Summary
Table of Contents
| Season | 1 |
| Race | 10 |
| Distance | Section 1: 17km Section 2: 23km Section 3: 15km Complete course: 36km |
| Elevation (total climb) | Section 1: 270m Section 2: 500m Section 3: 330m Complete course: 670m |
| Dates run | 31st August -30th September 2020 |
| Race designer | James Halse |
| Link to event on facebook |
Introduction
I’ve uploaded a route guide and map to the google drive for the final race(s) of the series. Run/walk the full Sheaf Watershed any time between 31 August and 30 September inclusive. The full distance is about 35k. There’s also the option to take in the full route within 3 shorter loops. It’s all explained in the route guide. Hopefully it all makes sense. The full route starts and finishes at the point where Meers Brook joins the River Sheaf and heads round in a clockwise direction taking in Buck Wood, Gleadless Common, Herdings Trig, Graves Park, Bradway Trig, Holmesfield Park Wood, Moorwood Lane, Totley Trig, the source of the River Sheaf at Blacka Dike, Houndkirk Rd, Oxstones Trig, Ringinglow Trig and Brincliffe Edge.
Alternative route 1 follows the full route as far as Bradway Trig before dropping down through Beauchief golf course to Hutcliffe Wood and back to the finish via Archer Rd, Ulveston Rd and Little London Rd.
Route 2 starts and finishes at Dore and Totlety station heading up to Bradway Trig and following the full watershed route round to Ringlinglow Trig before descending down the limb valley and Ecclesall Woods to Dore & Totley station.
Route 3 starts and finishes at the same place as the full route and follows the Sheaf upstream along Little London Rd, Ulveston Rd, Archer Rd, Hutcliffe Wood, Ecclesall Woods, Limb Valley up to Ringinglow Trig and then joins the full route back to the finish.
I might go round and take a few more photos of the latter parts of the route, but there should be enough detail there for now. If you’re talking on the long route, I recommend carrying enough food and water to get round. Depending on the weather conditions, also carry sufficient extra layers of clothing (a waterproof top as the absolute minimum in good weather). A map and compass is also essential. You should also carry all these for route 2. If it’s foggy on the hill it is easy to get disorientated.
James Halse on facebook
Big thanks to George Yates for the idea of running the Sheaf Watershed and indeed for running the full watershed during the lockdown.
Maps
head_of_the_sheaf_watershed_full_os_mapThis is a PDF of the whole Watershed route showing the position of the checkpoints, on an OS map.
Section One
This is the recommended circular route covering Section One. The checkpoints are not shown explicitly.
Zoom in to make the OS maps look better. This route covered so much ground that the Ordnance Survey defaults to a roadmap.
Section Two
This is the recommended circular route covering Section Two. The checkpoints are not shown explicitly.
Zoom in to make the OS maps look better. This route covered so much ground that the Ordnance Survey defaults to a roadmap.
Section Three
This is the recommended circular route covering Section Three. The checkpoints are not shown explicitly.
Zoom in to make the OS maps look better. This route covered so much ground that the Ordnance Survey defaults to a roadmap.
The Whole Sheaf Watershed
This is a recommended route shown on an OS-map.
Zoom in to make the OS maps look better. This route covered so much ground that the Ordnance Survey defaults to a roadmap. The checkpoints are shown and labelled.
This google map shows each circular section route, and the full route, with checkpoints labelled.
Route Guides
Strava Links
Strava Segments
No specially-created segments for this race.
Scoring
The fastest time for each section scored 50 points. The fastest time for the long route scored 150 points. If you did the long route, you couldn’t count points earned for any of the sections. (If you run a route in 50% of the fastest time, you got 50% of the points).
Submitting Results
This race is now closed – you can still run it for fun.
Results
A hardy 13 souls took on the full watershed route. For many it was the furthest they’d run by some distance. I doff my cap to all of you. I hope you all enjoyed the route as much as I did. I noticed a few people doing the virtual London Marathon on strava yesterday – many doing the most boring flat routes imagine. Why would you when it wouldn’t have taken much imagination to add an extra 7km to the watershed route? (hope I haven’t accidentally offended anyone in this group) Chris Lawson was the clear winner in an amazing time of 3:07:36. I was second in 3:20:48 just over a minute ahead of Tom Bassindale (3:21:58). First woman, and 6th overall, was Hel Da in 3:32:41. Lucy Broom was 2nd and Katelyn McKeown 3rd. Special mention to Kathryn Wilkinson who decided that if route 2 at 14 miles was going to be further than she’d ever run before, she might as well run the whole thing. Props also to Richard Hanks who ran the 3 shorter routes (winning route 3) and the whole thing. 9 people, including Richard, ran at least 2 of the shorter routes. Karen Stev and Clare McThompson couldn’t find a window to squeeze in the full route, but managed all 3 shorter routes in 6 days and were joint winners of route 2. Broc Pastor managed joint 1st, 2nd and joint 3rd across the 3 races.
James Halse on facebook 5th October 2020
All Time Course Personal Bests (PBs)
You can still submit your time to this website if you’d like to see your time recorded alongside everyone else’s – use the link in the right-hand sidebar. If you’ve run this course as part of the NTCLCGP race series your time should already be there.
Photos
Other Stuff
Sweatier and sweatier – Steve T-L’s Relive video. Yes, I know I lost count of the trig points!