Kielder Duathlon, Simonside Fell Race

Kielder Duathlon 9^th January

High terrain events set up an interesting looking series of off-road duathlon events in the North of this fair land and they were straight in my calendar.

The rescheduled kielder duathlon (December cancelled due to snow) ironically also took place in some pretty snowy conditions which made for a pretty epic race. The planned route included an 8k run followed by 25k bike and a further 5k run to round things off. Sensibly these distances were shortened on the day due to the amount of snow particularly higher up so these sections were cut out. I don’t think this took anything away from the event which was tough going from start to finish.

We set off from kielder castle where the transition area was well set out. Straight up hill and it felt like that for most of the run despite a short stint down on fire road. The freezing cold air and snowy conditions meant everyone was gasping for air from the off. The route climbed up on fire road before briefly taking part of the mountain bike trails. A fairly steep and long narrow singletrack followed where some substantial footwear was required to keep upright. Even on the fire roads it was difficult to pick a line, soft snow that seemed a bit grippier (but you couldn’t always tell what was underneath) or the tracks of the forestry vehicles which were compacted but bore the risk of being icy.

Heading back in to transition a quick change on to the bike which promised to be fun in the snow. The route was a mixture of fire road and singletrack and took in some of the red route kielder trails but to be honest I was pretty lost in what are normally familiar trails to me! A fairly long unrideable push up really drained the lungs about half way round the route. There was a lot of drifting round berms and loose corners and lots of riders were bailing out as the snow threw people completely off line. A few hairy fast fire roads descents required 110% concentration but it you had the stomach you could really make up some time here.

Back in to transition and the final run was a bit more sociable, more or less flat along the river for the route out followed by a couple of short technical wooded sections before the final spring across the field. This was the final battleground for a lot of the positions and looking at the finishing times says as much.

I set out fairly hard on the run although this is always my weak spot. I managed to come in to transition in about 17^th but after taking quite a few risks on the downhill sections I managed to get up to 5^th by the end of the bike. A couple of position changes in the final run meant I was sitting in 6^th heading in to the final field. I’d just passed a guy before that and was aware he was right behind me and another 20 yards back were two more guys hunting me down pretty quick. I managed to find a bit of energy for a burst across the field before the final 100m up to the castle in the hope that the competition would think I was away from them. I fell over the line in a total time of 1hr59 in 6^th place which is probably my best result in biking or running events. The winner took 1hr 49 so I wasn’t that far off which was pretty pleasing. The field was much reduced due to the weather conditions so there were 64 finishers in total.

Pos	No.	Name	Club	Category	Time
1st	33	Gary Grounds	BikeTraks	MV40	01:49:57
2nd	39	Andrew Higgins	Northumberland Fell Runners	M	01:49:59
3rd	58	Stephen Magrath		M	01:56:26
4th	123	James Dickinson	One Life Biking	MV50	01:58:35
5th	31	Simon Gibbs	Wallsend Harriers	M	01:58:43
6th	50	Matthew Jones	Killer Kielder	M	01:59:55
7th	57	Graham Lund		M	01:59:58
8th	41	Joe Horne	Ryton Tri	M	02:00:06
9th	52	Andrew King		M	02:00:11
10th	60	Tom Matthew	Bogtrotters	MV40	02:01:40
11th	5	Paul Beckett		MV40	02:02:26
12th	63	Tim Mccall	Auchencrow Thistle	MV50	02:03:16
13th	56	Jerry Lloyd		MV40	02:04:13
14th	83	Michael Phillipson		M	02:04:26
15th	107	James Walker		M	02:05:47
16th	89	Mark Roberts		MV40	02:06:37
17th	125	Brian Smith	Gosforth Road Club	MV40	02:08:57
18th	66	Glen McGowan		MV50	02:09:21
19th	90	Darryl Roe	Wallsend Harriers	M	02:12:14
20th	36	Martyn Hemsley		MV40	02:13:43

Looking forward to the Grizedale Duathlon which is the next in the High Terrain Events Series.

Simonside Fell race 16^th January

I’ve been wanting to do an out and out fell race for a while after taking on some duathlons and a couple of challenge type trail runs and getting a taster for the pain and adventurous side of running. After doing my first and last road race, the great north run and getting pretty bored of constantly running round people and the monotony of road running I came across the Northumberland Fell Runners (http://www.northumberlandfellrunners.co.uk) website which lists a whole host of fell runs over varying distances and thought I’d give one a go.

Although only a week after the kielder duathlon I spotted the 11 mile fell run up Simonside in Rothbury and thought this would be a good a place as any to begin my fell running career. Although probably a bit longer than I would have gone for in my first race (being the 3^rd longest distance I’ve ever run after the great north and kielder marathon) the scenery and locality were a definite draw.

I was still feeling the effects of the kielder duathlon and only made the decision to enter the night before where a quick call to the organiser confirmed that I could just show up on the day and enjoy! The first thing that struck me is that fell running seems a much purer sport than most, just turn up, pay your £5 (bike races are normally about £25) and join the small friendly huddle on the start line with the knowledge that you need to carry enough kit with you in case things go wrong. There are certainly no marshall points/water points to give you a more pampered race experience, but that certainly is the appeal. Without stereo typing too much the guys and girls that do these things definitely have the been there done it look to them, it was pretty cold, raining and windy at the start and about a third of the field just had short shorts and vests on, respect!



The nice flat bit before the hills!



I set out to just survive on this one and to try and enjoy it as much as possible. The route was a no nonsense get to the top and back down with a couple of up/downs in between.

If this was a horse race the going would be heavy! The snow had only just melted and long sections were really boggy to the point of lost trainers if they weren’t tied on tight and there were lots of reports of full submersions.

The first half of the race was in the rain and wind but this eventually eased off and by the time we reached the top of Simonside there were great views to be had. The run down from the top was really technical with lots of rock steps that I couldn’t seem to keep any speed down. Lots of people passed me at that point. For the whole race I was sat somewhere mid pack and eventually came in with a time just under 2 hours which was pretty much what I predicted it would take me.

Position	Name	Cat	Club	Time
1	Alasdair Anthony	M Sen	Ochil	1.21.53
2	Philip Sanderson	MV 40	NFR	1.22.29
3	Callum Gilhooley	M Sen	Dark Peak	1.22.56
4	Dan Gay	M Sen	HBT	1.27.11
5	Tom Smith	M Sen	Lochabers	1.27.28
6	Stanley Charles	M Sen	Clwydian	1.28.05
7	Adam Fletcher	MV 45	Berwick	1.30.20
8	Gareth Huxley	MV 40	NFR	1.30.53
9	Lee Bennett	MV 40	NFR	1.32.05
10	Andrew Higgins	M Sen	NFR	1.32.06
11	Scott Gibson	M Sen	NFR	1.33.23
12	Philip Addyman	MV 40	NFR	1.34.48
13	Paul Redman	MV 45	NFR	1.34.59
14	John Barker	M Sen	Alnwick	1.35.32
15	David Steel	MV 45	NFR	1.35.52
16	Ally Macdonald	MV 45	Dundee	1.35.59
17	Keith Murray	MV 45	Teviotdale	1.36.15
18	David Armstrong	MV 50	NFR	1.36.29
19	Cameron Murray	MV 40	Carnethy	1.37.27
20	David Daniels	M Sen	Newcastle	1.38.12
21	Phil Smith	M Sen	NFR	1.39.11
22	John Duff	MV 40	NFR	1.39.15
23	Gavin Coventry	MV 40	Thirsk	1.39.25
24	Kenny Short	MV 45	Teviotdale	1.39.39
25	Graham Walton	MV 40	U/A	1.39.56
26	Emma O'Shea	F Sen	Deeside	1.39.57
27	Tim McCall	MV 50	U/A	1.39.58
28	Stewart Meche	MV 50	Thirsk	1.40.25
29	Neil Cassidy	MV 50	Tynedale	1.40.32
30	Mick Golightly	MV 40	NS Poly	1.41.11
31	Rob Stephens	MV 45	NFR	1.42.12
32	Sarah O'Neill	F Sen	HBT	1.42.30
33	Chris Rowe	M Sen	NFR	1.42.54
34	Mike Telfer	M Sen	NFR	1.43.08
35	John Butters	M Sen	Morpeth	1.44.34
36	Stewart Barrie	MV 40	HBT	1.44.57
37	Lawrence Johnson	MV 45	NFR	1.45.50
38	Barry Young	MV50	NS Poly	1.46.16
39	Rob Murray-John	MV 40	Wooler	1.46.37
40	David Walton	MV 50	Tyne & Wear Fire	1.47.07
41	Claire Buis	F Sen	Heaton	1.47.22
42	Andrew Squires	MV 45	Alnwick	1.47.40
43	William Pikett	MV 45	Norham	1.48.17
44	Paul Hainsworth	MV 50	NFR	1.48.21
45	Phil Green	MV 40	NFR	1.48.42
46	Francis Shillitoe	M Sen	U/A	1.49.34
47	Jack Walton	M Sen	NFR	1.50.29
48	Jamie Wilkinson	M Sen	NFR	1.50.55
49	Richard Kirby	M Sen	Morpeth	1.51.52
50	Chris Little	MV 45	NFR	1.52.16
51	Graham Bingham	MV 45	NFR	1.52.23
52	Darren Murphy	M Sen	U/A	1.52.25
53	Peter Hayle	MV 45	NFR	1.52.44
54	Bernard Kivlehan	MV 50	NFR	1.52.54
55	Matthew Jones	M Sen	Kielder	1.53.08

Pretty happy with the result, just outside the top half of the 102 entrants.

Overall a really good challenge and I’ll definitely be looking out for local fell races in the coming year to use as training for Killer Kielder. Going to get some rest now before the first in the series of the Bike Place organised mountain bike Marathon series at Kielder. Then the Innerleithen enduro the following weekend, hmmm I’m going to be tired at the end of this month!