On Tuesday morning of last week, I received a phone call from one of our Kirkstall Harriers Men's Club captains Jason Buckley, giving me an official 'call up' to replace an injured runner at Sunday's Bradford Millennium Way.
In 2014 I was down to run Leg 1 and stupidly I regrettably 'slept in' and missed the start, causing panic within the team, thankfully team-mate Alan Brydon stepped in for me at last minute. I wasn't favourite of the month at the club after that put it that way, so I decided I would just put myself down as a 'standby' this year, and to be honest I didn't expect to get called up, so it was a bit of a surprise. I didn't want to let my team-mates down this year and ironically I was also set to run Leg 1, just like last year and although I only got the call up in the week leading up to the event on Sunday, I was pretty excited.
So, my running friend Alan picked me up around 6am along with my Leg 1 partner Ryan and we headed off to the area of the finish of Leg 1 / start of Leg 2. We then met Alan's Leg 1 partner James and he drove us all to the start of Leg 1, at the impressive Bingley Sports Club where we all registerd our two teams and received our race numbers and our Bradford Millennium Way (BMW) mementos which were a cool snook with the Soltaire Runners logo printed on. Soltaire Runners host and organise the BMW.
The BMW is an 'official' country walk or trail route that surrounds the city of Bradford, Leeds also has its own version called Leeds Country Way (which I have competed in twice). The idea of the BMW is that over the whole course, there are 5 legs and each team have to have two partners running each leg as a relay and at the end of their leg tag their next partners who then set off for their leg.
This was the first time I had actually met my partner - Ryan and we got on very well straight away. We both wanted to have a good run but most of all enjoy the experience. The weather was pretty overcast and cool so the conditions for running were pretty perfect for us, definitely not the heat wave of the day before.
We started quite far back and we didn't set off at a mega pace we just gradually built our pace up. Our leg was 9.9 miles and the first few miles were mainly through narrow rocky paths in woods, we past a lovely waterfall and stream too. It was pretty slippy along the early part of the route and both me and Ryan nearly had a few accidents.
Having not done a recce of the route due to being called up quite late on, there were times we nearly got lost, so there were times we had to slow down and allow a team behind us to guide us some of the way, which was funny.
The course was very tough but I enjoyed the fact it was tough and I think I definitely fell back in love with trail running. I do feel I need to get some better running trainers that are more specifically designed for off-road running as I did slip on quite a few occasions but thankfully came through injury free. There were loads of tough rocky hills but I loved the hills, especially the rocky and winding effect, I was almost getting a buzz out of it, where my core strength really came into play and I feel I was working my core strength on the hills loads. The harder the course the better - I seem to relish hills - I'm a real animal when it comes to hills - that feeling of lactic acid in my thighs though - ooooh. Haha.
As we approached the last mile or so, me and Ryan were still going strong and we lead a small pack of teams over the last mile (after kindly getting help from some of them along the route as we nearly got lost a few times) and finished strongly up a real tough climb at the end as we tagged our team mates for them to start Leg 2.
For me, it was a great morning of running and I thoroughly enjoyed running every minute of it with my new running partner Ryan. My favourite part of the race was our decent down a country valley, we were really flying down there overlooking an amazing view of a little village - it almost felt like a fell race at this point - great fun. Maybe I might enter a fell race soon?
I'm not sure what our team's final result is as of yet but the results should be announced shortly. Welldone to everyone running from our club, great work.
Where: Pudsey Congs Cricket Club
When: Friday 26th June - 7pm
The party was organised by one of our Club Committee members Sam Broome and she did an amazing job, it was such a fun party. We had outdoor games, which were organised by members Alan Brydon and Andrew Kirby, we also had our very own professional DJ from our running club Stephen Groves who kept us all entertained all night. We had buffet food on and an amazing anniversary cake and buns by Sam. We also had further speeches from Club Chairman Chris Glover, who also hosted an after party with his wife Alyson, which sadly due to working the next day I couldn't make.
Also, on top of the party every club member were awarded with a free special anniversary technical Kirkstall Harriers running t shirt. There were also mugs available to buy.
I had a really great time and here are a few photos from the event:
When: Official club training nights are Monday's and Wednesdays meeting at 6:50pm.
Where: We meet in the Function Room at Kirkstall Leisure Centre.
Clubhouse: Our official club house and showers are located opposite the leisure centre in the LPSA Club (Leeds Postal Service Association).
Website: www.kirkstallharriers.org.uk
Twitter: @KHarriers
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