From Ash Winter…
The Harewood House Half (HHH) has always been a favourite of mine, as I never remember to enter the Temple Newsam Ten (TNT) in good time. However, I shouldn’t play down the race itself as a TNT replacement alone, as it’s a decent race in its own right. The Harewood Estate is a lovely place, with excellent trails with plenty of undulations. Hill strength and endurance is the order of the day, with sharp hills to wobble the legs and longer ascents to sap the energy.
The race is organised by Wild Deer Events, with a 5km and 10km option. Usually, club vests are thin on the ground, but Saturday was different with a liberal dose of Otley, Shadwell, Pocklington and even St. Theresa’s (given the TNT the next day). It’s pretty good value though, chip-timed, water stations and the traditional trail half marathon bonus distance (always half a mile longer than an actual half marathon, I’m looking at you Baildon Boundary Way).
I arrived in plenty of time for number retrieval, stretches, drills and 2km warm up, during which I inadvertently strayed into the domain of the 5km finishers. My bad. As I queued up for the start, I bumped into Lucy Lowe and Heidi Hoad, a lovely surprise to see a couple more Harriers. They were aiming for a social run; I was going to see how I felt once I got going. Both Heidi and I had post Valencia marathon legs and all.
Problem with the approach of seeing how I feel is that the first couple of miles are mostly steeply downhill. This led to me feeling amazing and smashing out a spicier than intended start. After that there is a solid couple of miles of climbing to remind you that all descents need to be paid back in full. This pattern continues throughout the race, as you loop back on yourself and vice versa all the ascents and descents. At least you know what’s coming. You end up with a respectable 1,300 feet of climbing when you are done. I passed the 13th mile marker, knowing it was a trick and there was still some distance to go. I rumbled over the finish with a time of 01:46:13, a minute or so faster than last year, so I metaphorically patted myself on the back. My only complaint, last year I saw multiple Highland Cows on the route (like on the trail in front of you), but they were sadly absent on Saturday.
Afterwards, I met northeast running YouTube legend Al Pepper which made me happy. Plus chatted to a few other runners I had battled with on the route. Lucy (02:22:30) took a narrow victory over Heidi (02:22:32) on their social run. I didn’t see them finish, but I would like to think Lucy sprinted for the win in the last 10 metres.