Willow Miner – July 2024

by Paul Campbell

Brimm brothers missing (unless one is in dinosaur suit…) I was keen to do this one as it was the first event I did after joining the club in 2022, then missed it last year due to injury. It sold out pretty quickly, not surprising as it’s a little different to the norm – a random distance of 5.4m, local, and cheap due to no medals, t-shirts, goody bags etc. Checking the entries there were 10 Crookites signed up. Unfortunately, others on the waiting list didn’t manage to get a cancellation place. Most but not all had done it previously, so had an idea what to expect. For a July night it wasn’t too hot, and part of the route is through woodland which kept the temperature down a little. Strava measured the elevation at 560 feet and the course at 5.3 miles. To put this into perspective, it works out at approximately the same elevation per mile as Hamsterley & Blackhill Parkruns, however other than the first (and last) 0.3 miles which are on the road heading towards the woodland, every other section is either on trails, grassy paths, around fields, or up & down steps.  There was plenty of encouragement throughout the course, and I followed an Elvet runner for a few miles who had her own cheerleading squad due to it being an Elvet Strider organised event. After going off too quick in the Durham 10k the previous week, I purposely took it steady on the first 1.5 miles which included 3 climbs, I think the tactic paid off as I was able to overtake quite a few runners on the flattest part of the course between 1.5 and 3.5 miles before the dreaded hill to the Willow Miner sculpture comes into play. I’ll be honest I didn’t event see the sculpture as I had my head down, walking up the hill trying to avoid being photographed! I knew there were less than 2 miles left once we’d reached the top and managed to jump a few places though the returning woodland, mainly as I couldn’t get my legs to move quick enough to safely navigate a steep downhill section so thought “sod it” and ran down full pelt, legs and arms flailing trying to stay upright. On the road to the finish line, I thought I may have a chance at sneaking up and catching Matty, but when a marshal shouted, “well done Crook 1” immediately followed by “well done Crook 2”, I think he got wind of me behind him and managed to find another gear. I was over the moon to get a course PB, as did a lot of the others. Ian going under 40mins in the race for the first time and Amanda going under 50 mins. The winner, who has also claimed first prize in other years, finished in 30:46. That’s well under 6-minute miles, and it amazes me how people can run 5+ miles on those terrains at a quicker pace than I can do one mile on a track! Crook Results: Pos NAME TIME CAT GEN POS CAT POS 25 Ian Thompson 00:39:47 MSen 25 10 49 Matthew Brimm 00:43:39 MV40 47 21 50 Paul Campbell 00:43:40 MV40 48 22 52 Simon Brimm 00:44:02 MV40 49 23 60 Peter Coser 00:45:03 MV50 56 9 92 Amanda Taylor 00:49:14 FV50 15 4 122 Paul Smith 00:51:57 MV60 89 10 132 Jillian Berry 00:52:58 FV50 38 8 181 Emma Lawson 01:00:37 FV40 72 30 208 Frank Best 01:14:22 MV70 117 2 There were home-made cakes for sale at the end, proceeds going to Mind Charity, plenty of water, and a random purple dinosaur.  Me & Ian hung around for the presentations, hoping we might bag a spot prize, but all we got was the offer of another cake before they went to waste. Hats off to everyone who completed it, a tough but enjoyable evening race, next stop Darlo 10k. Paul