Hardmoors 55 Recce, Clay Bank to Guisborough.

This recce was arranged on Facebook, a group of 12 of us met at Guisborough, left some cars there and went to Clay Bank in the other cars. 

The weather was fine but windy, this made running on tired legs from yesterday's Rombald's Stride 22.3 mile race, pretty hard work. From Clay Bank it is an immediate climb onto the moor. It was clear from the start that we were a mixed ability group. After the flags we were onto a track. This track was hidden by snow last time I was up here.

It was much better today, very runnable. I think those puddles were where we were falling through the snow last time.

We reached Bloworth Crossing really quickly and had a respite from the wind as we turned left.

The views were stunning, it makes a run so much nicer when you have nice views.

My stupid ankle flipped before Bloworth this made the uneven rocky track uncomfortable to run on. 

We were soon on the Tarmac running to Kildale, it was so windy running down that it kept my speed more controlled than last time. We passed the village hall where we finished a fortnight ago and I was on new territory. We ran to a cafe. It was on a junction so I committed the turn to memory for 19 March. We stopped at the cafe for a regroup and loo stop. The cafe looked lovely, I felt a bit guilty using the loo without making a purchase

We ran down a bit further then up a Tarmac hill. At the top we turned left through a wood and came out at Captain Cooks Monument, we were now more than half way through our run. The wind increased, it was very powerful. We regrouped, before setting off to Roseberry Topping

I was now back on familiar ground. It was very busy with runners cyclists and walkers, not put off by the strong winds. We now gad occasional showers, but they didn't last, the wind was blowing them away.

I always find the ascents and descents around Roseberry Topping tough, and tired legs did not make them any easier. But I made it to the summit of Roseberry Topping. It was scary up there, the wind was so strong

The views were stunning though. I was very scared going down. I hunkered down when the wind was strong and descended between the gusts. Soon Zi was back on new territory again, heading for High Cliff Nab. This was a runnable section, the party had split into 3 sections by now. I kept the group ahead in sight and Tony and Luke were just behind.

There was soon some mud to deal with, but fortunately not much

We climbed up and I put my feet up for a regroup with Tony and Luke at the last point I had seen the middle group

We wound through the trees

And saw the other group on the top. We climbed up but they had gone, we couldn't see them, but we could see Guisborough 

We worked our way down on forest roads and tracks but soon we saw no Cleveland way signs, so we set off for a bit but were passing Guisborough by, so I got out my phone and used Google maps to get us back to the car park. Tony phoned Neil in the middle group so that the wouldn't be waiting around for us. Soon we arrived at the carpark and the front group were already there. They had done 22 miles we had done 19.8, so we got lost and found a short cut, a couple of minutes later the middle group arrived. All 12 of us back safe and sound.

Today was tough, running on tired legs with a sore ankle, but it was good training for the Hardmoors 55, because I will be doing that section after already running over 30 miles, and Zi will be chasing the dark. Roseberry and the woods were bad enough in daylight.