THE ROTHERHAM ROUND 50 MILES TRAIL RACE, OCTOBER 3rd
Martin Payne reports:
Just a short summary and some photos regarding the above event.
The race has been organised by Rotherham Harriers AC for many years and involves a circular route with an interesting mix of urban and rural terrain. Many people run the event, some run and walk, while others stick to walking. This was my 17th and I did it with my old friend Jim who was doing it for, I think, the 24th time. We both used to run it but for the last few years we have just walked it.
Blessed with good weather we had a great but long day out, starting and finishing in darkness, taking full advantage of the food at the various checkpoints.
In fact I think I overstayed my welcome at the last checkpoint as I fainted but was well looked after
( see photo ) and recovered fairly quickly to go on and complete the event.
267 started the race and 240 finished it. The winning time was 5-53-44 and I finished 213th with a time of 15-54-34.
Obviously not racewalking (!) but it’s a fairly challenging and well organised event all the same which I can recommend to anyone who likes a long day out over varied terrain.
By chance this weekend the Bolton Evening News ran an informative article on the challenge posed by another long distance walk.
Tower to Tower 21-mile challenge links 3 Lancashire landmarks
Standing watch over the moors of Bolton and Lancashire, Peel Tower, Darwen Tower and Rivington Pike are familiar landmarks for thousands.
The Tower to Tower Challenge brings them together in one gruelling 21-mile journey through the heart of the West Pennines.
The challenge takes walkers across the West Pennine landscape, connecting Peel Tower, Darwen Tower and Rivington Pike in one demanding day on foot.
It is a journey through moorland, reservoirs and hill country that brings together three familiar landmarks with very different stories behind them.
And while each makes for a popular walk in its own right, linking all three transforms a collection of local viewpoints into a serious endurance challenge.
Ta to Joe Regent , the BEN reporter. His whole piece is worth a read.
In the comments below the BEN piece a couple of runners harked back to the day when the Three Towers race was a significant part of the fell running calendar. All of which sent me running to find my 1970 Training diary. I’d completed the event that year, finishing 25th in Leigh Harriers colours just ahead of Dave Vickers and amazingly only two minutes behind the redoubtable Jeff Norman! He was generous in his praise as I finished but he’d endured a miserable race. I think you can see that I was little known in those circles – no initial and a misspelt name.
There is an interesting, what they would call today, a backstory to this result. In a direct relationship to the Three Towers race, across the two months from the end of August to the close of October, I spent nine Sunday mornings running on the moors for 2-3 hours in the company of Dave Vickers and Julian Hopkins. Ron wasn’t with us on the fells as he was preparing for the Lugano Trophy 20 kilometres in Eschborn.
In unearthing the diary and looking up some results. I found myself realising that the period from late August to the end of October, 1970 was packed with individual and team success for our club, locally, nationally and internationally. When time and circumstance allow, I might well sketch the scenario of what was going on. It will be a mite indulgent but, I think, readers will find it interesting and revealing.
To give you a flavour, one race in the midst of these months stood out, the Leicester Open 7 miles on October 3rd. Yes, Ron Wallwork proved to be in great shape and I was chuffed to finish third but all was overshadowed by the appearance of the sublime Ken Matthews, six years after his Olympic gold in Tokyo. I’ve included the full result as it conveys a sense of how popular and competitive these Open Sevens were. In addition Tony Malone and Mick Entwistle were to have their day of glory a fortnight later in the National Junior Championships and you will see that Eric Crompton was second in the individual handicap.
