Adventure hub Yorkshire Ultra

On Saturday I took part in the Yorkshire Ultra, a 50miler on the north Yorkshire moors. I only entered this particular race as a mate from running club wanted to do this as his first 50miler and second ultra.

We travelled up on the Friday night and we had B&B’s almost next to each other which would make it easy to meet up before and after the race. My room was nice if compact apart from the fact it was not en suite and after climbing up the 4 flights of stairs to the room I have to walk back down 2 flights to get to my own bathroom! Could be fun after the race.

I met Stephen and a buddy of his another ultra runner named John Duggan and we all went to the pub for some carb loading and I had a burger and chips with a nice pint. Myself and Sephen took a walk into town and up to the Abbey to recce the start point. There were some 199 steep steps up to the Abbey which looked beautiful in the moonlight and against the sea. Coming back down we thought it could be fun with tired legs on those steps getting back to the rooms.

The Abbey ruins at night.

We agreed on a 7am meet in the morning to make our way up to the start area.

In the morning I got up at 6:30 and had a 9bar for breakfast and finished packing my stuff, I was clearly carrying too much kit and would be running heavy but as I have Viking way in a few months where I will need to carry a fair bit of kit I though I had better get used to it.

Me with Stephen

Stephen and John

I met stephen and we walked to the start area and we chatted to various interesting ppl before the race. I love the varied bunch of nutters who want to put themselves out of bed in the freezing cold to do these things. I chatted to many who I can not put names to faces but enjoyed just meeting them. Then after a few words from Ian the organiser we were off in the dark with the sun rising over the moors and sea.
It was a beatiful start to the day if a bit cold, we ran along the cliffs by the sea and I deliberetly start at the back so I dont go off to to quick and settle in to chatting to people as I trundle along. After a bit I catch up with Steve and chat for a bit then slowly trundle on ahead.
The coast is a really nice 5 miles or so with steep rocky climbs and descents which although a bit muddy and slippy are easy enough to move along. The route is well marked and easy to follow on the route cards, with plenty of people still close together there is little room for error so far.
I dont bother to stop at the first checkpoint apart from to ensure they have logged my number, I am eating stuff from my rucksac and plodding along mostly on my own but chatting to others as our paths cross. I run for a bit with 3 army lads who are doing it for charity and one in particular seems to hate the experience already by the amount of whinging he is doing! It does not help that one oft hem has pinned their number through their bladder and it’s leaking all down his back.
I am now on a lovely cinder cycle path where I catch up with John Dugggan and chatted for a bit, John did GUCR last year and had to drop about 70 miles in with problems with being sick. He will be back this year and I hope he completes this time.

After the easy gently rising cinder cycle track the terrain takes a turn for the worse, the track then heads out onto the moors and the going becomes really tough with all the recent rain and cold weather the spurs on the moors are no better than muddy slippy nightmares. Impossible to keep your feet dry or not slide everywhere, I had a few falls into mud inculding a few pot holes that wend up to my knees in deep muddy pools. This was going to be much tougher than I had anticipated and take a lot longer than the 12ish hours I was hoping for.
As I was travelling up one of the spurs the marathon runners were coming back on their return leg and the first few guys were really moving, how they could move that fast on that stuff I dont know.

Then I had a major disaster, I was behind some guys including the army guys I hasd spoken to earlier and after checkpoint 2 we had to take a right turn off the main road and I blindly followed the crowd and did not confirm with the route description and went with the others in the distance and we all turned right and down a track to a beck and up the other side up over a rather large hill then I became a bit concerned that it no longer was matching the route description well enough even though it was similar. I stopped and let the others move ahead and pulled out my Garmin Geko GPS and started it up while I got the OS map out. I checked the grid from the Geko against the map and found that I was quite a way off and was going to have to retrace my steps back or cut across the moor and cut a chunk out of the official route. I decided that I wanted to do the proper route even though it meant quite a few miles and lots of time extra but these things happen and I turned and headed back to the road to find the correct route which was only a few hundred metres further from where I made the wrong turn.
I had lost about an hour and 4.5 miles, hey ho I was a fool and stupid for not checking the route properly.

I was now at he back of the field and had to work to slowly catch people up. Off I plodded on the right route and enjoying the sunshine and chilly weather. The route took me through fields by becks and nice riverside paths, although it was cold it was a cracking day with clear skies.

Slowly I made my way up to the top of the Moor where there was a checkpoint where the guy running it had had to carry his tent and supplies a mile or two from the road. I spoke to him and asked where my buddy was and was told he was about an hour ahead but I am not far from the back markers now. Off I go on a 10 mile loop back to this checkpoint before making the return 20 miles back to the Abbey..

Around the loop of mud I caught  a couple of tail runner and then caught up with a guy called Dave who has done many of the really big ultra stage races such as MDS Brazil etc and is doing Atacama this year. I plodded along with him for a bit and then we picked up another runner Maxine and the three of us plodded along till we got back to the loop checkpoint and they stayed for a bit while I plodded on.
It was getting dark now and I put my head torch on and here was another mistake, I had decided to only bring my small Petzl e-lite which is ok but has no real throw at night for navigation. I should have brought my very heavy but powerful mountain bike light with head harness that is great but heavy. It is worth the extra weight. It made it difficult to see to navigate which slowed me down. Whilst trying to find a gate out of a field I was caught by Dave and Maxine again and we pretty much stuck together the rest of the way as it was easier for navigation and shared light between three headtourches helped.

We reached the checkpoint on the main road again and had 13ish miles to go, we learnt that a few had dropped and we were now the last 3. We refuelled and off we went for the likely 4 hours still to go in the darkness. It was getting cold now and dropping below freezing again which made the rocky bits fun!

We reached the last checkpoint with about 2 hours still to go, Maxines headtorch failed and the spare batteries were knackered with the cold. The checkpoint staff not realising they were rechargeable had disposed of her original batteries so she borrowed a spare e-lite that Dave was carrying and off we went into the dark. Some of the rocky cliff edges were nice and slippy but we plodded on and eventually the lighthouse and abbey came into view and eventually we are onto the frozen road and we could see the headtorches at the finish. I even managed a small jog at the end. Myself and Maxine finished pretty much together with Dave a little behind as he was slowing a bit on the hilly stuff.
John Duggan was waiting for me at he end and game me a lift back to the B&B so saving me the steps!

The stairs were fun with tired stiffening legs and the shower was none to warm at midnight. It took a while to get all the mud off.

My mate Stephen completed too, about 40mins in front of me and did well for a first very tough 50 miler.

I finished 15:58:00 which was well after my 12hour guestimate but it was much tougher than I thought and my errors navigating and poor choice of lighting all contributed to a slower time. I am still happy I completed even though it was just inside the cut offs and bloody freezing at the end.

It was a well organised race and well marshalled and marked and run by really nice people and worth a look.

I have a lot of work to do on the wat to my targets for this year but this is a start.