Hodgson Brothers Mountain Relay 2024 – Write-up by Andy Beavers
It’s that time of year again. The heating has gone on and fell-running folk start to meet before dark in all parts of the country to travel and coalesce in a muddy field for a day and run as a team rather than for individual honours. Yes folks, it’s relay season.
First up are the Hodgson Brothers Mountain Relays. The history is fascinating (see here for more: HBMR HISTORY) but the long and short of it is that it is a 4 leg loop run in pairs over some difficult terrain. Entries are limited to 70 with a maximum of 3 per club and it is always oversubscribed. Selection is based on both history and performance and a little bit of spreading the love around (ie new clubs). Macclesfield normally gets one team and it has been recognised that the chances of a second will largely depend on consistently outperforming other clubs with more than one team in the mix. And so it is over to this year’s crew to see how they could fare.
The preceding week consisted of the usual blizzard of logistical whatsapp messages with the ultimate conclusion that we’d drive and park in the field and work it out on the day (also, as it happens, the same plan as last year). Finally attention turned to racing and captain Burley set out the team objective. Match or improve on the best leg times from the last two years and we’d be home in something like 4h.18.30. Good enough for 15th last year. With target of a top 20 place set, we were off.
Leg 1 – Andy Beavers and Allan Bunyan – 41.37
The start is a chaotic 1 km sprint along the road to the bottom of the hill. Any thought of pacing and holding something back go out of the window with the realisation that you’ll be well down the field and struggling to get past anyone on the climb. Hence you find yourself running flat out and nervously glancing at your partner to ensure they have no thoughts of going any faster.
Once at the hill it is a long and steady climb to the top of the ridge. It transpires that chasing Mr Bunyan up 400m of ascent is not the best marathon recovery strategy and whilst he pushed on I was left to hang on. Generally we held our own though and arrived at the top with the same bunch of fellow competitors as we’d left the bottom. Meanwhile Carnethy were well on the way down and on their way to equalling the course record with a 33.14 run.
Over to Angle Tarn and the first checkpoint and then follow the path along the ridge for a bit. The original route on which the relays are based continues along the ridge but there is a need to facilitate a handover and so leg 1 turns right and leaves the path. Runners then leave the ridge and drop back into the valley.
“Drop” is the operative word here because the valley side is a precipitously steep grass wall that means that any attempt to proceed quickly will resulting in falling. Last year it was wet. Falling meant a long slide, a bit of a scramble to get up again and then another long slide. Participants arrived at the bottom wet, muddy and quickly! This year it was dry. A fall meant a couple of bounces, a bit of friction burn and then the opportunity to stand up and repeat the process again. Participants arrived at the bottom dry, missing some skin and with sore backsides.
Once at the bottom it is just the final checkpoint and the 1km run in to go. A steady downhill and well made farmers track makes for a fast finish and another opportunity to hope your partner is on the same limit as you are. Finish time was nearly a minute under prior year albeit we were further back in placings.
Leg time (41:37). Team time (41:37).
Leg 2 – Nathanael Booker and Billy Hicks – 01.13.50
We will not speak of the detail but this leg has proved problematic in the past and the start was slightly inauspicious as Nathanael headed off on the wrong track. Quickly rectified though and this pair were quickly into their stride and beginning the process of picking off the teams in front.
The route necessitates an immediate climb back up the valley to High Street before traversing to Caudale Moor and dropping back into Kirkstone. Unlike leg 1 there is a bit more flexibility in lines and route choices with some scope for things to go awry.
However, sound route choices and strong running meant that excellent progress was made throughout this leg with the team ultimately dropping down into Kirkstone 6 minutes up on target and in an incredible 9th place. An absolutely storming performance from the pair.
Leg time (01:13:50). Team (01:55:20)
Leg 3 – Jon Hopper and Tom Whittington – 01.00.47
The smell of deep heat permeating from the preparation area quickly identified the leg 3 crew as our veteran team. Jon was relieved to be running this year with someone who wasn’t half his age whilst Tom was delighted to be back racing at all even if it did mean patching his knee up with a variety of improvised support devices.
Both had taken the leg seriously with recce visits in the preceding days and weeks albeit that Tom’s conclusion that it wasn’t his type of terrain did not initially bode well.
Nevertheless, released onto the hills the pair put in another excellent run. The route is up to Red Scree Tarn and then over to Doves Cragg before dropping down to Hartsop Hall via first the most technical drop of the race through wet, muddy and rocky crags and then an all-out assault over wide stony track, for the final changeover. The terrain is difficult to both navigate and run on but the team’s pre-work paid off with a near flawless leg. The time was just outside last years standard but the preceding year was an exceptional performance and this was always going to be the hardest leg to match/improve on.
Leg time (01:00:47). Team (02:56:07)
Leg 4 – Mark Burley and Joe Pickard – 01.15.04
The final leg requires strong ascending and descending skills. The route retraces part of leg 3 to take the teams up to Hart Cragg before crossing to St Sunday Crag via the un-check-pointed Fairfield. Then a final difficult technical descent to the event field in Patterdale.
As ever, Mark powered up the hills whilst Joe employed his best pain face to just about keep tabs on him. It was roles reversed on the descents with Mark desperately clinging on as Joe floated down impervious to the underfoot terrain.
Fate can deal a funny set of cards and so it proved in this instance with a bunch of folk having been assembled and travelling 100 miles up the road to have a race against a pair from the hill next door. Hence leg 4 involved the Macclesfield pair interchanging places with the Pennine pair throughout. It was a tight race, albeit probably made tighter by the Pennine pair pausing atop Fairfield to hunt for a checkpoint that wasn’t there. Ultimately the Pennine pair just won out although the first sprint finish of the day brought a little bit of excitement to the event field whilst the commentator desperately scrambled for his notes to work out who the maroon pretenders were arriving earlier than expected.
Leg time (01:15:04). Team (04:11:11)
Overall a 14th placed finish in a very creditable 4.11.11, Several pairs thought there was a bit more to be squeezed out on their legs so potential for further improvement next year. Thanks go to Mr Burley for organising, all participants for their efforts and reserve runner Alex who hopefully didn’t miss anything important on his phone whilst enduring a deluge of logistical whatsapp messages during the preceding week.
Team Macc Harriers