Welcome to the 'Challenge Hursty' Blog!

The Adventures so far!

Sunday 20 May 2018

2019 RNLI #Three Shires Cycle Sportive ~ £9,200 raised for the RNLI!

Back for it's third successive year, the increasingly popular RNLI #ThreeShires Cycle Sportive.

This year with the added option of an 85km route to add to the established 5km, 35km, 100km and Triple Crown!

Sandbach Rugby club once again playing host and providing their fantastic rugby club venue.

The fabulous Bike Marshalls once again providing on the road support for our riders were in attendance too!

We were incredibly lucky with the weather again! Clear blue skies and sunshine throughout the day making for lovely conditions for our riders!

We were also really pleased to have the RNLI Lifeguards with us too this year, bringing their pick up truck and surf rescue jet ski as an amazing centre piece at the start/finish venue!

Riders once again were able to celebrate with a well earned drink and pulled pork bab after their rides courtesy of the Rugbly club bar and Symphony caterers!
All in all another fab day! 530 riders and just over £9,000 raised primarily from the rider entry fees topped up with a few donations on the day!

A great day to organise and hopefully fun for all concerned! :-)


Wednesday 21 March 2018

Pendle 'Dark Dash' Fell Run

The Pendle Hill 'Dark Dash' was my first night time fell run. Thankfully organised by Rossendale & Pendle Mountain Rescue Team and well supported by them so it didn't feel such a totally insane thing to do! It was very well supported by a couple of hundred runners which for the time of year was incredible.



A 6 mile round trip run in total. Setting off from the Lancashire village of Barley at night time by head torch, it was a one mile ascent in the dark up to the summit and trig point (which because of the fog I didn't actually see!) and a 5 mile steady looping descent along very boggy paths around Pendle Hill before returning back to the village hall in Barley.

Once again for my running events so far this year, conditions weren't great with the fog making it quite eerie in places. Fortunately the route was very well signed though with lots of the MRT volunteers marking the way to avoid folk getting lost on the moors.

Here's a copy of a tweet from the Mountain Rescue Team organisers following the event...

"Last Night saw our 2nd Dark Dash event at Pendle Hill! 200 runners took part in in what was a brutal night with poor visibility, wind and cold! Everyone had a great time and everyone finished safely"... I think they could improve on their marketing? That doesn't really sell it does it ;-)

Roll on Summer! :-)

Saturday 10 March 2018

Chester Ultra Marathon 52 mile run ~ £641 raised for the RNLI :-)

The 52m Route
After running the Liverpool to Manchester (L2M) 50 mile ultra run over Easter in 2016, and despite thoroughly enjoying it but saying ‘never again’, here were Dave McDonald and I at the Chester Ultra Marathon as ‘Team Dave’ less than a year later!? J

It’s the first of GB Ultra’s series of the year and as such, the training took place over the hardest of the winter months. It’s been pretty grueling training in rain, sleet, snow, ice, darkness and everything else Winter has to offer but on the upside it did shake off all the Christmas indulgence!
Start Line @ 6am

Race morning was a very early get up at 4am to get to Waverton Village Hall in Chester for the pre-race briefing at 5:30 and a mass depart at 6am just as dawn was breaking.

The weather forecast all week had been for light rain all day but we weren’t complaining that it hadn’t yet materialised (although we were to find out that it had already done it’s damage over the preceding few days!).
 

Leaving Waverton we set off along quite lanes and a very well marked and signed course towards the River Dee. The mood and atmosphere were great and the trails a bit soft underfoot but good running! An hour or so running saw us arrive at the first pit stop just as the heavens opened (but a good opportunity to don the rain jackets whilst under the pit stop gazebo). We stocked up and continued along the River Dee into Chester passing the racecourse to the second pit stop in city centre Chester alongside the ancient walls. The rain had stopped so we were able to stow the rain coats in the running packs for the remainder of the day.
 
From Chester we picked up the canal to head out towards Frodsham, crisscrossing the M56 before heading into Dunham Hill Village and our 3rd Pit Stop (and opportunity for a very welcome hot cup of coffee!). The pit stops on the GB Ultra events are fantastic! So far, so good! The route had been muddy, I’d had a fall, but nothing really holding us up and we’d covered at least 20 miles in under 4 hours.

From Dunham though it all changed! Here was where the climbing started (which was still ok) and the mud became thicker and more troublesome (which was really not ok!)...
 
The views atop of Helsby hill overlooking the Dee Estuary and the Wirral were fantastic! The mud became progressively thicker, deeper and prolonged! At our slowest point we trudged just 2 miles through plowed muddy cornfields in 50 minutes. It had stopped being fun and was becoming a bit frustrating.

 
A brief respite as we dropped off Dunham hill into Delamere Forest followed before the final 10 miles or so in the worst of the mud, the pace and progress really slowing. A final, six mile trudge along the canal in the dark to return to Waverton just about finished us off! That was our quietest darkest moments. A couple of miles from the finish and my wife Karen and our dog Ollie appeared unexpectedly out of the darkness!?! Karen had been ‘live tracking’ our progress and had come to give us a morale boosting cheer on… Priceless! J

A final couple of miles and we hit a hardcore path and were finally able to run again.
The frustration turned to elation as we crossed the finish line at 7:25, 13 hours and 25 minutes after we’d set off! We finished joint 159th out of 250.

The thick, clay-like or liquid mud slowed people’s progress to a walk and there were several falls and quite a few DNF’s. The last of the days runners finished in 18.5 hours which is an indication of just how tough the conditions were.

GB Ultra’s organise superb events, and other than the mud which was outside of their control this was no exception! The team and volunteer marshals really couldn't be more helpful and attentive! Absolute starts every one! Definitely worth doing and glad I have another Ultra under my belt (All thanks to Dave McD for spurring us on!) J

Saturday 10 February 2018

25m Anglezarke Amble Fell Run


As part of the training for the 2018 Chester Ultra Marathon, Dave McDonald and I decided to take part in the Anglezarke Amble. It’s a Long Distance Walking Association event with a choice of two circular loops heading out of Rivington Village Hall in Bolton. Runners are made welcome too (but start an hour after the walkers). We took the longer of the two routes of 25.5miles climbing over Rivington Pike, Winter Hill, across Moorlands to Darwin Hill and Tower and then looping around to take in the ironically named Great Hill (which really isn’t!) back to Rivington. The time of year adds to the challenge. As we had the pre run briefing in the Village Hall we were warned that Snow had forced the move of one of the pit stop check points as the four wheel drive couldn’t get to the original location! Nice!

We started at 9.00am in rain that turned to sleet and fog as we immediately started to ascend to
Rivington Pike. The mud under foot turned to slippy ice on the climb. The summit was shrouded in mist so not a great deal to see other than the pike monument.

From there we continued to climb up to Winter Hill which at 1500ft was the highest point of the run and really was bleak in the conditions.

A few miles of steady descent across snowy moorland saw us catching up with first Harold from work who was walking and then Stuart (who previously joined us on our #BikesBoatsBoots adventure). A quick hello and then on around Turton and Entwistle Reservoir (whose dam was once the highest in Britain).

The first pit stop was very welcome before making the long but
gradual ascent along undulating and boggy tracks to Darwen Moors and the ascent to Darwin Tower. I’ve worked over in Accrington on and off for nearly 19 years and the Tower is visible on my commute from the M65 but this is the first time I’ve seen it up close! Again the weather meant that the views out to the Irish Sea were obscured in mist and sleet!

From Darwin Tower a short descent took us to Roddlesworth Woods. Another Pit Stop at Slipper Lowe fortified us you for the climb  over Great Hill. This really was a climb through bog land mire! Walking was slow and laborious, running seemingly out of the question! At last we reached the ascent and then a slippy and muddy descent down White Coppice saw me lose my footing falling head over heels through mud! Fortunately the soft mud broke my landing and saved me from any injury but I was covered in it!
A final pit stop at White Coppice Cricket field and the undulating trek back to Rivington to finish in 6 hours and 18 minutes.
The LDWA events are extremely well organised and great value for money… Where else can you get pit stops and a meat and potato hash with mushy peas at the end!