Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category

Stokesley Leisure Centre is a pool-based sprint triathlon based at Stokesley Leisure Centre in Yorkshire, run by Cleveland Triathlon Club. The pool was wide enough and there were only 3-4 of us in each lane with participants starting every three minutes. The bike course is absolutely beautiful: it just enters the North York Moors National Park so you get panoramic views without any hills being involved. The run is a road-based out-and-back. The only thing I was surprised at was they didn’t check bikes in and out of transition, but maybe that’s the joy of living in a town of 6,000 people. Would do this race again.

First triathlon of 2026 is in the bag. Tadcaster is a lovely chill race and always a pleasure to take part in. It is part of the HPH club championships, and with only four of us competing, myself and three women, I only had to finish to take the championship lead after one races.

Setup was fine, including a pre-race brownie from the coffee van. I went for a complicated three-shoe setup so that I had one pair from pool to T1, then bike and run shoes. It’s a lot of shoes to bring, but a 600m run from the pool to T1, along multiple roads, so the extra pair of shoes was well worth it.

I felt good in the swim. There were only three of us in our lane and I was the first out, although that probably says more about how accurate my 400m prediction time was. I clocked my swim at just over nine minutes, which isn’t my fastest ever, but consistent with previous efforts but something I thought I was taking quite steady.

It was a beautiful day for cycling. Clear, cool, and no wind. I haven’t done any work in the aero position all year but I got down on the bars for several sections of the course and felt pretty quick. The only slight panic was when the guy in front of me missed the turn back into transition and I had a split-second question about whether it was me that was wrong. But no.

Out onto the run. This felt quite weird because someone started catching me. This isn’t how these things work. People overtake me in the swim and the bike and then I catch people on the run. But with zero overtakes so far, someone was breathing down my neck until the water station. They backed off and then caught me on the trail section at the bridge. Not for too long, though, and I managed to take the place back. Up the steps and across the finish line for a well-earned pork pie.

My overall time was:

1:14:35

My splits are below. It should be noted that in 2021 the river flooded and the run course was changed to a shorter out-and-back on the road, hence why we all have amazing run splits for that year.

New fastest T2 time, and not bad for my first race in the 40-44 age group. Thank you to all of the volunteers and marshals, and to Elina and Venla for keeping me company.

Last Sunday I did my final big training run before God’s Own Backyard Ultra. Modelled on last year’s mega run, it was a little shorter: five hours moving time over six hours, rather than six hours moving time over seven hours. But, on the plus side, I did make it almost as far, clocking up 50km, 3km short of last year. Although it is difficult to compare across different routes.

Goole parkrun takes place at West Park and is totally flat. It is two and a half laps that partially follows a horseshoe shape. Some of it is tarmac with the rest of the course being on gravel trail, mud or grass. Plenty of friendly volunteers to cheer us on: thank you to everyone who was there yesterday.

Goole was the last one I needed for the Staying Alive challenge: Burnley, Bramley, Bushy, Griffen, Gorey, Goole.

Punk Panther is a Yorkshire-based race organiser, predominantly doing ultras. I first signed up for one of their events in 2021 but never made the start line. Luckily, I finally did make it to one of their events, and their 10th birthday and 100th event no less. It starts in Otley, loops over hills and fields to Ilkley and then back along the other side of the Wharfedale Valley.

It was certainly outside of my comfort zone with the trails, running past livestock and navigation. But the trails weren’t too technical and after the first half I got into my stride and was able to focus on the physical discomfort, as well as the beautiful scenery. They had a lovely race HQ at Otley Common, including post-race refreshments. I had a cheese toastie and it was good.

If you find yourself in Easingwold, they have a lovely parkrun and an excellent jigsaw shop.

I think the major victory here is that, despite my advancing years, I stayed awake for the whole thing. The end scoreline might suggest there was a bit of a contest. But the Seahawks were never under pressure and always in the driving seat. Bad Bunny’s half time show was excellent.

It rained all day. So much for Dry January.

This made things really muddy. There was no escape from the mud. Every time I put my bag down to get something out of it, there was mud all over the floor. My beautiful new changing robe is now covered in mud. There is supposed to be mud on the course – it’s cross country. But it would be nice if there was a safe space somewhere.

The course was nice enough. Not brutally hilly, just regular Temple Newsam hilly. There were several water crossings. The deepest was well above me knee and on some of the shorter people, up to their waist. It is a good job I had my phone in a waterproof bag. I managed to get around without falling over, so that was nice. Might need some specific soft mud shoes for next year, though.

Lots of lovely baked goods at the end. Thank you to everyone who baked and th team captains for organising.

A beautiful misty morning for Roundhay’s 700th event. This ticked a box for me, too: it was my 7th Roundhay parkrun which takes my p-index to 7. Not bad given I only reached 6 earlier this month.

I was delighted to wake up on the morning of the race and see the ground covered in snow. Then the race emailed to say it was still on.

First, it was really cold. I put four layers on and it still took me 30 minutes to warm up enough to strip down to 2-3. The snow wasn’t the issue, though. It was the ice. All of the hills were icy. Mostly going up hill but there was still at least one descent that was icy. A lot of people fell over. Thankfully, I did a slow potter around, and stayed upright. It was cold enough to trigger a nose bleed, though.

Otherwise, it was a lovely race. Would do it again if it was warmer.