Clay Bank East , 6th January 2013

Raring to go and ready for action - our Poly team with L to R - Chris Tack , Barry Young and Martin Frost.

First week of the New Year - and the second event hosted by Esk Valley Fell Club - out at Clay Bank East near to Great Broughton on the North Yorkshire Moors.
 Three Polyrunners swept down  the A 19 at a brisk pace - as Martin Frost knew the route inside out from his time on Teesside as a student. Martin ran many of the routes used by Esk Valley as part of his chemistry degree - so he was the best qualified for advice on the course. 

One of our finest fellrunners, Martin Frost on the final descent to complete in 45 m 0 s in 37th spot

This was Martin's pre race recce from earlier in the week :
Q none of this is too steep, all runnable mostly on trods or good tracks. At 2 miles (CP1) there is a steady 1.4 mile hill to the top (CP2). 1.2 miles of gentle down hill follows and then a missable right turn (mile to go) to get through a broken dry stone wall, down to a stile to slippy forest grass track and CP3. from cP3 it's the last half mile, on a clay mud pile slight descent, then a much drier 300m is the steeper downhill sprint to finish. However this assumes I went the right way! Do not warm up on the track to the finish or you will have clay clad feet before the off.
UNQ 
The team welcomed Chris Tack for the first ( and hopefully not last) time - but sadly we were still one short of a full team thanks to Dave Johnson's baffling decision to deck himself out in the lilac and lime of NFR.
It was a cold day ( about freezing) and with a big field - which saw the start delayed by about 20 mins as the organisers fought to get everyone entered. 
 

A poor start to the New Year  on the fells for Dave Johnson - after 6 days he has still failed to achieve a single  pb. Dave  broke the line in 52m 15 s

The start was a lung buster as you complete almost all climbing on the route in the first few minutes. All 3 of us avoided the Cleveland Way stone path (used by the majority )- as we tried to eke out an advantage by striking off at an angle. But for sure none of us had done a proper warm up for this sharp climb. 
The track off the plateau and onto Urra Moor provided the chance to regain rhythm - but just as the fog swept in - coating the moors in a damp haze. The superb views of Teesside's chemistry set from the summit promised by Martin disappeared in the gloom (or was it just pollution)- limited vision all round but the track was well defined. The NYM events always seem to have a fair amount of Land Rover tracks or flagstones.
The turn round point is at the trig at Round Hill as you swing back on yourself to head for home.Apparently at 454m Round Hill (rather a dull name compared to what you find in the Lakes or over the border) is the highest point on the NYM. So - it's not Roseberry Topping - which hardly makes 320m. Either way it wasn't likely to get Dave's altimeter on his Garmin spinning round.

Debut outing for Chris Tack - and an impressive 47 m 12 s in 51 st place. Chris - you made the right choice for the event on 6 January ! Chris gets tangled up with Shaun Harris of NFR.

By the turn Martin  was about 3 mins up on Chris - who was about 30 seconds up on me. It gave us a chance to meet up - for the last time before the end.Dave was trudging up to the trig and couldn't be seen in the fog - either that or his shirt provided good camouflage.

Quick steps towards the line - and a finish in 47 m 38 s in 57th spot (the Heinz placing) . Unusually passing several runners on the run in .

The final descent was on a very muddy track as Martin had warned. Pleased to report for the firt time ever I ran to the finish on my toes - rather than heels - but this was only because I hadn't tightened down the shoes properly at the start - creating a real risk of the shoes getting sucked off in the mud.  So a surprisingly fast finish saw me passing a few outliers on the sprint to the line - where Martin and Chris were already waiting. 
Dave came in a few minutes later to boisterous applause from the fine NFR contingent.
A fine early season jaunt - that was not too demanding - and another chance to turn the legs over before the season goes full blooded. 
Thanks again to Esk Valley for a well organised run - well taped for easy navigation. Thanks also to Brian Waite for these photos.
Full results here :http://www.eskvalleyfellclub.org/results/fell/nehra/Clay%20Bank%20East%206-Jan-2013.pdf 

A photo's worth a thousand words - as Dave Johnson shows no shame - despite the condemnation from his team mates !