September 24, 2023

Hardmoors 60 Ultra

Pete Wilmot reports

On Saturday 16th September, I ran the Hardmoors 60 Ultra race.

The 64 mile race is part of a series of Ultra Races run by Jon and Shirley Steele in North Yorkshire. Anyone who has run a Hardmoors event will be able to confirm that the races have a real community and friendly feel about them and they have a good range of distances for anyone who is either looking at undertaking longer distances or is wanting to push to multiple days.

This was my 5th Hardmoors race, having previously completed 3 Hardmoors 55 races and a Hardmoors 30 in 2021.

The HM60 route largely takes the well-established Cleveland Way along the coast, which fortunately for me is well marked so I didn’t have to spend too much time navigating (well not until it went dark). The race route starts inland at Guisborough and after around 20 miles hits the coast at Saltburn-on-Sea and it then works its way south through the pretty and quaint town of Staithes, the bedlam of Whitby, Robin Hoods Bay, and Scarborough, before eventually reaching Filey.

The winner of the race was Stephen Kirk in 10:14 and the first female, Elizabeth Nairn came in at 10:54. I finished in 26th position in 13:18. There were 216 starters, 167 finishers and 49 DNFs. Entries for next year’s event open on 9th October.

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