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| Garry Robson clears Lordenshaws before the drop back to Rothbury - as he tests the wind direction with his thumb. |
A record season's turnout for the Poly in 2013 at the pre Christmas fell race at Simonside as 7 Polyfellers made their way up to Rothbury.This was the place to be to avoid all the Christmas shopping hullaballoo.
The route has had a few changes over the last couple of seasons thanks to ice conditions on the flagstones up at Simonside in previous years and some clean felling of pine at the foot of the crags. It always has been a bit of a liquorice allsorts arrangement underfoot with tarmac, grass , bog , greasy duckboards, forest tracks , heather swathes and then the whinstone paths across Simonside. What decision on footwear ? Mudclaws or trail shoes ?
This time round the route up and onto Simonside crags followed a sheep trod alongside a barbed wire fence just beyond Selby's Cove instead of the usual trip through the clean fell and then the cliff face steps climb. The route meant a speed reduction for the true climbers as slower runners tarried on the only clear route . The pathway was a touch narrow until the summit was approached.
Sad to say that some clean felling a couple of years back at the foot of the crags had removed one of Christmas's cultural highlights as the missing pines left nothing to hang the music speakers and Christmas lights on - so no more jiggering up to Simonside to the sound of Slade.
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| Homeward Bound is one of Dave Johnson's favourite songs from areonautics expert and crooner John Denver . He's halted at the car park and and can't believe that not one of these drivers will offer him a front seat lift to the finish. The hatchback owners offered him a run back in the boot with a flock of chihuahuas - but DJ(always the traditionalist) insists on a standard saloon as the only appropriate form of transport to arrive in. |
The start of the race sets out on the last chime of the church bells ringing at 11 - and the first sharp ascent onto the hills starts just metres from crossing the Coquet. Heather Lambert (one of our England xc runners) was happy to exchange pleasantries over the first section before drawing back to run the route with Jenny Friend from Heaton Harriers (acting as navigator). Frosty , back , just from another injurt setback looked in a bit of bother as the tarmac gave way to grass for the climb onto historical Lordenshaws - as he started to drift back. Lordenshaws is famous for its historical cup and ring stones - some early artwork , proving as the socio archaeologists would say,that primitive man had finally found some leisure time from the daily grind of finding food to be creative.A far more productive plan would have been to develop some genetically modified crops to cope with the damp and warm conditions to allow even more time for art - but that's another story.
Conditions were very mucky across the peatlands and the treacherous duckboards were again extremely icy as we wound onto Spylaw - the last settlement before the 5 or 6 mile run back to Rothbury. This time the path through the forest at Coquet Cairn had been waymarked so there was no chance of losing runners at this point. For the mis navigators , it's a well trod run from here towards Otterburn until runners nose into gun barrels at just past Hollywell before they realise it's not quite right .
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| George Adamson reaches Spylaw - last trees before Harwood Forest - and a longish boggy stretch to follow. George at least has kept his knees clean til now. |
Simonside was hard on the feet - as the stride pattern was chewed by the flagstones. My speed dipped. Frosty reckoned he was 90 seconds back at the northern end of Simonside . As we broke downhill , he flew past and sprinted out and on to Lordenshaws opening up a 250 m gap . In doing so , he had majestically swept up several other runners in his crazed descent . A slight gain on him to Lordenshaws summit - before the path then dipped again and through a sharp 90 degree bend before Whittondean Farm. Decision taken to deviate off piste and take out the corner and distance - which worked quite well until hitting some knee length heather - but still the gap came down. Not nearly fast enough however as Frosty had another sharp descent to come and with his downhill speed he was going to hit the final run in ahead.
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| A tough haul for Martin Frost as he veers over to Simonside on the climb out - things got a lot easier for him on his flying finish.It was a freezing day but Martin didn't want his Club vest to be sullied by any other covering. |
Garry had a strong run close by the head of the field putting in another fine fell display.He came back in as 2nd V45 - good form in a strong V 45 field and was edged out only by Adam Fletcher in that class. He shot through the line in close order with 4 others in sub 90 minutes. He had a good few of the frontrunners in gun sights for a fair part of the race.Dave Johnson followed in a few moments later . We then welcomed back our other runners with Ian Holland and George Adamson - plus of course Heather with her chaperone Jenny Friend.
The day was completed as we all welcomed back Peter Atkinson from his grand county tour. This was not his usual Sunday fare as there were no bus shelters or patisseries en route or polite strollers doffing their cloth caps to him - this was a red in tooth and claw run. A proper run indeed.
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| The final run in for Ian Holland as the North Of Tyne Search and Rescue man homes in for the finish with something fluorescent in his hand . Maybe a flare. |
Many then settled down in the Newcastle Arms to enjoy soup and the generous prize list.
Kieran Hodgson from Eden Runners was first back in about 82 mins. 10. Garry Robson; 40. Martin Frost; 42. Barry Young; 60. Dave Johnson; 84. Ian Holland; 100. Peter Atkinson; 106. Heather Lambert;115. George Adamson.
The Club's resident bird man, Garry then organised a short natural history tour of the Coquet valley before we encountered a party that were distributing the ashes of a fallen colleague across the waters of the Coquet.
Thanks go to John Duff and Andy Russell for the photos. Thanks to NFR for the event (looking for a new organiser next year)and for the top quality entertainment.
Full results here :http://www.northumberlandfellrunners.co.uk/html/raceresults/2013/Simonside_Cairns_results_2013.pdf
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| Jenny Friend out the back of Spylaw with heather Lambert maintaining a close watch. I just hope they are heading the right way as the man in amber appears to be heading in the opposite direction. Best to take a sighting from the sun ladies ! |
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| It's now a very serious race - head down and calculating how far Frosty can be closed down before the headlong drop to Rothbury. |
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| EMC flat earth specialist, Peter Atkinson completes a slightly more challenging Sunday run than he's used to. Joy turns to anguish as he's informed that he's just missed the church service (he's as regular as the choir back at the coast where his EMC's finish coincides with the service at Saint Woffle's) . He will now just have to hang around for another 6 hours for Evensong |
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