Dentdale 14.3 Mile

I have run in many, many races throughout my twenty years in this sport.  Some have faded away into a distant memory now, but this years Dentdale Run is one race that will last in the memory for many years to come.

I was staying in the quiet sleepy village of Dent for the weekend with nine friends.  The reason for our trip was the stag weekend of Matt Barnes: clubmate, training partner and good friend.  The weekend coincided with the Dentdale Run, a 14.3 mile hilly road race and Matt asked if we would all be prepared to take part in the run.  How many stag weekends involve running a 14.3 mile race I wonder?!  At some point in the chain of emails leading up to the weekend, it was decided that we would all do it in superhero fancy dress!

As the weekend approached, I picked up my outfit - a Spiderman costume consisting of an all in one bodysuit and a mask.  I wasn't so sure about wearing the mask so also invested in some face paint.

The stag weekend began on the Friday and we spent a very enjoyable afternoon Quad Biking and Rally Buggying.  James Bailey proved to be a bit of a demon on the Rally Buggying.  One member of the stag party managed to crash on both activities, I wonder if you can guess who it was!!

Friday evening inevitably involved a few drinks in the local hostelry.  Having not drank for five weeks, it was not a good idea for me to hit the drinking as hard as I did.  The reaction of the landlord to me announcing I would be running the race the following day was amusing.  Without me mentioning my running background or target for the race, he took one look at me and stated that if I were to win the race, I could drink free of charge all night after the race!

The extent of what I had drank became apparent throughout the night as I threw up twice in my sleep.  I woke up feeling horrendously ill the following morning and the thought of running at all was not a pleasant one.  But I felt terribly guilty about getting into such a mess and knew I had to do it.  I changed into my Spiderman costume, applied my facepaint, and wandered out into the lounge to be greeted by roaring laughter from Superman, He-Man, Duffman, Wonderwoman and other superheroes! 



We jogged down to the village where the race started and I was pretty quickly dropped by everyone, suffering in my own little world.  We registered our real names and our superhero aliases (I entered as Peter Parker and Superman/Andy registered as Clark Kent!).  here were a couple of problems with the suit before the race got underway.  Firstly, needing the toilet was a bit of a nightmare as the all in one costume had to come off!  Secondly, I had to be very careful taking liquid on board as my face was completely covered in facepaint!

The race got underway at 1pm and it was an amusing sight to see Superman taking an early lead with his huge cape flapping around in the air, flanked by two regular runners: last years winner Steve Littler - the Edinburgh Marathon winner in 2010 and 68min half marathoner, and Ian McBride.  Spiderman settled in behind these three with He-Man (Matt), Wonderwoman (Nick Leigh) and Duffman (James Bailey) all in close attendance.  The first mile was the steepest uphill mile of the race and a 5:46 already had the field strung out.  Superman, Littler and McBride moved away from Spiderman down the second downhill mile.  It's fair to say that Spiderman was really suffering from the previous night and the next two miles were a very rough ride as he slipped to 7th place and watched the leaders disappearing further and further into the distance.  Wonderwoman had run a good downhill mile and was an isolated 4th, with He-Man and Duffman being followed by a weary Spiderman.  As He-Man passed Spiderman, he turned to him and asked how he was.  The response came that he felt awful and facepaint was starting to run into his eyes!




Over the next few miles, He-Man moved through the gears and as Spiderman started to sober up, he was able to keep pursuit and they moved away from Duffman, past Wonderwoman and eventually caught the leading trio in the sixth mile.



Not a lot changed until mile 10 when Littler, seemingly frustrated to have three superheroes for company moved up a gear.  Spiderman was the only one able to follow, surprising after his experiences early in the race.  The longer the race went on, the better Spiderman felt and at 13 miles, he put in a 5:07 mile to open up a gap of around 10 seconds.  This allowed him to enjoy the final 200m and spin a web over the finish line.  It hadn't been easy at all though.  The costume, while lightweight, was not at all breathable and the effects of the previous evening really did take their toll.  Littler put up a very good performance and it took a bit of an effort to open up a winning margin, but a win is a win and running 2:25 marathon pace on a very hilly route under those circumstances will have been a very good workout.



It has since been mentioned to me that the world record for a marathon in superhero fancy dress in 2:36 so you never know, the outfit may not have made it's final appearance in a race!

Keep training hard
Cheers
Dave