Punk Panther Short Circuit
Report by Matt Holt
I was the sole club member at yesterdays Punk Panther Short Circuit ultra marathon race. The race series is in its third year, and race director Ryk Downes was pleased to see a record number of runners on the start line
At the race brief, Ryk informed runners that the course was very dry when he taped the route on Thursday, but after constant rain on Friday, all the off road sections had been turned in to ankle deep mud
The race starts at 8.30am in Otley with a long steep climb to reach the top of The Chevin. The route then goes around the perimeter of Leeds Bradford Airport, and while KLM and Ryanair planes took off for sunny places, we squelched, slipped and sometimes fell over in the mud below. At this point we turned on to a section of road, and one runner asked me if that was the last of the mud for the day, I couldn’t bring myself to tell the poor soul we had another 24 miles of more mud.
We then followed a section familiar to a lot of RRs, as we took the summer league race route through Yeadon when Dragons host the race. After the village of Esholt, we had a long uphill section that cut through a golf course. Golfers pointed and laughed at us weirdos trying to run while covered in mud, while we pointed and laughed at them for trying to hit a little white ball with a stick, everyone to their own I suppose.
As we crossed Ilkley Moor and the cow and calf rocks, the rain started to fall. This made the second half of the route even tougher, and twice I slipped, each time covering a few metres of the course while horizontal.
I managed to overtake about 15 runners through the next 10 miles and was relieved to finally enter the last 4 miles, but a diversion away from Lindley Reservoir meant an unexpected steep climb through woodland (thank you Yorkshire Water, really needed that!!!!!!). Finally, we could see Pool in Wharfedale and crossed a few last fields to finish at the village hall.
A great route, with 5 checkpoints along the way to top up water bottles and grab a few snack and hot drinks and chilli at the end to warm us up. The course is 50km (32.5 miles) long and has a total of 4,160 feet of ascent, and I finished in 6 hours 14 minutes, which I was very pleased with considering the conditions.