28 miles for teams of two, in the North York Moors, organised by Cleveland Group.
It was the first time we had entered this event, but we werent surprised to see the same faces both amongst the walkers and the organisers. They were all there – Tall One Who Wins, Lady Who Does Food, Couple Whom We Have Learned Not To Follow (because their short cuts always turn into long delays), and more. This confirmed our belief that despite the events in Yorkshire being run, ostensibly, by different groups, there is a core of volunteers common to most events, and a core of runners and walkers who enter most of them. We have often pondered what Woman with Ponytail, Woman with Red Tracksters, Man with Tattoos, Man who Walks Impossibly Fast and a host of others do in-between the events we see them on. The answer seems to be that they do more events. In fact, there seem to be some people who turn out to events as far distant as Carnforth on the west coast and Scarborough on the east coast; or Middleton-in-Teesdale in the north and Marsden in the south. Im sure they go further afield too. I dont know how they manage it.
The trouble is that the events all start so early. I dont like to be rushed in the mornings, so I like to turn up in plenty of time to register, have a drink of coffee and a look at the map. Inevitably, with an 8am start this means leaving home at 5.30am, and I dont think I could manage that week after week. It was dark when we left home, and it was even dark when we arrived at the start, at Goathland village hall. Though, fortunately, it didnt take as long as we thought to get there and there was plenty of room in the car-park. The late arrivals, parking on the road-side, caused the inevitable argy-bargy with Local Resident with 4WD and Right to Quiet Mornings.
The Wheeldale Tandem (now in its 13th year) is one of those events where you get a list of grid references and a map displayed at the start with the route marked on it. A Good Sign. Events with a three page description of the route are ones where I inevitably get lost trying to follow its intricacies. (Especially on one event where none of the place names in the description corresponded to my map, and no grid references were given – one wonders what is the purpose of a map-and-compass kit check in such circumstances).
So, clutching my map because I have learned over the years not to rely on following the person in front, I set off with 300 others. Half a mile down the road 50% of the entrants veered off down a footpath because the Wheeldale Tandem is for teams of two, taking different routes. The East and West Routes meet up after 22 miles where, after waiting for your partner, the final home-stretch is completed as a pair.
The West route begins gently, with a section along a disused railway line as far as Grosmont. There follows a short road-and-track section before a pleasant woodland path to Glaisdale and then the slow slog up to Glaisdale Rigg. The day was overcast, with the occasional blue patch and, fortunately, no rain. The view from Glaisdale Rigg was excellent. There followed a section through Cropton Forest to Stape Village Hall which was filled with people pacing up and down or anxiously looking at their watches waiting for their partners to arrive.
The East route was, by several accounts longer and muddier, though perhaps it only seemed longer. It included a long stretch around the perimeter fence of the Fylingdales early-warning station. It has always struck me as amusing that the DEW radar on Fylingdales Moor (the former "golf balls") are completely absent on the map, yet most of the UK knows they are there – you could even buy postcards of them in Goathland village shop. Well, the golf balls have gone now. In their place, the phased-array radar looks, from a distance, like a giant sand-castle, or something out of Stargate. Its architecture is definitely "90s" and makes golf balls seem very dated and "60s-ish".
Stape Village Hall had a roaring stove with many damp garments spread around it to dry. It was a good job the weather was fine or the place would have become particularly "fuggy" as runners and walkers attempted to dry out whilst sitting around waiting for their team-mates to arrive. I had anticipated this, and carried extra dry clothing with me to change into whilst I waited. Since I usually run with a coat and sweatshirt draped around me, looking rather like a pack-horse (or possibly a cricket umpire) this was normal. One runner’s bag looked so small, in comparison, that it could have contained little more, perhaps, than a mobile phone.
Team-mates arriving at Stape were not given the pleasure of a sit by the fire. If their partner had been waiting for more than a few minutes they were hustled out of the door as soon as possible for the final slog up to Two Howes Rigg and so back to Goathland where we were pleased to find that this was a "mug event". Not being ones to sew badges all over our rucksacks we are not particularly attracted by "badge events". But events with mugs or vases (or, in this case, a jug) allow us to collect an interesting assortment of crockery.
The Wheeldale Tandem was an interesting event. We’ll be trying some other new events this year, to see if we can spot the same faces again.