Green, Green, Grass of Home 2017, AS

The 25th saw the end of my fifties.  My colleagues at work clubbed together to get me a substantial quantity of Brew Dog products to mark the occasion.  This touching gesture helped dispel the gloom that I felt despite a very pleasant ride in.  No point in mourning the passing of my fifties, time to move on and start my sixties.  I decided on the 'Green, Green, Grass of Home' at Llangynhafal, 8 km/5 miles, 457m/1499' (AS), on the 26th for my MV60 début.

Day to day

Cheshire Cycle Route closures 

My commute has been interrupted again by major bridge works on the M6.  Two bridges over National Cycle Route Five are affected.  If you are planning to use NCR 5, be aware that the road under the bridge near Hassall Green, Cheshire is closed for eight months.  The 'Salt Line' is closed only between 08:00 and 17:00, but you can't follow/join NCR 5 from the end due to the road closure.  The shortest detour, is to leave the Salt Line at the Roughwood Hollow (incorrectly shown as Betchton Road on Google maps) crossing, and ride up to the alternative (road) NCR 5, joining Roughwood Lane via a hairpin junction (or vice versa if you're coming the other way).  Alternatively, you can use the road option in its entirety, but I'd miss the tranquillity of the Salt Line.

 

 I don't want to worry M6 users, but!!  One of the bridges carrying the M6 (over the 'Salt Line') that are on my commute.  Works have forced me to detour again, only weeks after the previous works ended.  It is estimated that works will last eight months!!  Inset: Detour to Hassall Green (bright green).

My Mio

 I treated myself to a Mio Cyclo 300 GPS last month.  I had been toying with getting a handheld GPS for a while and one came up at an exceptionally good price (£80 new and boxed).  In general I am very pleased with the device  I am Beta testing for the manufacturer right now, but will add a dedicated page when I get back to release software.

Training

I have managed to get some odd extra runs in despite my long commute and weekend work.  The last was an evening run on the 'Cloud' at Bosley.  I was missing 'real' terrain so took the little known direct path up from the north.  There were ferns up to my shoulders near the top and the path was completely invisible, I could just follow it by 'feeling' with my feet.  There were no distant views that day, it was forty minutes snatched between storms.  Always good to be on the Cloud though.  The farmhouses in the valley are also rather fine, and then there are the white peacocks.

 White peacock, not far down the hill from the car park, gorgeous farm buildings and farm machinery too.  These birds are often perched in the barn, but I saw one on the lawn this time.

Green, Green, Grass of Home

My plans were almost thwarted before I started.  My Garmin Nuvi returned no results for either the postcode or Llangynhafal.  Before resorting to using the nearest big town and guessing, I tried pointing at the map.  This is always frustrating as when you zoom in enough for minor roads to appear the screen shows such a small area you lose your place.  This is made even worse by the entropy on the swipe and constant suggestions for things you don't want.  Eventually I did find the place, only to find it clearly named Llangynhafal.  No idea why the search couldn't find it!

I don't travel hopefully and the nearly 50 mile drive there was occupied with worries such as; will there be anywhere to park, will there be any toilets, will I be too knackered to run, will my knees hold out, will I be too knackered at 05:30 tomorrow morning, etc.  I was glad to arrive at the venue, the Golden Lion in Llangynhafal. As for the worries; there was, there were, I wasn't, they did, only a bit.

The Golden Lion in Llangynhafal.  A very welcome sight at the end of a long rush hour drive, or at any other time I should think.

There was a ten minute walk from registration to the race start,  I had plenty of time in hand so ate a few sandwiches and chatted with other runners until 19:00.  The walk was steeply uphill, which stirred car drowsy muscles nicely.  The paths were not shown on Open Street Map, I was carrying the Mio so I tracked as I went so I can add them later.  Clear skies, after the very rainy afternoon, had been promised.  This didn't quite happen, there was a mixture of clear sky and dark cloud which gave some very beautiful light.

 At the start, wonderful lighting from the patchy evening sky.  Sometimes bright enough to make one squint, sometimes dark enough to trigger autoflash.

The view back down the valley, taken at more or less the same time as the previous shot.

Left: Gathering for the briefing and start. Right: We're off, climbing starts straight away and soon steepens.

The climbing starts straight away, following old tracks and steepening quickly until the first highpoint is reached less than a mile into the race.  There is then a short descent before a short 'almost' contouring section before continuing the descent to the lowest point at 1.5 miles.  There were some cracking views here as we now faced the valley from whence we came.

Gorgeous views, looking back down to the valley from a beautiful green path that was as flat as any of this event gets (level distance 0.16 miles out of 5 according to my stats!).

Following the descent came the main lift until we were on the Offa's Dyke Path and on our way to Moel Dywll.  Moel Famau and its Jubilee Tower were clearly visible as we swung south and eventually south west on the ridge.  The highest point at just over 1500' is reached at 4.25 miles, it was then all downhill.  There was a wonderful section of steep descent on heather with little to no path.  I approached with caution, but once I was overtaken I started chasing and began to enjoy it immensely.  The wonderful sense of exhilaration I felt running through the heather and bilberries is one of the high points in my running experience.   I genuinely did not know I could run that fast.

"I say Carruthers, are you sure you saw red and white tape up there"?  Some interesting terrain, we were warned (not as bad as the Cloud last week though).

Though the angle decreased, as we rejoined the outward path at around 4.7 miles, there was only one small hump to break the  descent to the finish.  I never did catch the runner who overtook me in the heather, came darn close though.  I came in at 58 minutes  something or other as far as I can make out.  I was too busy enjoying the glow and congratulating close finishers to worry about checking my watch.  I'm pretty pleased to have come in under the hour, in one piece and with no knee pain on a Category A five miler with 'proper' terrain.

It was a long drive home, fortunately I felt energised by the run so tiredness was not a problem.  I scoffed the rest of my sandwiches as I drove.  I took a 660ml of Punk out of my Brew Dog gift and put it in the freezer while I started preparing tomorrow's lunch.  The beer was still a little too warm when I had finished, I wasn't complaining.  It was about 23:45 by the time I had done everything I had to do.  I kept a mouthful of beer for just before I turned the lights out.  I drank the mouthful, a great tasting end to a great tasting day, I left worrying about the 05:30 start until it came.

I only travelled this far as a treat for my first V60, despite the long journey for a short midweek run I will be back for this event next year.  It was staggeringly good!

Results are now up here.  Predictably, my category position has improved, after all I am now ten years younger!  Hi to John Morris who I especially enjoyed speaking to before and after the race.  John (M70) came in 7 seconds after me at 58:13.  I would also like to express, in the words of our hosts (WFRA) -  "[m]any thanks to the race marshals who ensured the runners found their way around the course, to Colin and Helen at the Golden Lion for accommodating the race HQ and to all the runners who took part in this very enjoyable summer race".