New Chew Orienteering Fell Race

The first of the Glossopdale Harriers Fell Champs races was the New Chew Short Score held a few weeks ago. It's a 3.5hr orienteering race from Dovestone Reservoir Sailing Club, and put on by Saddleworth Runners. I ran this race on my own some years ago and knew the area they covered was massive. I was mentally prepared, and this year had fellow club mate Lucy joining me to wander around the course with.

The race didn't disappoint - the biggest area possible was on offer with the potential to get as far out at Holme Moss mast - so I folded the map in half and pretty much ignored the whole eastern half! It was way too big an area for us. Weather was looking decent - clear visibility at the start but a chilly temperature and some snow up on the high ground.

This year there were no check points (CPs) north of the A635 Holmfirth Road so we headed out eastwards to pick up our first CP - 'B' just off the Chew Road. After a decent slog up the road we picked a point to head up the steep slope - it was really steep too, proper grabbing on heather and hoping it held steep! Our nav was spot on and we soon located the CP under a big bouldery crag.

Quite a lot of the CPs were looking to be placed in gnarly nav territory so we picked one we would be confident finding without too much bog bashing. The path by the side of Chew Reservoir was really icy and hard to get any sort of pace going. Heading east over Laddow Moss the path was less clear than I'd hoped. I've never been that way before and imagined it to be a motorway sized path given the areas it connects. The snow patches and innumerable groughs didn't help and we kept losing the path.

I turned to see where we'd come from and noticed the clag coming in. Bugger. Compass out, checked the bearing down a couple of groughs and picked the one most nicely heading where we were going. We eventually got the boundary line, and the fence. Nav choice here...and never being here before I took the safe option to continue south-east on the path to the edge over Crowden Great Brook - right past the marshal point. Then turn south along the edge path before contouring round and into CP 'I' up Oaken Clough.

Nav was spot on and luckily we bumped into a mate who knows the area really well - so I checked if the boundary line had a fence on it all the way south and sure enough it does....great. We navved back heading north west to the fence then followed it back to the stile we'd crossed earlier.  We'd been out 1hr 45 at this point so decided to get back to Chew Reservoir and decide what to do from there.

Nav back westwards was good, recognising bits of the path we'd been on. The decision then was either CP 'C' + CP'A' or just 'A'.  The frozen toes and lack of vis high up made us decide on just 'A'.  'C' would have been a decent and focused challenge and just getting 'A' was good for us.

Down the track we went....toes warming up a little on the way. We didn't pick the easiest of terrain to reach 'A' but it was the foolproof way - handrailing along the obvious wall to the far corner. It included some massive grass tuffs and slimy soggy wetness in between. Not fast going, but the best choice if the clag was down. As it was we weren't pushed for time - we were going to be back well under the 3.5hrs so it didn't matter.

With CP 'A' clipped we ran off the hill and back to the finish at the sailing club. We were almost the first ones back so I grabbed a quick shower and then we settled in to wait for Tim to return. Pie and gravy followed by delicious cakes and tea were well received in the warmth as other runners finished. Tim came in looking quite tired having pushed way out east, but he managed to grab top spot on the short score course. Myself and Lucy were a little lower down the finish table, but not last and no points lost!

A grand adventure on the hills was had, thanks to the marshals over at Laddow and Saddleworth Runners for putting on a great race. Thanks too to the team at the sailing club for sorting results quickly and providing a plentiful supply of food and drinks.

New Chew

I missed this race last year so I was pleased I could make it this year. I prefer orienteering races and this one is just over the hill from me. It is also one of our club championship races this year, so there was some obligation to run it so I would get points on the table. The short score was the counter for us which suited me; 3.5hrs on the hill is more than enough. To be honest, I've not done a run over 2 hours since early December, and nothing consistently over 1.5hrs for some months. I therefore set myself the target of 2-2.5hrs, and depending on the spread of check points 5 or 6 as a minimum.

After some time mingling around registration and with kit check complete we were eventually lining up to get our start time and map. 9.48am and a map is in my hand. It looked horrible. Check points (CPs) spread from beyond Sykes Pillar and Wessenden Reservoir in the north to Loft Intake (SE) and Holme Moss mast to the east, plus there were lots of out of bounds areas. There didn't seem to be any way to do a short circular route with the option of grabbing an extra CP or two at the end if I mistimed my planning or had spare energy left. Nothing for it but to get running, I'm already 4 minutes into my time. Oh well, as I'm not planning on being out the full 3.5hrs that doesn't matter. I think knowing that I couldn't get a decent route done with the spread of CPs got me into a frustrated state of mind to start with. I just couldn't settle.

I won't do a running commentary of this race...there were ups, there were downs, my shoes were uncomfortable for unknown reasons, there were times my feet got wet in marshy boggy grass tuft land (and it was very cold water), there was a bit of snow, some ice, some cold wind, some welcomed sunshine, gorgeous views and sufficient cold air to make my lungs scream in objection. The good news is that I achieved what I set out to do: running around for 2.5hrs and clipped 5 CPs worth 30 points. It was rather frustrating that the CP which I clipped furthest out (I reckon about 5km from the start) was still only worth 10 points and the rest 5 points. I've heard that some races do the points a different way, those being closest worth most points. That way, those that can push and get to the distant peripheral CPs only ever stand the chance of making small incremental gains over those who get the central CPs. That seems a much fairer way of doing it. I guess you'll never please everyone whatever way you do it.

I've studied the map further since the race ended and there really wasn't any easy circular routes to do. I'm not saying I want an easy race, but the spread of CPs made it hard for me to do any sort of loop. In fact I pretty much did an out and back, then a small loop to get one of the CPs on the east side of Yeoman Hey Reservoir. The second road crossing over the A635 was a good 3km away over featureless, tufty unrunnable (for me) moorland. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have been able to get there, and then back to the finish through the craggy valley of Greenfield Brook. The scoreless race would have been impossible for me to do as it took in too much of the terrain I can't run on, and realistically the distance covered alone would have been too much. I'm now left questioning whether to enter the next Dark & White mini mountain marathon next month after this race. On balance I think they're quite different, having their routes mostly set on footpaths makes it much more runnable. We'll see. I'm undecided.

Glossopdale Harriers had a fabulous day winning several prizes in both the short and long score. More on that below. Here's some photographs I took while plodding round the race:

Kit check....at this point we don't know it, but Glossopdale's Caity who's having her kit checked here went on to be 1st Lady in the Short Score, great running.

Looking back towards Alderman's Hill where CP 'B' was located

My attack point, the Obelisk on the hill above CP 'A'

Under Shaw Rocks heading north to CP 'H'

Returning back to Dovestones Reservoir, totally alone I'm looking back to the Obelisk as I head up to the Sugar Loaf

Looking down onto Dovestones Reservoir before dropping down off Alderman's Hill

First lady in the Short Score just arrived at the finish with fellow Glossopdaler

Evidence of my short Short Score race

Well done Glossopdale ladies, first Lady and first F45 lady

Well done also to our club Captain, Julien Minshull...winner of the Short Score race

Crowds gathering to devour the delicious cakes and check out the results

Glossopdale's Carl Bedson takes 3rd place in the Long Score, excellent running

Great score board

Provisional results are out on the Saddleworth runners website. Thanks to the organisers for a good event, I know I'm in the minority when being critical of CP placements etc and I write this blog purely for self-reflection and memory and definitely not to criticise.  The event was run really well so thank you to the RO and Saddleworth, and thank you to the man who sorted out the amazing hot food and cakes, they were delicious. The sailing club is a great venue for a race, having changing rooms and plenty of indoor space really helped on such a chilly day.

Glossopdale Harriers did brilliantly, being a club championship race we had a good turn out but equally we achieved great results:

Short Score:
1st (Julien Minshull)
2nd (Mark Ollerenshaw)
3rd (Tom Young)
5th (Dave Hogg)
9th (John Stephenson)
10th (Caity Rice)
11th (Lindsay Palmer)
14th (Charlie Eaton)
18th (Becky Thompson/Alison Holt)
22nd (John Hewitt)
27th (me!)

Long Score
3rd (Carl Bedson) - so close to 1st!!
27th (Sue Clapham)