– a look back on Rob Underwood‘s very first venture into 20+mile races
The Grindleford Gallop 2023: 21 and a bit miles of Peak District earth, air, water… and fire burning in my belly. Just the thing!!! I’ve learned by now – the hard way – to prepare accordingly, rather than rely on noble but fallible grit. So I was ready for the challenge… in bloody March! Then the one weekend of late, heavy snow caused the postponement of the event. So, now, in October, I was ready again.
But how did this enthusiastic lumberer end up on the start line at the GG, an event so far beyond my typical running limits? I could go on at length with beautiful, flowery words about a need to keep challenging myself physically and mentally as I advance in years, or trying to role model a wholesome lifestyle to my young children, or trying to prove to myself that I belong alongside my ‘hard-hands job’ grafting forbearers, despite my more sedentary ‘soft-hands job’ life. Or maybe it really is just the pull of those wonderful endorphins.
Whatever the reason, I was delighted to find myself in a car share to the event with 2 other Harriers (would have been 3 but for sickness striking) – a simple thing that genuinely added to the experience. A big part of running as many will attest is the community – unassuming, wholesome, supportive attitudes in abundance. (Is there a nicer, better-balanced group of people on this planet than ‘runners’? I suspect not!). On arrival, the conditions were great – blue skies, cool and clear, a little wet underfoot in places. The perfect setting to climb my mountain with comrades gathered there for all sorts of reasons and for absolutely no reason at all. I was truly excited and genuinely happy to be in that start-horde. I understand starts at these events are often low-key, and this was no different. At some point the horde just seemed to start running. OK, off we go!
Cat Johnson’s Gallop Write up from 2019
I won’t dwell too much on the run itself. We’ve all done them. Great energy at the start, tough in places, discomfort eased by occasionally remembering to look up. Perfect people watching – the oblivious personal pacers, the passers heading into the future and the passed into the past. My stage times (captured via frantic waving of a wristband at marshals’ hand-held devices at 6 points along the course) were each spookily close to 10min/mile pace, except the last one – which included a long, desperate crawl up from Baslow to the edges – and overall I came in just under my arbitrary 4hr target. So ultimately I was, in the words of the great bard himself, ‘well chuffed’. An event in every sense. Just great (and grateful) to be there.
A final comment worthy of note is that the course was really well marked and marshalled all along, with a cake stop around half way. My pre-race navigation concerns proved completely unfounded. So don’t let that put you off, any would-be-Gallopers!
And so now it is done. I will walk this earth with renewed quiet contentment, and look forward to the next one.
Check Out Rob’s run on Strava here