27/12/25

Weather: damp, no rain, and cold. Between 7/8°C feels like 5°c

8.85km – 372 metres of ascent

11am start

RACE-NUMBER: #389

We were running late as we went to pick up Mia’s mum, Kirsty, for a walk they were doing while I ran. Blasted over to Guisborough. Jumped out the car with no shoes on and Mia took over driving. They went off elsewhere and I ran into registration and scribbled down my details, paid, and pinned my number to my top.

Took a light jog to the start line and mixed in a few half-hearted and pathetic leg swings as a “warm up” lol. Hung my hoody on a tree and waited for the shout for the start. Lots of anticipation on people’s faces and a really good turnout considering it’s between Christmas. Start delayed 20 mins, ran up and down the hill a few times but crossed the start line fairly cold haha.

Lap 1

From the off you run up a fairly steep but very runnable 3–400 metres, to a semi-flat old logging track that flows and meanders to another stabby runnable climb. Quick left-hand bend to the first major climb of the race. More like a well-trod rabbit run up through a thicket of trees, winding past a bench to a moorland track at the top.

You gather your legs up and try to push out a 100-metre run until the gradient slopes upward again and your quads fire up and slow you back to walking. Once you reach the top of the moorland track, it’s flat out for roughly a kilometre. I’m feeling pretty good at this point. My heart rate has spiked hard, pushing maybe 170bpm, but my legs and lungs are holding so I push on to the top of the descent.

This is one of my favourite descents and thankfully I seem to have no fear when it comes to this particular style as well. The descent starts off with a fast right-hand bend and then drops hard into a clarty gully. At the top there’s like a switchback-type channel over rocks and thick roots which, if you keep to the side walls, you can bounce over pretty fast. The only downside is it can bottleneck at this point so you do have to pick your overtaking points well once it opens up a bit.

The point I like to push at is where the trod has a slight right-hand bend in, but if you sight down it and almost cut a line completely straight to the bottom you can see there’s a flat(ish) tuft of heather and bracken and twigs you can gallop over and past anyone who’s watching their toes down the muddy track.

First stage of descent ends on a flatter open section that’s half-shin-deep mud out onto a crossroads with a logging track, then back into the forest to another steep clarty gully. The side walls of this gully are sharp and it almost forces you to take the only line visible. I’ve found you can take up the side walls slightly and with some good speed too.

This section flows into the start/finish point really fast, so as long as you trust the lugs on your shoes, just open it up and you can really whip down. I overtook maybe five people on this descent, which felt hellish to do.

Lap 2

Sharp right-hand bend back onto the starting climb. Nearly every runner I overtook on the descent, by the time I reached the first major climb through the trees, had regained their place ahead of me and I soon realised I had to use my ability on the descent if I was to finish strong.

The second go on the big climb feels the worst. I think knowing you have to go around again afterwards can really get into your head. My quads felt surprisingly strong and fresh so I got up faster than I was expecting.

I came into the ascent with a runner I think was named Dave. We had a brief chat and agreement about descending and trusting your shoes being all it takes to go fast. He pushed on hard after this climb and I was unable to cover any real ground towards him for the duration of the race. It was really impressive to see him be so fast on the flats and then push hard on the descents (which post-race he explained was due to inspiration from our conversation haha).

My legs felt sucked of energy on the flattish track on this loop and I really had to drag myself to the top of the descent. I tried to push down and slipped in the switchbacky bit, cutting my knees and hands while trying to roll with my momentum down the hill. I experimented with a different line, getting greedy for positions, and it bit me in the arse.

Lap 3

Steady pace all the way up to the bottom of the main climb for the last go. Running past one guy who looked like he was dropping out just before. I kept close to the runners who had yet again overtaken me after I got past on the descent — five of us yoyo’ing all race.

On the high ground the tail runners were shouting words of encouragement to the effect of “last bit now, turn the screw”, which is what I did. I cranked up my turnover to around 4:34min/km (fast for me haha), never getting any closer to the people ahead, however keeping in the back of my mind the bottleneck at the top of the final downhill. Knowing I had a bit more risk-taking ability in me than those ahead, as I’d already clipped them on the previous two rounds.

I hurled myself down the descent, repeating to myself “come on son, keep going, keep going”. Unfortunately because of that this last descent was a blur and the details fade away into mud and staggered breaths. I got round the first four and really cranked my legs over, and the last guy stood aside and let me past, giving me props on my running for the descent.

Charging home to the finish, coming in 39th place with a time of 50:51, which was 14 minutes faster than my previous year. Not a perfect run by any imagination, but things lined up well. I felt I played to my strengths where possible and came out feeling like I’d left it all out there and got a result I was happy with.

Last race of the year, my first race in the Winter Dave Parry series for 2025, and definitely one of my favourites.

Walked back down into Guisborough and finished off with a coffee and custard and chocolate chip toast thing from Koselig Bakeri.

https://strava.app.link/7hGoPdxpGZb