Urban Trail Runner: Middleton Woods

For me the last few years have all been about the next challenge.  First it was getting out of the door and going for a run.  Then it was my first 10k.  A few races, and a year and a bit later, it was my first half marathon.  Now I'm training for my first marathon.  I don't know about anybody else, but for me that feels like quite a escalation of running distance since my first 2k run/walk back in 2012.

In fact, since I started running I've clocked up over 2,500k but most of those have been on tarmac and I'm starting to feel the onset road running fatigue.  This isn't great as there is still a long way to go before I take on the Yorkshire Marathon.  To give myself some more off-road miles, and following on from my first trail run at Over the Odda, I signed up for the inaugural Middleton Woods Urban Trail Runner race.

When I entered I did so on the basis that I had nothing else in the diary on the same day as the race.  What I should have done was looked at what I was doing in the weeks around it.  Last weekend was the Pennine Lancashire 10k and next weekend is the Leeds 10k.  I should have realised that I'm not a three races in three weekends kind of runner.  The distance isn't the problem but the intensity of race days takes a bit longer to get over.  Then there is the question of my Marathon Training plan.  So far it had been building gradually but the day after Middleton I was due to run 15 miles, my longest run to date.

With the LSR* in the back of my mind I set off for John Charles Stadium.  The morning wasn't great.  There was a chill and drizzle in the air.  I had also woken up feeling like somebody had dropped a hammer on my foot over night, but a trot around the athletics track at the stadium told me that I would be OK to run on it.  We lined up at the start and received the pre-race instructions.  It turns out the the locals were not content with removing the route markers, but they had moved them to make us through a swamp, luckily this had been discovered before we set off.

And they're off!

After a quick lap of the track we were off into the woods via "Scrooge Hill".  I got stuck in traffic but everything was going fine but then we got to the first serious hill up to the Rose Garden in Middleton Park.  I could have found the strength and stamina from somewhere to make it to the top of the slope, I've run up worse, but I remembered the 15 miles that lay ahead of me on Sunday and decided to walk and save my legs.

That set the pace for the rest of the race.  Happily running and maintaining a good pace through the twisty, muddy, bramble strewn trails and the mown paths of the clearings but then slowing to a walk on the steeper up-hill sections.  I covered the 8.6k route in 47:25, slower than I would have liked but, given my decision to walk, a time I should be happy with.

Once I have managed to get the marathon out of the way I think my next challenge will be improving my trail running, more off road, more hills, and more mud.  Roads are a safe bet when it comes to routes, especially organised races but trails, to me, are where the adventure can begin anew.**

*Long Slow Run
** The day after the Middleton Wood Trail race I set out to run 15 miles with Rich and Martin from South Leeds Lakers.  They ran with me for the first 4 miles before turning back and their company was very welcome.  I found a slow and comfortable pace, ran on pavements, along the canal, through the city centre, and Cross Flatts Park, and finished in 2:28:28.  My longest ever run in the bag.  The next long training run is 17 miles in a couple of weeks, but before that there is the small matter of the Leeds10k.