Hardmoors Wedding Celebration Run

North York Moors, Sunday, June 1, 2014

Anita Dunseith

Mark and I have taken part in a number of Hardmoors 10Ks (which are usually about 8 miles long!) and were over the moon to be invited along to the race directors Jon and Shirley’s wedding celebration run.

The bride and groom Jon and Shirley Steele.

Invitation stated dress code as bow ties and frilly dresses. Yikes, neither of us had the correct kit! Last minute shopping trip to Tesco and Mark bought an “ahem” fetching waistcoat and I rooted through my holiday dresses for something I may be able to run in.

Today dawned gloriously sunny and warm so we knew we were in some some spectacular views of the North Yorkshire Moors, and we’d be able to see Middlesbrough too. We arrived with about 20 minutes until the start which is very good going for us and saw with some amount of relief that the majority of runners were also adhering to the dress code.

Fairly quick race briefing from Jon; follow the fast people and the yellow tape and try not to die en route and spoil our weekend was the general gist of it.

Under starter’s orders and we were off, up a hill! God bless you Hardmoors. Just under about a hundred runners followed the narrow trail away from Lordstones car park and out onto the hills. The scenery was absolutely incredible today, you just can’t ask for better, we could see for miles and miles. What we thought was quite cool was that we were actually running higher than a helicopter was flying. Some great outfits on show, one guy in a kilt and a tam o’shanter who put my hubby Mark “I love being Scottish” Dunseith to shame as well as a couple of verrrry fit topless guys wearing bow ties. Yes, there are definitely worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Mr and Mrs Dunseith in their finery.

So, being a Hardmoors run there were hills, trust me when I say there’s nothing better than reaching the summit of a whopping great hill to see the next whopping great hill you’re going to be climbing after some serious mountain goat efforts on the descent. Aaaahhh yes, nothing better!

When you’re running over the moors in a flowery dress and your hubby is in shirt, tie and waistcoat you draw some questioning looks but what I found refreshing was discovering there is always someone out there who is even crazier than us. Today it was a guy on his mountain bike who was bombing down the hills and CARRYING his BIKE back up them. Officially mental in my book.

The route took in the Wainstones which require actual clambering because you can’t go round them; you have to go through them. This is genuinely hard work but once at their summit there’s a fairly flat section to catch your breath for the final couple of hills before the turnaround point. Jelly babies and cold water never tasted so good. We turned round and went back up the hill from Claybank and did all the lovely hills again, in reverse (we’re sitting trying to remember how many hills they were and we lost count!) Legs were tired on the final ascent but when we saw the big white tent in the distance we knew we were almost done which gave us the spur we needed to finish to a big round of applause which is always great.

This was a really lovely event organised by two great people and attended by some ultra running royalty who are genuinely nice people. I even met Shelli Gordon who was first lady and second overall at last week’s inaugural Hardmoors 160mile ultra marathon. I played it supercool when I met her and told her she was a rock star. Ohhhh yeah, that’s how cool I am.

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