Rombalds Stride
Report by Matthew Holt
The Scouts group in Guiseley, Leeds held their annual 22 mile event on Saturday, which is open to both walkers and runners.
Participants of the circular route can expect some tough weather conditions, with snow and frosty conditions in the last few years. Yesterday, however, milder conditions were combined with gale force winds.
Four RR set off from Guiseley and were soon running through woodland and in to Esholt village before crossing open moorland. It was here that the strong winds made progress difficult, as they were straight in your face.
At around the halfway point, I had a bit of a rough time. First, i tripped and bounced along the paved slabs for a few yards. Then, once I had recovered from the fall, I managed to go in to a waist deep bog, and falling forward, went up to my chest in freezing water. Not good…
At a checkpoint 2 miles later, I took my soaking wet gloves off as I couldn’t feel my hands and thought I was in danger of getting too cold to continue. Using two buffs, I fashioned these in to gloves and got moving again, hoping I’d warm up. It seemed to work and with the strong wind now on my back, after about another 5 miles, my clothes were dried out.
The final sting in the tail sees you drop down a road to join a woodland path for a muddy, long ascent of Otley Chevin. Then with wind once again in your face and trying to stop you in your tracks, a final 2 mile of road to the finish l. A really tough end to a challenging route.
After exactly 22 miles and 3438 foot of ascent, the village hall was a welcome sight for all finishers.
An excellent route with stunning views and well supported checkpoints along the way to top up on drinks and food, it’s a great event and would recommend it.
I managed to finish in 3 hours 48 minutes, with Kim Holden returning in 4 hrs 57 mins, just ahead of Simon McCudden in 4 hrs 59 mins. Rounding up the group was Donna Mitchell in 5 hours 36 mins. Victoria Morris and her partner, Lawrence, walked the route in around 6 hours 20 minutes (tbc).