Punk Panther – 35 Miles, 13 November
Report by Matthew Holt
Saturday was race day at the Punk Panther “A Short Circuit” race, and they offered either a 20 or 35 mile route.
The route i chose was the 35 miles long one, and since my DNF at the Yorkshire Trod a few weeks ago, my training hasn’t gone to plan for a few reasons, so I decided to just turn up and give it my best shot.
As a guide, to your shorter ultras around North Yorkshire, I work on 10 miles every 2 hours, so I had 7 hours in mind, hopefully a bit under would be very good. Obviously a Lakes ultra going over the major hills will have more elevation, so I would adapt my finish time aim accordingly.
To put 10 miles every 2 hours in to context, if you did this year’s Hardmoors 110 at that pace, your time of 22 hours would have seen you come first by 28 minutes. At the Hardmoors 55, an 11 hour finish would have given you 25th position. Clearly, I ain’t doing the 110 in 22 hours, but for shorter races I find I can be there or thereabouts. The knack of finishing an ultra is mostly in the pacing, and the more you do, the more you learn what your strengths and weaknesses are. Eventually you find a pace you know suits you. And that has given me the confidence to set off slower than I would have done a few years ago, because I’ve learned that will give me my best chance of getting to the finish. Unfortunately there are no short cuts on finding what suits you, just practice then race, practice then race and a bit more practice then a bit more racing. And you never stop learning.
Anyway, back to this race. Its a circular route starting in Otley with the first mile involving a climb up through The Chevin, so not an easy start. Through the villages of Bramhope and Cookridge before descending through Yeadon. After passing through Menston, it’s a lovely route up to the Cow and Calf on Ilkley Moor. A steep drop into Ben Rhydding is tough on the knees and quads, before a long climb up the next hill.
I started to tire a bit in the last 10 miles, and struggled to get running again after walking the ups. The last section through Timble, with the Menwith Hill golf balls looming large in the distance, was a really tough section. Very runnable but my legs ached more than usual, so I plodded away the best I could. In the last 10k there was a few surprising little sharp ascents that zapped me of any energy i had left. Finally i hit the road 2 miles from Otley and started the long descent back in to town. Fortunately I managed to follow another runner who knew the route through all the alleys and streets of Otley, getting me to the end in 7 hours 6 minutes.
A tad over my 7 hour target, but not feeling the best going in to the race, I was really chuffed with that time. The final distance was 34.8 miles with 4640 feet of ascent, so an interesting little course with a few little tinkers (aka hills) thrown in for good measure. If want a low key simple ultra then give Punk Panther races a go, they are really good.