Starting 2023 as I hope to go on….

North Leeds Greenway Ultra

Another month, another Punk Panther event! I began 2023, on New Year’s Day, with the North Leeds Greenway Ultramarathon, a 34 mile/3600 ft circuit of North Leeds from Otley. Starting off with the steep climb up the Chevin to Surprise View (650 ft ascent in the first mile) the route takes in West Carlton, Guiseley, Yeadon, Rawdon, Apperley Bridge, Horsforth, Kirkstall, Beckett’s Park, Headingley, Meanwood, Eccup, Cookridge and Bramhope before returning to the Chevin and down into Otley. It’s not the most exciting route when compared to going out into the Yorkshire Dales for instance, but it was definitely less urban than it sounds. Having lived in North Leeds in the past I know it fairly well, and still I was pleasantly surprised by discovering how some of the bits of suburbia are linked, and how green it all is. The terrain is a nice combination of fields, parks, woodland and a bit of road, often in the shape of public footpaths through ginnels and snickets (that’s Yorkshire for alleyways).

Due to the recent heavy rain the conditions underfoot were very muddy indeed, farmers’ fields and the Meanwood Valley Trail being particularly soggy mudfests and very energy sapping. It also meant having cold and wet feet right from the early miles. This was bearable, but could have been problematic had the race been much longer. The weather overhead was mixed, it was a breezy day, and we had to contend with quite a few heavy showers, but could also enjoy some dry and almost sunny hours and a few rainbows.

From the first field after the Chevin until the finish line I ran with a lovely woman called Katy. We had never met before the race though she had done a couple of Punk Panther events too. We were very well matched in pace and got on well, neither of us seemed to have a desire to push on alone. When I had to briefly pop ‘behind a bush’ in the woodlands above Kirkstall Road I did say “you press on, I might see you at the checkpoint at Beckett’s Park”, and unbeknownst to me within 30 seconds poor Katy took a wrong turn in the woods! I wondered where she was when I found myself on the next open stretch and couldn’t see her ahead, it seemed unlikely she could have sprinted ahead that far, and then she arrived after me at the checkpoint. From there on we stuck together properly, Katy grateful for my better knowledge of the route, as I had been lucky enough to be able to reccy it all, being local. And I enjoyed the company. Running together like this in a race is quite a rare occurrence for me, despite being quite sociable I often end up running on my own at these events once the field thins out, as I am someone who likes to go at their own pace. But our paces were just perfectly matched here. We started to overtake some runners too, which was good for our morale.

Weather notwithstanding, by the afternoon it was very busy in the parks and on the trails, in particularly Meanwood Park, the Meanwood Valley Trail, and Golden Acre Park were packed with families out on their obligatory New Year’s Day walks. There were slow-moving adults, prams, small children, sulking older children, and very muddy dogs, all ploughing their way through the mud and rain. Getting past them was challenging at times, we had to temper our impatience as it wouldn’t do to catapult any unsuspecting ambling pedestrians into the fast-flowing Meanwood Beck just inches away. There was a woman in a brand new ankle-long brilliantly white puffer coat walking in Golden Acre Park, we gave her a wide berth as splashing that coat would not have made us popular I am sure! As we were heading towards the Golden Acre Park toilets I decided that if there was a queue I would try and push ahead saying ‘make way, we’re in a very important race’ 🤣, thankfully such theatrics were not called for as there were 2 empty cubicles which we dived into.

When we got to the last checkpoint at Cookridge the marshals told us we were 2^nd and 3^rd woman to come past! That made us crack on to retain that position, I had just got a bit chatty with the marshals and was enjoying a piece of cheddar cheese when we saw some more runners approaching the checkpoint, so we flew off on our way. No time for hanging about and only 10k to go. The two of us were not competing between ourselves but definitely were competitive towards the rest of the field! It really helped having each other to keep the pace up in those final miles when the legs were starting to complain more loudly. We reached the finish and stepped over the line together as joint 2^nd lady (me as 1^st F50 too), and also joint 7^th finishers overall out of a field of 25 competitors, in 7 hours, 13 minutes and 22 seconds.

As there is nothing technical about the terrain I’d had silent hopes of being able to cover an average of 5 miles per hour which would have given me a sub-7 hour time, but it wasn’t quite to be. The mud certainly didn’t help forward progress! There were checkpoint and toilet stops of course but I could not have minimised those any further, not to the point of taking another 13 minutes off. Anyway, delighted with the end result. I didn’t allow myself any time to take photographs along the way, I don’t tend to do when I am ‘racing’, but thankfully some of my fellow competitors did take some lovely pictures and I include some in this blog with their permission.

Both the Half Marathon and the 20 mile race had joint winners. There must have been something in the air to make people so companionable to want to cross the line together. I guess it’s what Punk Panther does to you!

We enjoyed the warm welcome back at the finish. One of my Ilkley running club friends was there waiting to see me come over the line, which was a lovely surprise. There was tea, and Punk Panther’s Bev’s wonderful carrot and coriander soup as well as cheese toasties. Delicious! Nothing tastes so good as hot food when you have been running /ploughing through mud for more than 7 hours. I was also very pleased to be able to put some dry socks and shoes on.

My next Punk Panther ultra is in February, around Harrogate. I’d better get recceing!