Cressbrook Crawl





Race date: Saturday, 11 May 2019
This was a weird one. For a lot of the time during the race I wasn't having fun. But then by the end I was really enjoying myself. I'm writing this a week later because I'm slack, and there's bits of it I've forgotten entirely.
Cressbrook is a really tiny village, accessed by lots of really tiny roads. It's so tiny its main street doesn't have a name. It's in the White Peak, near Litton (where I raced at Christmas). The drive over was lovely, with a real feeling of earlly summer: lapwings, swallows, people out in their hobby cars (including two US police cars) and a sign by the road saying "No pizza on Tuesday".
Parking was at the bottom of a hill, by an old mill. On the strenuous climb up to the village for the start, I exchanged hellos with someone with an American accent. It turned out to be amazing US runner Clare Gallagher, adding some star quality. The race director seemed very pleased to have her there!
After a village-hall check in, paying a fiver for the post-race meal, and a warning of two "bastard hills" from the race director, away we went, out of the village and down a hill to the river. Across a little bridge and we were on to bastard hill no. 1: 150m of climbing in 800m. A couple of short respites but otherwise unrelenting. Even walking up it felt like I was going to get a calf strain.
I genuinely don't remember much about the middle section. Snapshots of scenery. A feeling of my new trail shoes really not working for me. A flattish section along really hard uneven ground. Then suddenly, up a little climb and we were on the Monsal Trail, a flat old railway track bed.
About a mile of recovery on the trail, and then we were off and ready for bastard hill no.2. I liked bastard hill no. 2. I ran all the way up it and even overtook one or two people. It was on-road and not too steep: 90m of climb in 1.1km. There was a moment where it hairpinned, and on the approach to the bend you could see the runners ahead far above you, but otherwise it was a great end to the race.
Across the finish line, back in to the village hall, hand in your race number and receive a free pint in return. The meal was a massive plate of chilli, baked potato and assorted salads, followed by a piece of cake.
This was a really lovely village event, and I'd definitely do it again.
The race was won by Kenny Malton of Shelton Striders in 45:12 .First female was (surprise!) Clare Gallagher. I crept in 76th of the 130 finishers, in 1:05:25.

Full result: http://www.cressbrookclub.org.uk/assets/fellrace2019.xlsx


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Hucklow Fell Race 2025

Image
    Race date: 6 July 2025 Race distance: 10km TL;DR This is a smashing race.  I decided after some very enjoyable but not felly recent races that I really needed to do some off-roading, and Great Hucklow ticked all the Sunday-morning-fell-race boxes: medium distance, medium climb, not too far away and not done it before. I signed up. Sunday morning arrived and I headed out into a light drizzle with a matching light hangover (Marple beer run and associated peripheral beer the day before), feeling quite excited to be doing a new and unknown race. Parking was a challenge, but I squeezed in near the pub and headed up the hill to the primary school and registration.  The fact that I'd failed to bring cash to order a sausage sandwich for afterward did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm, and I was soon pleased to discover this was one of the many fell races where Ian Stinson and I have been the only Striders. Soon enough the race was on, and we belted down the lane and throug...
Read more

Stan's Toffee Run 2025

  Race date: 14 August 2025 Race distance: 4 miles This is a tough little race, part of the KMR series. I'd never done it before, but it's not far to Elsecar and there was the promise of toffees. I parked up and followed the crowd to registration in the pub. The race seemed to coincide with a motorbike meetup, and the sight of hairy bikers cruising through the throng was rather unique.  A drinker asked Laura Rangeley and I what we were up to, and seemed quite confused by the fact I had no idea where I would be running.  I soon found out. We set off along the canal path, before swinging right onto the road and what turned out to be a hefty old kilometre of climbing. Thankfully, it was the last sustained climb of the race and after a bit of flat stuff we turned onto farmland and commenced our descent towards a fast finish by the car park. I was sweating like mad by the end and far more interested in the bottle of water than the bag of toffees! The winner was Andrew Hamblen ...
Read more