My fifth SHC today. Great day for it, knackering, but knocked 24 mins of my previous best time. Great marshalling and all for a good cause: Cancer Research UK.

Looks fab. One year…

If only I’d known, I could have done this after my efforts on Thursday on the road bike. What could possibly have gone wrong? Course looks good too, something for next year.

Yes, also spent today perfecting some of our lines for next year too!

Great event & fab evening entertainment too; Wilfs, a band & a brewery 😆

First time I have done the Sam and it was great !well pleased with 3rd in Male pairs on the single speed 🙂 not sure if my legs are hurting from the riding or dancing 🙂 great band,great beer and all for a good cause slept in the carpark and helped tidy up this morning.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/nGvLW5]SAM_0212[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

Are the results available then?

Yes!
http://www.samhoughtonchallenge.co.uk/2014-event.html

We were 3rd in mixed pairs (long course), happy with that 🙂

Didn’t ride it, but rode out from Preston with my dad, sat at the top of the first road climb section on the bench near the top and enjoyed looking at the pain people were in at such an early stage 😀

Another good day at the sam h. Didn’t get to ride this year, but i was up at style end taking photos for a while, if you let me know your numbers ill see if i have any of you lot.
Postierich, i defo have some of you i recognize from the pic above, ill mail them to you if you like.

Yeh I did the short loop as a solo. Been doing a few gravity enduros recently so thought why not. My mate suggested doing it on the morning of the race so wasn’t best prepared!
Climbs weren’t the most fun but the descents were good. 11th wasn’t too shabby. My mate came 4th. I was number 481 he was 482. Any pics?

Good crack with people on the way round too.

Hi rollsroyce, sorry couldn’t find any pics of you or your mate. Ill be putting a few up on pinkbike tonight so feel free to have a look, i might have missed them.

Yep, I was happy with 129th place in the Men’s Solo Long course…

enjoyed looking at the pain people were in at such an early stage

You saw me then! It didn’t get any easier. Although I’ve ridden all the sections before, I’ve never done the full Sam Houghton Long Course together and I only had one aim, not to come last!

I set off way too quick and was knackered by the time I got the the top of Green Quarter. The blast down to Sadgill was fun as ever, and the following climb over to Kentmere felt longer than usual. After attempting to eat flapjack at one on the much appreciated fed stations, it was time for Garburn.

I met Eckythump who’d had a big off and ripped his pedal out of his crank, I left him trying to cut a new thread in it (I knew it wouldn’t be long before he caught and passed me, which it wasn’t). I’ve ridden Garburn lots but never this way round, the climb/push/carry was tough but was also a great leveler, well other than the young lads on hardtails in full lycra that RAN past me! Coming down the other side was fast as I’d expected and I managed to make a good few places up although it looked like a lot of people were suffering pinch flats.

The section from Troutbeck to Kentmere nearly broke me, fortunately I started riding with a lad called Gareth from the Woolybacks, we were similar in our pace and it certainly helped having someone to bounce off on the climbs.

Back at Kentmere and I knew it was only a matter of climbing Green Quarter and it would be downhill all the way home…never has that part of the ride felt so steep and so long. I had to push a good half of it and stopped for breather, mentally shattered. Again, another one of the riders saw me and stopped to give me some words of encouragement, something along the lines of “you’re nearly there, no giving up now, it’ll get easier and easier, today it feels like the worst ride you’ve done, tomorrow it’ll feel like the best” – well it picked me up and I got going again. The relief at the top!!

As I was so tired I didn’t go too hard down to the road as I was pretty much just a passenger on my bike at that point. It was good to hit the tarmac, I gave it everything I had left (which wasn’t much) back to the finish.

Nice to get back to the Mill Yard and meet up with the other Boggies and then on for a well deserved feast at the Eagle and Child with them – shame I couldn’t camp as originally planned but either way, very enjoyable.

4hrs20mins and 129th – more than happy with that!

(Sam number 026 if you have any pics)

Number 28 if there any pics please

Team of 4 round long course in 4 hours with 3 punctures and a snapped gear cable.

Great event and enjoyed the beer and band to the fullest and it is all for a good cause. Helped out with lights and tidying up in the morning – the organisers and volunteers are a fan bunch.

Samscaddad that would be great if you could mailmen them 🙂

richard.munro@outlook.com

For some reason we did 2 laps of the long course. A nice day out. Both laps in under 3hrs

Ill get photos done later tonight, it’s a good night for a ride so I’m off out on the roadie bike.
Eddie fiola, good job fella. Lots were struggling to do even one lap this year! Cramp seamed the biggest issue.

Eddie thats some good going! Would have done two if I had known you could 😉

Great event, really well organised and a good friendly atmosphere.

Homemade cake at feeding stations & finishing outside a brewery! What more could you want?

Time was just a whisker under 3:50 for me.
Fairly happy with that considering the delay from having to chase a thread through the crankarm to get the pedal to re-thread. It’d come lose soon after an off and the impact must have been enough to start it unthreading on the descent into Kentmere, to the point where it pulled out of the last few threads 🙁

Number 035 I think, if anyone’s got pics of pained expressions.
Back next year for sure.

I was there not riding just eating and drinking. The OH did the long route, number 418 – Sam if you have any photos she would love a copy. Said there were people with punctures everywhere and really happy I set her up tubeless. Bonus was she came in first woman despite having to wait and ask the way a couple of times.

Yes she was lost in Troutbeck and needed pointing in the right direction, fortunately she met someone nice and helpful 😉 It was the BW along and up tot he check point before dropping down to the church.

A selection of photos on pinkbike now.
http://www.pinkbike.com/u/glendavonbaron/album/sam-houghton-2014/

Tomaso – cheers for pointing her in the right direction.
Thanks for the photo as well.