Hardmoors 15 and 30 - 24 April
Report by Kim Holden
The Hardmoors 15 and 30, rescheduled from January, took place on Saturday, 24th April. The well organised races started at Whitby Abbey Car Park with groups of six setting off at 2 minute intervals. The 30 started at 8am and the 15 at 10am. The conditions could not have been better with only a light breeze, mild temperature and very dry underfoot.
The 15.6 mile course, which included about 2,000 ft of ascent, followed the Cleveland Way along the coastal path to Robin Hoods Bay and then picked up trails and roads to Boggle Hole before heading back North to Robin Hoods Bay. The route then followed the rail trail before rejoining the Cleveland Way back to Whitby.
The steps up from Boggle Hole and the main street hill at Robin Hoods were not entirely a welcome challenge while trying to keep to a pace in a half marathon(ish) but somehow I managed to keep going and was pleased with my finish time of 3:06. The provisional results show I won my age category, but this has yet to be confirmed as there was no race prize presentation due to Covid regulations.
Long standing RR member Tony Carr, who has helped many of us by marshalling on the Hardmoors events, also enjoyed a great run on the HM30.
Hardmoors 30 – report by Lena Conlin
I ran the Hardmoors 30 on Saturday. It was a new route with a start and finish at Whitby Abbey Car Park. It was a great start and finish, lots of parking available and easy to get to. The route followed the coastline to Robin Hoods Bay and then the cinder path until just outside Ravenscar where we left the track to climb up to the mast on a road, before dropping into Ravenscar. From Ravenscar we continued along the road before rejoining the cinder path to Cloughton Wyke. At this point 17 miles, we headed back to the undulating coastal path. We followed the Cleveland way mostly to Robin Hoods Bay. After climbing the road through the village we joined the cinder path towards Whitby, continuing to climb a further mile or so. Eventually we crossed the fields to the Cleveland Way along the coast, back to Whitby.
The weather was sunny but the breeze kept it comfortable for running. The lack of rain over previous weeks meant the trail was iron hard and so I chose road shoes. It was the right choice providing a bit of cushioning against the constant impact.
The runners were set off in batches of six, 2 minutes apart and this maintained the social distances and preventing the trail walkers being swamped in runners. I felt the race was well organised and Covid secure.
It was a tough race for me having not run trail or hills for so long, the steps just drained me. But I kept on keeping on to finish in 7 hours 30 minutes and 24 seconds. I had wanted under 8 hours and hoped for under 7:30 so I am happy with the result.