Gibside Fruitbowl

 

I spent the weekend considering doing the Brampton to Carlisle 10 miler. There were nearly 900 already entered. The forecast looked increasingly promising, dry with a slight tailwind for this point to point and slightly above average temperatures for November. However, by the time I had made up my mind and got on the site to enter, it was full. This left me at a loose end. 

In my efforts to cram in as much plodding as I can manage (I’m not capable of running sufficiently fast these days that there’s any reasonable risk of me injuring myself), I scanned the race websites to see what the options were. 

Gibside Fruitbowl. Located around 40 minutes drive from me, it’s a seven miler around a Country Estate on tarmac and gravel tracks. Speedy is out injured at the moment, but she said she’d come along and we were nearly first to arrive armed with 2 dogs.  

I picked up my number and spotted Redman of Sunderland Harriers as I pinned on my number. He nodded acknowledgment. We’ve had some good ding-dongs in the past years and I thought he wouldn’t be far from me at some point in the race. 

Around 200 lined up for the race and we set off, the day calm and the sky a heavy grey. The tarmac was heavily pitted and rutted in places so I had to watch where I was placing my feet. ‘Feet, feet’ I repeated to myself. I was wearing the Asics trail shoes I had worn when I broke my foot in late April, so I was wary. Suspecting the carbon plate and thickened sole for exacerbating a foot rotation that bit worse, I had to ensure there was no repeat. /

After around a mile, the field thinned out and I found the Sunderland runner about 50 metres in front. I was feeling good and decided to sit behind him. On one or two of the inclines (and, on this course, they certainly were proper uppy-downy affairs) the gap reduced to a few seconds, but he was effective on the descents and I knew I had a race on my hands. He picked off a few runners. I picked off a few runners. I was still behind him at 6 miles and fancied my chances with a final sprint, but at the top of a short, sharp incline, I heaved and had to slow to regain my composure. He had looked back a few times and so there was no chance of the element of surprise.  He pulled a good few metres out of me after 'heavegate'. Ever the competitor, I had half a mile to make an impression, and it was 10 seconds on the line, but still 5 seconds behind by chip timing. An excellent race and nice shoe bag and sweeties at the end.