Hardmoors 55 race report - or don't underestimate the weather on the North Yorkshire Moors

Just got back from a weekend away up in the North Yorkshire Moors, running the Hardmoors 55 race. I was staying in a hotel with various WHWR family members - John Kynaston, Sharon Law and Tim Downie, and the race was organise and marshalled by even more of said family - Jon Steele, Dave Waterman, Mike Mason and Lee MacLean (honorary member).

What did I think of the race? Great course, really runnable with various stiff but nicely spaced climbs. Well organised too and good technical t-shirts in the goody bag. Potentially some serious weather en route though. In fact, don't underestimate the weather like I did. The moors may not be high but if there is continuous rain throughout the day and a strong northerly wind, the conditions are pretty brutal in their effects.

What I thought was Jon's (the race organiser) slightly OTT kit advice for carrying and leaving along the course in drop-bags was actually spot on. I went for a rather more minimal approach with no clothes left in drop-bags and suffered the consequences, having to retire just before mile 34 with just over 6 hours of running and 5100' of climbing done, my hands frozen to the point of uselessness, unable to grasp or do anything with zips or anything else for that matter - I couldn't even apply enough pressure to un-clip my bumbag.

I hadn't been able to feed myself or drink water properly for a good hour or more without completely stopping and fumbling around for ages with my bum bag zips whilst standing still in the blasting wind and driving rain atop the moors. My blood sugar was getting lower as I expended more energy on keeping warm and despite this I was getting colder and colder, already tipped onto the shivery slope towards hypothermia. Recognising that without a pair of windproof second gloves on top of my thin fleece ones (a pair which I had stupidly left in my kit bag to save weight rather than carry them) I would continue to deteriorate I called it a day at the road crossing just after the Wainstones, before the 9 mile high open country commit to Kildale.

I knocked on a car window and a kind fellow who was supporting some other runners let me sit in his car, dripping wet and shivering badly. He even took my bumbag off me as I couldn't. It took me a good 30-40 minutes to stop shivering in the warm car and feel my hands again properly. It turned out that the two runners he was supporting also called it a day at this point for similar reasons so we all sat together shivering uncontrollably saying hello. Fairly comical in retrospect.

Until about 30-40 minutes before I bailed out the race was going really well for me. I was managing to keep within my target pace of 9-9:30 min/miles except when climbing and had been running with Colin Hutt and a tall lad with curly hair called Ricky from Tring since well before Osmotherly, the first drop bag point. Together we were keeping up a good pace and I was hopeful for a 10:30 finish. My hands and core temperature really started to suffer on the open moorland and hills after Lords Cafe though and ever so gradually I dropped back from the group as it took me longer and longer to get food out and I seemed to need more and more food. Colin and Ricky finished somewhere around the 10 hour mark which is great so well done those two.

Congratulations have also got to go to John Kynaston and Andy Cole who both slogged it out to come in around the 11:45 and just below 12 hour marks, to Richie C who came in 3rd with a time around 9:15 and to John Millen who came in 9th with a time just below 10 hours - well done all. I later met up with Sharon and Tim, who both also called it a day, both suffering from some degree of hypothermia as well. Sharon hadn't been able to access food for 20 miles for the same frozen hands reasons as me, and so was in bad shape by Kildale where she stopped. She had to spend over an hour in a sleeping bag next to a radiator before the shivering would stop.

I feel a bit annoyed at myself today for not having carried my second pair of gloves during the race as I feel certain I would have finished if I had - not having them is why I couldn't eat properly, why I had to stop in an attempt to eat and therefore why I got so seriously cold. I also feel a bit stupid however at not having put on an extra layer at Osmotherly as I knew the length of open moorland ahead, and had just had a taster of it above the village which had already frozen my hands. Daft errors that cost me the race really. I'll be better prepared next year if the weather is the same, but for now it's time to think about the next race - the Compton 40 in 2 weeks time, then the Highland Fling 3 weeks after that. Then it's the biggy - the GUCR. Gulp.