6.30 in the morning, I was scrabbling around the house checking my kit. Then re checking for no other reason than to burn off some nervous energy.
For the last 6 months I’d been bigging myself up about running my first ultra marathon, or intro ultra for those die hard runners. Inspired by the efforts of my two colleagues Paul and Hood who had been in training for the Snowdon Trail Marathon. I decided to set myself a new challenge. I'm not built to go fast therefore distance running is an obvious choice. This led me to the Long Tour of Bradwell. A 35 mile route following the rim of the Hope Valley, with an excursion onto the edge of Kinder.
Preparation had consisted of a few 10 mile runs around the local area but most importantly I bought myself a fancy new running watch; this was obviously going to make the difference. I had even thought about reccying some of the different sections but never got round to it. How hard could it be?
Race day arrived, not a cloud in the sky, the temperature was around 15 degrees, climbing to the low 20s by mid-afternoon. Had I been doing anything else I would have welcomed a day like this. Today I would have given anything for some cloud cover.
Looking (over)confident
Spot the guy paying no attention to the race briefing!We set off - my first major error happened about half a mile in when I realised I hadn’t turned my new watch on. Anyone who uses tech like this or Strava knows that if it isn’t recorded you haven't done it. Every mile needed to count!
A mile in and I was feeling strong. Everyone was walking as we ascended behind the cement works. I ran the bits I could but felt that if everyone else was walking they knew something I didn’t so decided to ease off.
My second embarrassing moment happened when a lady asked me for directions, we were supposed to be descending down cave dale into Castleton. It’s a route that I’ve been up countless times but never down. At this point I realised that maybe checking out the route beforehand would have been beneficial. Being a bloke obviously meant that getting the route map or description out of my bag wasn’t an option. Instead we waited for someone to point us in the correct direction.
The first 9 miles of the course was merciless, Hollins Cross down into Edale, up to the Druid’s Stone. We steeply descended into the valley floor before climbing back out via Back Tor to the summit of Lose Hill, then contouring round Win Hill. I was worried, if you didn’t get to the half way mark at the Thornhill trail by 2pm you were cut off and I still had a distance to go. The valley section had taken its toll. I had totally underestimated how difficult it would be. Progress had been very slow especially up Back Tor. However the thought of having to face the guys at work without having completed half the route helped me dig deep and grind out this hilly section of the race.
View from Ringing RogerI made the cut off point, but wasn’t particularly excited about doing so as I was very aware that I was only half way round. Physically broken and to make matters worse the chafing had started...I continued.
The route now dropped into Bamford through the very scenic mill area then climbed (of course) up to Stanage via Dennis Knoll. I made quick progression along this section, to my surprise. A mixture of running and walking. That and I was with some ladies that were apparently determined to prove how weak I was. Their company was brief as we leap frogged each other before they disappeared into the distance. It wouldn’t have been that bad if they weren’t about twice my age. However I am used to this having run plenty of local fell races, so my pride only stung for a few minutes.
The familiar ground of Stanage and Burbage carpark loomed ahead. I also had the mental boost of teaming up with a bloke who decided to enter the event only the previous morning. Having someone to run with made a big difference. I could talk to them to gauge how they were feeling but more importantly I could slip stream them in the tough sections.
Burbage down to Padley Gorge remained steady, at this point I had the mental boost of completing marathon distance. I was about 6 hours slower than I thought I would have been but I was happy. Only seven miles left, easy, about an hour and half left I thought to myself….
The descent towards Hathersage remained steady, however route markers were becoming a bit scarce. This meant one or two wrong turns cost me valuable time. I was gaining on the lead runner who was about four hours ahead of me. In fact they had probably already finished but I didn’t want to think about that yet.
Arms up for the finish line (or to relieve the chafing?)We reached the final water station at mile 29. ‘Only a bit of uphill then a steep descent into Bradwell’ we were told…….an hour and a half later I was still climbing. The Last section of the race mentally broke me. It surprised me how much this negatively impacted me.
The climb over Abney is long. It would be a great 10k route but after 30 miles I still wasn’t sure if I was going to make the end. As I could only walk the uphills at this point it felt endless. All the chat between me and my new companion stopped. I started noticing weird little details like my little toe nails felt peculiar (I still don’t know if they are attached as I stuck them down with plasters after the race).
We hadn’t seen anyone in front for ages and finally to round it off my watch came up with a low battery message….had we been out for that long? We were still climbing, through Abney along possibly the longest track in the Peak. 33miles came and went? We should have finished by now? 34 miles also came and went, where have we gone wrong? Finally, we crested the ridge and looked down onto Bradwell.
The descent was steep, but we were feeling recharged having seen the finishing line. We regained the top of Abney only to realise that these markers must have been from some other part of the race. This was mentally crushing! We descended.
I finally crossed the finishing line after 9hrs 22min. I was surprised how long the last section had taken but having checked my watch, which survived the distance, we had completed 35 miles. It was a great experience with hind sight. I could have done a few things to improve my time; training would probably have been a good start. Reccying some of the sections would have made a big difference but carrying more Vaseline would probably have had the biggest impact!