Yorkshire Dales National Park – a ‘green gym’

Fell running has a strong tradition in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, particularly with its link to local shows.  While it's just one way that the contrasting landscapes can be enjoyed, the National Park provides the ideal training ground for a fell runner.

It also doesn’t matter about level of ability. For example, the sheltered flat river bank between Bolton Abbey and Grassington, along the Dales Way, provides an easy run out or a recovery run after a hard race, while the huge mound of Elbolton Hill reef knoll near Thorpe is ideal to increase climbing strength.

Fell running in the Yorkshire Dales to me is a myriad of things – it’s exhilarating, inspiring and stimulating –it takes you to remote places and lets you see hidden gems.

And, despite the physical exertion when you are sometimes pushing yourself to the limit, it can be very therapeutic, releasing anxieties, giving you confidence and providing an escape from everyday life. And, of course, it’s free!

You are travelling fast and light over varied ground against the elements and in all weathers through breathtaking scenery.

On the steep run out of Kettlewell onto the top of Old Cote Moor on a late summer’s evening you are rewarded with a long view up into lovely Littondale, with Pen-y-ghent and Ingleborough poking up in the distance.

An evening run around the Ingleborough massif finishes off with the descent to Little Ingleborough in the dark and you know you have been the last person on the summit plateau to watch the blazing red sunset over Morecambe Bay. It’s an experience not to be missed and I make sure I do it every summer.

Then there are night runs in fresh snow above Bordley, when the only sign of life is a fox’s tracks and the moon is so bright you can switch your head torch off.

Fell running club social runs take you across Rylstone and Cracoe Fell to finish off with a warm welcome, and drink at one of the Dales pubs.

Running home from work across Threshfield and Linton Moor up to Rylstone Cross, across Barden Moor bridleway to Embsay Crag, I take a quick stop on the top of the Crag from where I can see home.

On other days I look forward to leaving my car at Ribblehead to set off for a long day of running into the quieter dales – Kingsdale, Barbondale and Dentdale – getting back exhausted, but content.

I always get butterflies in my stomach at the thought of the scree descent and infamous ‘chimney’ in the Kilnsey Crag fell race – it’s soon over with though! And every year I get the same giddy feeling upon reaching the summit on Ingleborough in the Three Peaks Fell Race, with the thought that you have cracked it and it’s just a case of keeping on your feet for the final three miles to the finish line! 

But whatever the occasion – whether it’s a run or a race – it’s just a fantastic feeling to be out in the landscape of the National Park – it really is the perfect, beautiful green gym.

Find out more about 'Getting Active' in the Yorkshire Dales National Park on our website.

Read articles like this in our monthly ‘National Park Notes’ column in the Darlington and Stockton Times.

A good spot for sport

While many people throughout the world are excitedly awaiting London 2012, at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority we’re excitedly awaiting National Parks Week.

Kicking off on 30 July – only three days after the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony – National Parks Week will run to 5 August and is a time for the nation to celebrate and enjoy the best of British countryside.

Team GB, in this case, is made up of the 15 national parks across England, Scotland and Wales, and each will run a series of special events and activities throughout the week so that people can experience the uniqueness of these protected areas.

In 2012 we will be holding up a torch to national parks as Britain’s ‘winning landscapes’, exploring their long connection with recreational pursuits and competitive spirit. Our beautiful winning landscapes have inspired mountaineers, sailors, cyclists, runners and Olympic athletes to aim higher and train harder – sometimes to record-breaking effect.

A quick count in and around the Yorkshire Dales uncovers upwards of 35 high-performing sports people – retired, active or stars of the future – who have a connection with the area.  From horse riders to wind surfers, footballers to skiers, many undoubtedly have taken to the hills, roads and water of the National Park to improve their fitness and hone their skills.

Known as ‘green gyms’, national parks provide considerably more interest than the four walls of your local fitness centre or professional training facilities. Both may improve physical fitness, but research shows that exercising in the natural environment could also improve mental fitness. Those that choose the outdoors may experience greater feelings of revitalisation, increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression. With winning being as much about mental attitude as physical ability, it is little wonder so many sports people are training outdoors in national parks. 



Maurice Collett on relay day (20 June 2012)

Exercising outdoors is not a modern trend. For generations the competitive spirit in the Yorkshire Dales has come to the fore at the many annual shows, festivals, sports and events. This year’s summer exhibition at Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes explores the subject further and will be looking at the people and communities who have used the rugged outdoors to challenge and inspire themselves.

Also on display at the ‘Sporting Spirit’ exhibition, which runs from July 7 to September 4, is the Olympic Torch that carried the flame through Aysgarth and down to the iconic falls. It was kindly lent to us by Maurice Collett, the 89-year-old Kendal man who carried it in the Yorkshire Dales National Park stage of the torch relay.

You may also wish to join us on Twitter.com/yorkshire_dales during National Parks Week where we will be hosting a live chat with climber extraordinaire John Dunne, who learnt his craft and blazed new trails up many of the limestone and gritstone rock faces of the Dales. Thursday 2 August 2pm to 4pm, mark your posts #yorkshiredales

More information, including a list of National Parks Week events, can be found at www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/winning

Read articles like this in our monthly ‘National Park Notes’ column in the Darlington and Stockton Times.

A wheely good time

This June, I was lucky enough to spend a week cycling from coast to coast in France through the Pyrenees – from Biarritz on the Atlantic to Argeles-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean. 

Not surprisingly, this wasn’t a flat ride as it takes in many of the cols* made famous by the Tour de France - taking place right now over the Channel. 

Although I am not new to climbing big hills, dragging yourself out of bed at 7.30 for breakfast to do it the next day, and the one after, and the one after … did become distinctly distressing! It was certainly a massive relief to crest the final col and know it was all downhill and flat to the sea.

Mark and partner Bex are no strangers to the hills -
here they tackle the Way of the Roses

We were a group of 21 cyclists from all over the UK, as well as a smattering of Australians, and one thing was clear - how lucky I am to have the Dales to do my training rides in.

The mountains here may not be on the same scale as the Alps or Pyrenees and the climbs not as long, but they are a great place to prepare, often having steeper gradients and still with those great views on reaching the top.

The scenery in the National Park just inspires you to get on your bike, and I love the climbs between the dales as each valley is so different as you cross between them.

We are also fortunate to have plenty of pubs and cafés to stop at in the area, and most towns and villages have a shop so you can keep stocked up on bananas and Eccles cakes – they sell plenty of other things but that’s what I go for!

The Dales has so many great climbs to chose from as a cyclist – Buttertubs Pass between Wensleydale and Swaledale, Fleets Moss between Langstrothdale and Hawes, Park Rash from Kettlewell to Coverdale, the climb to Tan Hill Inn (the highest pub in England), or the brutal Coal Road between Garsdale and Dent. And there are many more. 

It would be great to see the professional cyclists take some of these in if Yorkshire is successful in its bid to get the start of the Tour de France in 2016.

If you are new to the area and want to pick up some ideas of routes to do, then have a look on www.cyclethedales.org.uk – you may be glad to know that not all the routes are hilly. There are great routes to start with that follow the valleys, such as the Wharfe up from Ilkley or peddling along Swaledale from Reeth, and then there is the more rolling countryside in the east of the Yorkshire Dales.

The other thing to think about is going on one of the many cyclosportives - rides with signed routes and feed stops - that take place in the area.

The most famous is the 112 mile and wonderfully named ‘Etape du Dales’ held every May. The president Brian Robinson was actually the first British rider to complete the Tour de France in 1955 and to win a stage (1958).

There are normally 10 to 15 similar rides throughout the year that come into the Dales, many of which are less fearsome whilst still a challenge.

As with any cycle challenge you need to prepare body and bike. Make sure your brakes are in good fettle and you have some low gears to get you over the hills. There are some great local bike shops if you want help to get your kit into shape - preparing your body might take more time but will probably cost you less in the end!

*col: a pass between two mountain peaks or a gap in a ridge