Night recce of last part of Hardmoors 55

11/03/2016

The Hardmoors 55 is now only a week away. I met Matt in Guisborough at 6 pm and drove us to Kildale. I parked by the telephone box, it's quite near to where the final time cut off check point is.

Next week I need to be past this point by 9pm, but I hope to get there a bit earlier than that. 

The more I have to run in the dark, the more time I will need to complete the challenge.

We set off at a comfortable chatty pace, following the Cleveland Way. We were running in the dusk and didn't need to turn our lights on for the first mile. This first mile was on Tarmac too so it was easy for foot placement. After climbing a hill past a farm we turned left onto a forestry track. I ran this route in daylight a few weeks ago and it was good to know that I could spot the landmarks by torchlight.

We ran up through the woods.

On a muddy track criss crossed with tree roots, working our way up to the moor.

Soon I felt we were close to Captain Cook's Monument, and as the track levelled out I caught the monument in my torch beam.

Matt got there first 

We had reach this point very quickly. From Captain Cooks it's a right hand turn down a wide track, coming out onto the road. We crossed the road and started to climb back up the other side. This track is well walked and was very muddy. There's a bit of up and down but it's mainly runnable.

We reached the gate that led to Roseberry Topping on the left. We had to go down before we could set off up the distinctive landmark.

The climb felt easier in the dark. The slabs were dry for a change and the wind not as vis it's as it has been on my recent ascents.

We stopped a while to admire the view. Orange lights of civilisation far below us shining in the dark.

It was a little chilly up top, so we headed back down, Matt moving confidently, me following on slowly checking each foot placement. But we were soon back up at the gate. 

We had retraced our steps from Roseberry Topping back to the gate, but we now turned left taking the middle track. This was nice and runnable. We got to a gate, turned right, and right again at the next gate. Just a short way up this track the Cleveland Way turned right and we ran along nice dry slabs for a while. The track became muddier as we approached a farm.

 The sheep's eyes were eerily glowing yellow in the night. We approached an old wood and a sign, turned left and followed the narrow tracks up to High Cliff Nab. 

When we got to the cliff top and looked towards Guisborough, it was like a toytowm way below us.

We ran along the cliff top, I kept well away from the edge and followed the Cleveland Way acorn signs down through Guisborough Woods. We were so close to Guisborough but now we were running past the lights of the town. A couple of short ups and we were out of the woods onto a concrete road and heading downhill back towards the lights.

The track ran out and the Cleveland Way turned right, but we didn't, we now left the Cleveland Way and headed for the town. We came to the old disused railway line. Las time I was here, it was with Tony and Luke and we didn't know where to go, so I had used Google maps to get us back to the car. Today Matt said to carry on down the railway until after passing a few houses we defended some tiny steps to our right, left at the bottom and we were now back in civilisation running down a street to the Sea Cadet sign 

. Matt showed me where the finish would be and we then jogged ask to his car, so he could drive to Kildale for me to collect mine.

It was not a massively fast paced run, 11 .6 miles in 2 hours 52, but it was very enjoyable, I was grateful for the mild temperature and very little wind.

Final recce complete. The only section I have not done is the first 9 miles. I'm hoping that there will be a few people around me from the start at Helmsley to the first main checkpoint at the White Horse.