running up hill and down dale

York (where I live) is lovely but it is undeniably flat. In this sense - as well as in many others - it's no San Francisco, Porto, Caracas or Rome. While the absence of seven or more hills from the local topography can be a little uninspiring, it's great for views of York Minster... and for running. In fact, you can run all day around York and never encounter so much as an elevated mound. If you feel the need to do any proper hill training, on the other hand, you have to drive halfway to the coast to encounter any serious kind of gradient (which my running club plan to do tomorrow night, the masochists). So why, of all the 10k races to choose from, did I go for Kirkbymoorside? The views, of course: I can't resist a good view.


As the name suggests, Kirkbymoorside grew around a church on the edge of the North York Moors. The moors, being lofty and wild compared to the pancake-flat Vale of York to the south and west, require a bit of getting to. Pretty simple by car, but not so easy by bike or on foot.

So the ten kilometres began with an unforgiving, unremitting pull for a mile or more out of this charming little North Yorkshire market town, winding steadily up to the village of Gillamoor on the very edge of the moors. It was a beautiful day, if a little fresh, and the views were indeed wonderful (yes - all the way back to the Minster!). By this stage, the men had already been firmly separated from the boys and I, along with the rest of the 'boys', continued onward to the equally pretty village of Fadmoor to be cheered onward by a clutch of farmers' wives, a rabble of dogs and a few stray chickens.

From here, it was a glorious descent back into 'Kirby' (or KMS, if you prefer), with the odd cheeky little hill thrown in to dispel any misplaced tendency towards enjoyment. The final, invigorating sprint brought me, red-faced and thoroughly out of puff, straight down the main street amid cheering locals, welcoming pubs and the brassiest of bands. Once greeted by a suitably impressed wife and dog, I downed my sickly-sweet 'recovery drink' in order to counterbalance the dehydrating effect of a couple of pints of Jennings, which were soon to follow.

So that's two of the year's four races out of the way, and with reasonable success (19min 37sec for the 5k; 42min 24sec for the 10k). 'All' that remains now is the Half Marathon across the Humber in June, and then the biggie... along the shores of Loch Ness in the autumn.