6am and the alarm clock’s ringing in my ear, the rain is pouring down outside and I’m so tempted to turn over!!!

The 40 minute drive to Ackworth wasn’t filling me with confidence as the weather was getting worse by the mile.

I eventually park up and register, get my race number on and meet my running buddy 45 minutes later. Having to stand
around in the rain and wind before the race hooter went off wasn’t ideal either.

So the race itself was a hilly course all very marshalled filled with sweets on the way round.

Right from the start we knew this was going to be a tough race. We had to divert off the course to avoid a flooded road, but we soldiered on and started to settle down in to our race pace and as the miles passed, we took the constant headwind and driving rain
in our step.

By the time we got to the half way point we stopped for water and to plan how to attack the last half of the race. We decided to run the last part alone and just finish. My pace picked up knowing I only had a few miles to go.

Happily the weather started to turn, the wind slowed and the rain stopped!!! BLISS!!!

The last mile was filled with another flooded road, which, by the time
I got to it, I just went Rambo style and got drenched. This was then followed by the worst hill of the course but as I got to the
top I could see the finish line and actually sprinted in and finished in a time of 1 hour 58 minutes 16 seconds.

Driving back home I was thinking I’ll definitely do this one again and I’d recommend it to the other Pumas. Here’s the link for the event:

http://www.ackworthroadrunnersandac.co.uk/ackworthhalf/4587834622

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The Date: Sunday 28th February 2016

The Race: Winter Run Series

The Distance: 10k

The Location: Etihad Stadium – Manchester

It was a crisp clear cold winters morning when the 3 Pumas embarked on another 10K adventure.

Sarah Firth, Matt Newton and Melissa Hall all decided to try the Winter Run Series in Manchester.

The run was fundraising for Cancer Research which proved to be very popular as there was some 5,000 runners taking part in 2.5K, 5K and 10K races.

They took part in the 10K which meant running the 5K course twice. The course was mainly around the Manchester City football stadium, parts on neighbouring roads and also around the athletics track just next door.

10:30am the race started, as they ran under the start sign the snow machines started up and the Polar Bears waved them off! At various stages of the course there were people dressed as penguins giving high fives and encouraging everyone on. There was 1 water station enroute which was passed twice. Also there was a drumming band.

As the event was so popular there was a lot dodging in and out of people but the fabulous trio still managed to get some respectable times with both Sarah and Melissa getting new personal Bests. It was also Sarah’s first sub 60 minute 10k!!

2389 runners took part in 10K race. The Puma times and positions were:

• Sarah Firth – Place: 1316  Time: 59:57
• Melissa Hall – Place: 866  Time: 55:38
• Matt Newton – Place: 608  Time: 52:55

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Sunday 28 Feburary 2016 was a lovely day. Crisp and cold but with a nice bright blue sky. Perfect racing conditions!

So, what better day to tackle a 13.1 mile (hmmmm not quite…but more about that later) run around Harewood estate in Leeds.

Trail shoes at the ready for the 10am start. There was a field of around 1,000 runners.

As the race started it took a good mile or two for the crowd to thin out and give you the chance to start overtaking people.

The race started off on a gentle bit of flat, followed by a nice downhill section. Pretty much lulling you into a false sense of ‘oh, this isn’t too bad’. But as we all know, where there’s a nice down there’s always an up afterwards.

And there were plenty of ups, the majority of them weren’t too bad and we managed to run up them. But there were a couple of more severe ones, where there was no option (well no option for normal people, there were some super folk running them) but to walk up them.

The hardest hill of all was definitely the one that led to the finish line, it will always baffle me why race organisers feel it necessary to end a race by getting everyone to slog up a hill with a 117ft elevation! But slog up it we did!

I reckon there are two major selling points of this race:

1. The views. These were lovely, a really scenic race across some lovely countryside. There wasn’t a car or a tarmacked road in sight. It certainly beats running round a city centre, where views are generally a bit lacking.

2. The terrain. I know some of my fellow runners (*cough* *cough* Helen) would completely disagree, but the mixture of running surfaces was really enjoyable. It varied between grass, tracks through woods and couple of ‘proper’ paths/roads. It does make it harder, and your ankles will roll with the uneven terrain, but that’s all part of the fun. It makes the time go a lot quicker when you have to constantly think about where to place your footing to avoid falling!

There is one big gripe I have with the course though, and that’s the distance. I was sold a half marathon but my trusty GPS informed me that I’d actually only run 12.5 miles (0.7 miles short). I felt a bit cheated.

We started to notice around the 4 mile mark that we were falling short, every time we got to a mile marker, our watches weren’t quite showing the same distance. And the further along the route we got the further behind we fell. Making it especially noticeable later on in the race.

From what I could tell, the main reason for this was that there were easy places to cut corners, and when one person does this everyone follows. I think it would have been worth the route being marked a bit clearer or having more marshals posted in places where this could easily happen.

This gripe aside, I would highly recommend the race, especially if you enjoy something other than pounding pavements. Even if you don’t, give it a go, I think you’d be surprised by how much you enjoy it. But I’d recommend getting some off road practice in first!

Puma finishing times:

• Rachael Sherwood – 1:48:39 – Also the 22nd woman home, an amazing achievement
• Ally Canning – 2:09:26
• Helen Jackson – 2:09:26
• Nicola Watts – 2:11:57

Photos from the event:

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Sunday 21 February 2016 saw 2 Pumas brave the elements and take on the Blackpool half marathon.

Andrew tells us more about his seaside race (hopefully he managed to avoid the stags, hens and doughnuts!):

Sunday morning saw an early rise, quick breakfast and out of the door to pick up Deke and begin the one and half hour drive to Blackpool.

We arrived in Blackpool at around 9:45am not really knowing where we were going but just heading for the famous Tower. We parked the car and headed to McDonald’s for a quick coffee and a toilet stop and we saw some fellow runners who advised us that the registration and start was about 1 mile up the coast.

Back to the car to change into the running gear and after feeling the wind and rain, deciding to keep the running jackets on. We had a steady 1 mile jog up to the registration area were we realised that running North wasn’t going to be that problem but the South run was going to be very difficult.

When we arrived at the registration it was a few tables set out under the promenade with a fenced off area for the baggage storage and some long queues for the few portaloos which were available.

We collected our race numbers, pinned them on, dumped our bags and went to join the queue for the loos. We could see that the wind was wild and the waves were crashing up onto the sea front:

It was that bad that the 1 mile marker which was next to the sea and already washed over with the waves.

After a quick chat with the race starter we realised that we were going to be running along the sea front, waves and all, for half of the race and against the fierce winds on the cliff tops for the other half.

The race consisted of 2 loops of the bottom part of the course, followed by 2 loops of the top part of the course before finishing in the bottom part of the course against the wind.

At first we thought that repeating loops might be a bit boring and take some of the enjoyment out of the race but it actually helped to break up the running, and meant that we spend some time running with the wind and some time running against it.

We thought running with the wind would be a welcome change, and it probably made us a bit quicker, but there were frequent waves crashing over the tops of our heads and we heard quite a few screams from men and women along the course.

Running into the wind must have added around 4 or 5 minutes to the the time and I was taken clean off my feet at one point and blown to the side but we both still managed get new Half Marathon PB’s!!

Deke completed the race in 1:33:18.2 and Andrew finished in 1:48:06.2.

This is definitely a course to break PB’s…..if it isn’t too windy!!