Frostbite 50 - a race that lives up to its name!

On the 26^th of January 2013 I competed in Adventure Hub’s Yorkshire Ultra  - a race which entirely lived up to its billing as the ‘Frostbite 50’.  I had entered the race with the idea of testing my fitness after the Christmas break although a less than ideal build-up meant that I wasn’t quite where I wanted to be in my training!

The location of the race is nothing other than stunning with the start located at Whitby Abbey and the race route taking in the the windswept coastline/Moors of the North East. 

However, due to the severe weather conditions the previous week and a further dumping of snow overnight on the Friday, the organisers had had to make several changes to the course route to ensure competitor safety.    Ultimately in consultation with the emergency services and taking into account the drifting on the Moors, the Ultra route was amended to two laps of the marathon route.   The route may have become slightly easier (although that was a matter for debate) but the psychological challenge of coming in to the finish and going out again was going to be interesting!!!
 

Following the race briefing, I set off in the first dozen or so runners following Anthony Gerundini  (known as TC)  a runner and mate who I bump into on a fairly regular basis on my running travels.  However, he was moving a little too fast for me so I let him go. 

The first few miles along the coast flew by and the snow and mud was only ankle deep at the worst, so good running was had by all.  The costal path followed the Cleveland way up until Ravenscar when we turned uphill onto the cycle route which would take us to Robin Hoods Bay. 

When I arrived at Robin Hoods Bay I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing my sister and her partner who had made the trip over from Scarborough to cheer me on, as well as a fully stocked aid station – ‘happy days’.  Having left the checkpoint, I pushed onto  the Cinder Track which took me to the base of the Moor.  It was along this slippy and snowy Track that I managed to catch up with TC.  At this point I think we were in the top ten group of runners.  We turned up onto the Moor together and that was when the real challenge began.  The drifts were thigh deep in places and there seemed to be little benefit in trying to follow the person in front’s tracks so we all seemed to be just trailblazing our own routes – and doing a great deal of falling over in the snow!

It was at this point that I began to realise that my decision to wear three quarter running tights was not the best choice when I looked down to see that my shins were gently trickling a stream of blood from the micro cuts I had sustained from repeatedly pushing my leg through the icy top skin of the snow drifts.  At the half marathon turnaround point, I put on my OMM Kamlieka bottoms to try and prevent further damage although by this time the return trail was very well trodden and I didn’t really need them.  Having maintained an overall pace of approximately 8.46 minute miles for the first ten miles – over the moorland my pace dropped to 18:57 min/mile   I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to recover the time I had lost so decided to try and maintain an even pace to Robin Hoods Bay in an attempt to minimise the damage.  A couple of the ultra race competitors came past me at this point but I couldn’t respond so I let them go.  When I arrived back at Robin Hoods Bay I had a chat with the CP staff (all of whom were BRILLIANT throughout the race) and my sister while I took off my waterproof bottoms and had a few Jaffa cakes and some tea before leaving setting off to chase down some runners who had run straight through the checkpoint.  I caught  up with and ran with a guy who was doing his first marathon.  Big respect – he was running strong and looked like he had got his pacing spot on.  I was then joined by Ben Thackwray who I had met at the Youth Hostel on the Friday night.  He was in shorts too and yes, he was cut to bits on his shins as well – ‘O we did chuckle about it – HA, HA!’.   We ended up running pretty much together to the end of the first marathon.

When I arrived back at Whitby I rested for a few minutes before making the decision that I really didn’t feel that I had enough training under my belt to make a good fist of completing the marathon – not to mention negotiating the thigh deep snow again!  Adventure Hub very kindly said they wouldn’t DNF anyone from the ultra stopping at the half way point so at least I would get a time (albeit that we wouldn’t actually be competing for marathon places).   My eventual time was 5:23:42

I have never liked not finishing a race (and this is only the second time I’ve not completed a race) but I had always intended that this was going to be a training run and I didn’t want to completely trash my training programme for the next three weeks while I recovered from the epic that this ultra would have turned into. 

The Yorkshire Ultra is a challenging race but I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

The team at Adventure Hub are committed to giving you a great race experience and it shows.  They went above and beyond many times over the weekend and have certainly converted me to their races.  Indeed, I’m planning to take part in the next Adventure Hub race in Minehead – which is a (another) 40 mile trot along the gruelling South West Costal Path.

Thank you to Lee, Ian, Ben, Heather and all the fantastic marshals on the day.  I look forward to seeing all again soon!