Pennine Biannual Runner vs Bike

First of the Pennine Biannual runner vs bike. It is a great little fun handicap event with "social" runners heading off first, followed 5 minutes later by the "competitive" runners, who are then followed five minutes later by the bikes.  It's an excellent route taking in the 2.5 Km climb up the snake path to the shooting cabin. This climb gives the runners a good chance to put considerable distance between them and the bikes so it needs to be taken as hard as possible. There was about 4 bikes and 15 runners tonight. At about 7 pm somebody shouted go (which I missed) and the social runners group of about 7 were off. I tore off after them to hear a couple of people shout my name. I take it they did not think I should be in the "social" group, which I suppose I should be flattered about, but when I knew who was in it with ChrisL, Sevie, and Simon, no way I was going to head off with them, I would be last by a long way.

Snake Path to the Shooting cabin

After my slightly delayed start I had to catch the other runners and  soon I was in the lead. The snake climb is a regular run for us (plus a strava segment to give it extra impetus) I stretched my lead to about 40 metres by the shooting cabin turn (and set a PB on the segment to jump about 4 places in the strava league). It is now the long descent down to Car Meadow. My target tonight was to try to get to Car Meadow before the fast runners caught up with me. I was only 500m into the descent, having crossed the stream when I hear footsteps coming up behind me, then Simon shot past. I could not believe he had made five minutes up on me in 3km, that is absolutely incredible running. I was nearing the bridge over Hollingworth clough, when Sevie shot past and my fellow early starter Rosie also overtook me as I done my usual struggle on rough ground, which is a bit of a problem for a fell runner. I lost another place on the short section of road, before the long climb up to Lantern Pike where I regained my two places. I knew Rosie was a faster descender then me so I needed a good cushion before the long Sunny Side descent.

It is amazing how competitive I get in what should be a fun event! I really pushed myself to the limit to the top of the climb to be caught by another of the fast runners (Noel I think) out side Sunny Side. When I saw how fast he was going I just let go and bombed down the hill after him. There seems to be some debate about the best way back once we get to the bottom of the hill, some runners continue on down the Pennine Bridleway (the bikes have to go that way) while others turn left down the road and then cut down through the fields by Lower Cliff. Personally I think this way is faster and I actually got ahead of Noel again when I got onto the Sett Valley Trail. It is then a two Km run back to the finish, which hurts like hell! Running as fast as I could as I could see John in front and I set a target to to try to catch him. I finally overtook him very close to the bus station when one then two bikes overtook me. Another bike overtook me when crossing the bypass so that was pretty good handicapping to get us so close! I got home in 52:26 for the 9.7km which I am pretty happy with. The order of finish was Bike,Runner,Runner,The three bikes that overtook me, then me. So possibly I should have started with the faster runners.

So Relieved to see that gate at the end of the Sett Valley Trail

Overall a very enjoyable night in lovely conditions. The next novelty event will be the extremely popular Pennine Relay from Ladybower Dam back to Hayfield and then the runner vs bike Mk2 in September.