As ever, there was a very friendly cheery welcome into the CP. I sat down in the front porch area and knew I wouldn’t be going any further inside for anything. One other runner was here and seemed to be settling in for a bit of a longer break. I asked for a coffee (A little bit of a kick since it was now nighttime), and some of the rumoured Bananas and Custard, both of which arrived lovely and quickly. The Bananas and custard did indeed go down nicely!
I wasn’t going to need to change anything or get anything from my drop bag. The GPS hadn’t been used up to now, and it was still early days for my current headtorch battery (and I had a backup headtorch if I misjudged). All my gear was working perfectly, and I hadn’t touched any of the food I had carried from the start. If anything I could have unloaded some of that food here.
So all that was left to do was the mandatory gear check which was being implemented at every aid station. I’d guess I was no more than 10 or 15 minutes here, which was pretty quick. I was definitely making one overtake since the other runner had his shoes and socks off as I was getting my rucksack and gloves back on. Then up and out… that was good!
With great encouragement from the aid station crew I headed off up the steep steps and muddy tracks reversing the route in. On the muddy section, I was passed in the opposite direction by 4 or 5 runners, including the leading female, the ever-awesome Sabrina Verjee, who was clearly “flying”, as I said to her. Lot’s of hellos and good wishes all-round.
I hadn’t realised it at the time, but I had passed at least one other runner in the aid station (Simon) with my quick turnaround. Tiaan was the next runner ahead, and he was well out of sight. As I ran up the in-out road back the Pennine way proper a few other runners passed by heading into CP1. They were looking a bit more tired than I was currently feeling. I was quite happily running up the road getting going again.
I reckoned I was now in about 6th place, maybe 7th (In reality it was 6th). I was definitely enjoying the race more now and had settled into a nice comfort zone, in Spine terms! I enjoyed the next section, running the gently undulating section across the open ground of Clough head hill for a kilometre or two. That’s followed by a right turn down to a river crossing, followed by the inevitable climb back up. I had a few very quick looks back but didn’t see any sign of head torches immediately following.
The route pops out onto a very minor road which takes us towards Walshaw Dean reservoirs for a kilometre or two. I was able to switch the headtorch to minimum power for this section (I had managed it with the headtorch completely off in the summer). At its highest point, there is an opportunity to see the route behind for quite a few kilometres, and now I could see a trail of head torches heading across Clough head Hill behind me.
The trip through the valley and along past the reservoirs felt like I was making a nice steady pace with very low effort levels being expended. I was particularly happy that I was running all the little kicker climbs without feeling any muscular effort. Climbing out from the valley I again could look back quite a distance down the trail, and again saw a few torches in the distance following along. I wasn’t catching any sight of anyone ahead though. I was writing them off as out of sight – out of mind. I had no intention of upping my pace to attempt to chase them down, or indeed to try to grow the gap behind.
The couple of kilometres run to Ponden reservoir again seemed to pass quicker mentally than in previous years. I knew I was running slower if anything, but I had the route so mentally clear in my head that it seemed to be making everything a little bit quicker and more straightforward. I was feeling nicely alone at this point, with no sign of any people around, even when passing houses. Just the sound and sight of cars on roads in the valleys.
And that’s how things passed through most of the night. Good steady forward progress, with a great memory of the route, and no sign of any torches either in front or behind (I only occasionally checked behind though). There were several small diversions on this stage, but they were all diversions I had taken before and remembered all of those pretty much in their entirety as well.
The first interruption to that steady routine was arriving into Lothersdale. The local triathlon club had their traditional unofficial aid station set up here. It’s a very welcome sight! Even though I didn’t need to, I did stop for a quick social cup of coffee and took one or two sweets offered heading off a few minutes later. When I looked back at the hill down into Lothersdale I could see the head torches of two following runners. These 2 were getting very close and were obviously making good speed. They had broken away from the stream of runners that I had seen back after leaving CP1.
That woke me up a bit to concentrate on not letting my pace get too slack, but to keep it nice and steady heading up the hill, running the gentler sections where I could. That was the last I saw of the torches for a while, but now I knew that there were two runners not too far behind.
The diversion through Airton was slightly different to the Airton diversion used previously, so I did do a GPS check here to make sure I was following the correct route. It was quite remarkable how benign the weather had become. I had had no need to put on any extra layers overnight. In fact, I hadn’t changed a thing since the start. The rain was gone, and it was a nice clear night. It helped that none of the hills was too high, so mostly I was below the cloud base. Occasionally on the higher sections I did climb into the cloud, and when that happened the visibility was appalling. Down to a meter or two. So it was quite a contrast.
Unfortunately, Malham Cove was one of those spots where visibility was not great. It’s a spectacular landscape feature, but I could only see about 20 meters ahead as I crossed under its base. The stone stepped climb up from there is always a real character test though. Speed seems to go through the floor as effort goes through the roof. I could only presume that this would be the same for most of the other runners. It seemed likes a good ten minutes of solid non-stop steep step climbing, maximising the use of my poles to get power from everywhere I could.
Topping out of the climb I reached the amazing limestone pavement at the top of the cove. This is always tricky to find the past path through, as large parts of the rock formation have deep fissures running through in multiple directions. One misstep could easily result in a nasty injury. To add to the fun the rock itself was wet, so was quite slippy. Of course, it was still dark, with much-reduced visibility in the low cloud.
I worked my through it quite well, erring towards the higher side well away from the serious danger of the cliff edge. It was a relief to hit the centre of Ing Scar (valley) for one of my favourite sections to run. Soon the tough climbing returned with another steep rocky stepped climb, before another flat section taking me to the road just before Malham Tarn (Lake).
Just like the previous sunset, I was judging my performance against previous years on where I would start to get the sunrise. I reckoned I was an hour or so behind with the sunset. My target here was to get out of CP 1.5 checkpoint at Malham Tarn before dawn, It was still fully dark at this point, so I was happy with that. Visibility was back to being absolutely appalling though. I could only see a few meters ahead at most. This meant I was making occasional GPS checks here, just to be sure, where I normally wouldn’t bother.
The trail from the road, past the lake, to the gravel into CP1.5 can be a little hard to find at the best of times but required particularly high levels of concentration to follow in this visibility. But I did well and managed to hold the track all the way to the obvious gravel road. I couldn#t even see the lake, even though I could hear the water splashing.
It was still dark getting into CP1.5, so I was happy to have hit my timing targets. I must have overall made up some time since the previous evening’s dusk, despite the fact that I hadn’t been pushing hard to do so, but was still running comfortably.
As ever, the checkpoint crew were extremely welcoming and helpful. I had a mug of coffee here but had the decline the offer of mince pies since they weren’t gluten-free (damn it!). I had some of my own homemade mince flavoured flapjacks instead. I also took a refill of one of my water bottles (The second one, three-quarter filled with pineapple juice, had hardly been touched since the start of the race). So far I had only eaten one millionaire’s shortbread bar whilst running, so most of my food supplies were untouched. Even that I only ate for a psychological boost after the long flat road run to Gargrave. I still had not felt hungry or thirsty at any point.
I also got an update as to what was going on in the race. As expected Damian and Kim were miles ahead, practically in a different race. Tiaan had worked his way through up to Dougie. Eugenie wasn’t as far ahead as I expected, making his way up Fountain’s Fell. The two head torches I had seen behind me belonged to James Leavesley and Sabrina, who were not far away from arriving at CP1.5 themselves. Sabrina was definitely flying along, and clearly dominating the female race. I asked howAnna Troupe was doing, as expected her to be right up there as well, but it turned out she had had to pull out early in the race with an injury. I should have had James in my pre-race blog as a race contender, as he had been 2nd male in the summer Spine, but I hadn’t twigged that from looking at the start list.
James duly arrived in as I was just getting set to leave. We had a quick chat and said I’d see him soon as I headed out the door (He was moving faster than me since he had clearly made up ground since I had left CP1).
It was still dark leaving CP1, so I was definitely happy that I had hit my broad timing target to get to this point. Within a few minutes, the sky was noticeably beginning to lighten, and within about 20 minutes I no longer needed the light from my headtorch. I was happy to see that the torch battery had lasted a full January night without issue.
On the early stages of the climb up fountains fell I found I was able to run the sections that I often find borderline run/walk. About halfway up I came upon a pair of Challenger runners, the first ones I had met. We all wished each other well as I passed. That was a little later than usual for meeting a challenger runner, so they must have been doing quite well. Nearing the top of the climb I glanced back and could see a solo runner a few hundred meters behind. James was closing in on the climb for sure.
The descent off fountains fell is long and technical. Quite a fun descent in lots of ways. But there were still patches of snow and ice around on the higher sections, so I was very much erring on the side of caution. Towards the bottom, it was more wet and muddy, so I was still cautious here. I made it to the road at the end of the descent without falling, which was definitely a good thing under the circumstances.
The Kilometer or two of road running here always seems longer than reality. Pen-y-Ghent loomed above and was clearing slowly from the low cloud cover. I reckoned I could see a few people making their way up the steep track on its flanks.
I passed two more Challenger runners just after the turnoff from the road. They were settled down by the side of the trail having a brew. I was a little envious of their more relaxed touring approach, as I ploughed on, beginning the ascent towards and up Pen-y-Ghent. Again I found I was able to run the borderline run/walk sections here, but made sure to switch to pole powered marching for the steeper bits.
And soon enough the steeper bits took me to the base of the really really steep bits… the climb up Pen-Y-Ghent itself. There was a lot of thawing compacted snow covering the early path, so kept just off the edge of that. It’s a very “airy” climb from here, and not somewhere where you want to lose control, as you could easily fall hundreds of metres down fairly steep rocky ground. So I wasn’t going to take any chances if there were icy patches.
Thankfully there wasn’t any noticeable problem with slippy ice, and certainly no verglass, which is what I was most dreading encountering. The biggest issue here was the standard one… it was a very steep slope which required lots of effort, and sometimes the use of all four limbs to get up. A look back down showed that James seemed to getting closer again now that we were on a big climb.
After the super steep climb it’s not all over! It’s followed by walk/run drag up big stone slabs, which were still a little slippy. I finally crossed the wall at the peak, passing another Challenger runner who was having a conversation with someone on his phone (at least I hope there was someone else on the conversation!). Now for the long descent, a complete switch of mindset and muscles.
The first part of the descent is very steep and is now a constructed stone stepped path. As is now standard, I took things very controlled with the emphasis on safety rather than speed. As it flattened out a bit I allowed the slope to pull me down at a faster speed, but still nowhere near all-out speed. It would be easy to run this entire descent fast and hard, but that could easily result in thrashed leg muscles over the longer term which I would pay for later in the race.
The descent does a big near 180-degree turn at one point, so I looked back up the trail to see another runner not too far behind. I was guessing that was more than likely James, rater than the Challenger runner. A few more minutes later the descent slope eases down enough that it becomes possible to optimise for speed rather than controlling the descent, so I allowed myself to run at a fast “drift” pace. A glance back showed a second runner coming off the mountain,. They looked small (as opposed to far away) so I was thinking that it was probably Sabrina. The two behind were definitely closing. It was only a matter of how long before they would both overhaul me.
There were some spectators along the trail just after the left turn towards Horton, where greetings were exchanged, along with the bonus of encouragement in Irish (But my brain lacked the power to respond in kind)! The path remains a good unable slope on relatively good ground all the way down towards Horton, so I kept up the speed as best I could.
Before Horton we had an in-an-out visit to a safety check location, which takes a few minutes to run. At the safety check, I let them know all was good and took up the offer of a water bottle refill (which I reckoned would take me all the way to CP2 without issue). I think it was here that I learned that Kim Collison had dropped from the race up ahead. That was a bit of a surprise. I guessed it must have been an injury of some kind. Whatever it was he hadn’t made it past CP2. So now Damian must be way way out in front on his own, comfortably winning the race, with the rest of us all up one position.
As I headed out I was immediately passed by James heading in… he was only just behind. He was his usual happy cheerful self, and I again told him I would see him soon! Not long afterwards I crossed paths with Sabrina as she was heading down the in-out leg towards the safety check. She also seemed to be in great form, and I again told her she was flying. We agreed we would have a nice chat soon enough.
I used to think the run out of Horton was quite tortuous. But I’ve gotten much more familiar with it over the years, so know what to expect. I was also feeling in relatively good condition this year and was completely comfortable in terms of temperature, thirst and hunger. Just the minor matter of having been running for over 24 hours making me a little tired, but definitely no worse than usual. So I wasn’t able to run with the speed I did in the summer but was still making OK progress. I thought that I was slow enough that James and Sabrina would catch up with me any minute.
The weather by now was notably benign. Not at all “Spiney”. It wasn’t exactly tropical, but whatever wind that was around was light to moderate at worst, it wasn’t raining, and the cloud base had lifted so that the air was clear all around. Basically, there was nothing to notice, which was a very unusual situation in this race. It was easy to run along comfortably without needing to get any additional gear out from my backpack.
I passed a few more Challenger runners along this section, but to my surprise, I was still not seeing either James or Sabrina, despite my distinctly average at best pacing. The route takes a 90-degree turn near “snake holes”, where I could look back and see James was still running behind in the distance. He had closed the gap a little, but it was still roughly the same as when we were near the safety check.
After the river crossing at Ling Gill Bridge, the route kicks up to the climb up towards Cam High Road. This is a rocky double track road. After marching the initial climb I lurched myself forward into a slow run up the hill. I surprised myself by being able to maintain the run through most of the little steeper kicks.
The route then turns onto Cam High Road itself. Whilst it is a long draggy climb, in reality it is not too steep, being more road than trail. Again I found I was able to run nearly all of this, which is much better than what I was expecting. There was definitely a slight tailwind to help, but I’ve known it to be a lot stronger in the past. If anything I seemed to be opening the gap on James here. I could see no sign of Sabrina, which was odd.
More Challenger runners were passed as the loose rocky surface changed to smooth tarmac for a while, making running a little easier. However, there was snow and icy compacted snow scattered here and there along the climb, just to keep things interesting.
After the left turn onto West Cam Road it was back to dirt track running, but with much more snow to contend with. Some 4WD vehicles seem to have been through recently though, as they had ploughed in two trenches through the snow that was easier to run in. The views were excellent along here and I could see the full vista of the route ahead, and the huge valley dropping away to my left. My motivation now was to try to hold the gap behind to James all the way to CP2, which was getting ever closer. That motivation kept me running at a nice steady pace.
Eventually, I reached the turn-off to the trail which was essentially the start of the descent towards CP2 in Hawes. The gap appeared to be holding up. There was much less snow now, and as the trail started to descend it was back to being wet and mucky. There’s always something to keep you on your toes in this race. It was now quite a bright afternoon, so I was enjoying the descending (if not exactly flying it), and taking the occasional look around to take in all the views, and look towards the big climb ahead which lay in wait after CP2.
The descent went nice and smoothly, with no falls and a good controlled pace. I was definitely tiring as I was approaching Hawes. I had a dilemma in my mind though. I was thinking that if I got to Hawes before 2pm I would definitely leave without sleeping and try to make it to CP3. If it was after 4 then I would definitely grab an hour’s nap here, as I could feel some sleep tiredness, and didn’t want to end up suffering from bad sleep deprivation heading for CP3.
In the early stages of running through Hawes one of the race volunteers came out to meet me at the end of her own training run. I asked her the time, and, of course, I was in the middle of the ambiguous zone of my own decision-making process. hmmmm… I was going to have to work this out on feel. Given how close the race situation was it could have a big impact either way (right or wrong decision).
There was lots of encouragement from spectators and Challenger finishers running through Hawes main street, but I would say my pace was tieing up as my mind was already in the aid station! With one last haul up a small hill, my body finally got there as well. As usual, there was a great greeting from the aid station staff, and they checked what they could get for me. I let them know I was thinking of keeping my gear on, so would stay in the porch as I had some food and drink.
I got an update on the race situation. Eugeni was the next runner ahead, and he had already left, but not too long ago. I didn’t need to be told, but it was clear that no one ahead had stopped for sleep here. James wasn’t too far behind, and there was a reasonable gap to two runners further behind (maybe an hour or so), including the ever consistent Simon. The big surprise news was that Sabrina had pulled out. That was a big surprise as she was looking so strong when I saw her only a few hours ago. I again guessed that it must be some kind of injury. Debbie Martin Consani had now become the leading female as a result. It was disappointing that we were not going to have our mid-race chat.
As I sat down in the porch I tried to conduct a little self-examination of my tiredness by closing my eyes for a bit to see how I felt. I was still not 100% definitive on the correct decision. But eventually, I decided that I would err on the side of comfort over out and out racing and take a one hour sleep. I apologised to the aid station staff as I cancelled my request for coffee and coke as a result. This was my first big decision of the race. I’d soon see how it would play out.
Eoin Keith 
Really enjoying these posts, Eoin! Kind of like reading the book after seeing the movie!