 3.8 miles, so I haven’t done as far today as I would have liked to have done. I’ve not even done, in two stints, the race distance for this coming Sunday.
I thoughtfully remind L about our plans for Sunday, just in case she may have forgotten. She claims to be very forgetful at the moment. As it happens the Ferriby 10 is ingrained on her mind.
Oh and I’m reliability informed that it’s fairly flat. Not really but that’s what every other hilly race has been claiming recently. It is though described as scenic and starts at a windmill. She’ll love it.
She saves her run until the evening and typically seems to outdo me. She first does a run alone and then does a stint with each of the two dogs. At least we’ll all sleep tonight, certain canines have been a bit lively of late come bedtime.
(Tuesday 25th January)
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