Tales from the Dark Side - Stockport 10

This is a road race so stop now if not interested.  My wife done this a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. Last year I entered to give here moral support for her second attempt. I would not have entered only there are two considerable hills in the race both in the second half at 6 miles and cruelty 8.5 miles to give a total assent of about 550 feet, which is a lot for a road race. Last year I done no training for the Stockport 10. Probably 3 years(ish) since I done that distance on the road and I done a five hour reccie for "The Trigger" the Thursday before. So I was pretty chuffed to come in 1:16 in position 268ish out of 780ish finishers. Twelve months later my wife wanted to do it again. I knew entries were open but I was not bothered about it so for a few days I did not mention it hoping it would fill up. Finally I decided I had better mention it is open so ended up paying 17 quid each to enter (ouch!). Soon after entering she got injured and just too busy with the new job so she cried off and deferred the entry until next year, which was nice by the organisers. So here I was doing it on my own. This year I actually done a hand full of 4 mile sprints around Marple thinking I should at least try for the Stockport race this year. But then on the Thursday before the long distance coordinator at Pennine scheduled her 3 hr training run for that night. I was not missing that! It turned out to be a horrible night with driving rain and sleet so it got cut back to 2 hours which suited me.

Up on Saturday morning and it was horrible oh well what do you expect in December. Got to Woodbank Stadium in Woodbank Park to retrieve my number.
It was a nice touch having my name on it, but caused some confusion during the race as a couple of time people called out "come-on Patrick" and I was looking at them trying to work out who they are as they must know me and I have no idea who they are!!.  The race number also had a little chip bonded to the back for the automated chip timing.

Puma Stockport 10 - Come-on Patrick!

The conditions actually improved by the time the race started we had one heavy shower within the first couple of miles but after that conditions just continued to improve. Actually turned out to be a perfect day for running. There were so many people who were over dressed for it with long running leggins and/or jackets. Some people are such whimps at the beginning of a race and do not appreciate how much they will warm up once it gets started. Early in the race I recognised a Glossopdale vest in front of me, I pulled along side and commented it was nice to see another Fell Runner to be informed that this was actually on the Glossopdale club championship and there are 14 of them out. We would have a riot in Pennine if they tried to put a road race in our championship.

The first down downhill,which was on  a rough track

The two big climbs are both in the second half. Despite this my split for the second 5 miles, the previous year, was a couple of seconds faster that the first five. At the start of the first climb I said to myself Pat you are a fell runner lets show them what you can do so I started to push up the hill overtaking quite a few people and just kept it up for the rest of the race. Done the same this year and near the top of the climb I caught site of my club-mate "Barnaby". Now there was a target. Every so slowly I was pulling him in. Until we got to the big decent at about 7 miles and he was just faster than me on the downhill. He ended up finishing 15 places (50 seconds) ahead of me. The real sting in this race is the 1  mile climb up New Zeeland Road at 8.5 miles. It suits me as everybody is knackered at that stage and I was able to gain a hand full of places.

Stockport 10 relief map

I dropped my phone in the first mile and it turned itself off when it hit the ground so I had no idea how I was going so on re-entering the park I was ecstatic to see the clock just turn 1:09 with a Km to go. I had a great opportunity to get below the 1:15 that I was hoping for so doing something resembling a sprint.

Competition!

I had just overtaken this bloke in the white tee shirt,  he was not having it we had 200 m to go on the track and he over took me again I had nothing left to hold him off.
 I got home in 1:13:21 to give me position 204. There were 749 starters so just outside the top quarter.
The overall winner came home in 49:55 and my category winner (MV 45) was 55:53, 9th overall!
I am amazed by how few finishers there were. The race was full at 1000 what happened to the other 251. I suppose there would be a few DNFs but the vast majority probably just did not turn up! Nearly quarter of the field that is appalling.

Within  a couple of minutes of finishing I received a text message congratulating me on finishing the Stockport 10 in a time of 1:09:21 eh? Apparently it was the same for most people having 4 minutes taken off their time.

Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I do it again? I don't know!

Run The Line 6th October 2012

Back in Ireland for a family reunion when in the pub on Thursday night my twin informs me of a Trail Race (Run the Line) through the Dublin Mountains on Saturday in aid of Dublin and Wicklow Mountain Rescue.  It is a 28 Km (17.5 mile) long linear race starting in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght and heading generally south east around South Dublin to finish near Glencullen, close to the well known pub, Johnnie Fox's. This place has been around since 1798 and claims to be the highest pub in Ireland but apparently it is not! With a few pints of Guinness down 36 hrs notice is more than enough time to get my head around doing a 28 Km run. Luckily I had a pair of trainers and running trousers (but no waterproofs of any kind so just hope the weather will be OK). Short run Friday then an unholy early start on Saturday morning to drive to Dublin for the race start. Join the queue to get a shock when asked for 37 euro my brother somehow thought it was 20. Well we are here now and it is a good cause so just pay up.

It was a glorious morning and approximately 60 real man (and ladies) were ready for the off on the full "Run the Line". Another 60 odd lightweights were getting ready to board a bus to be ferried to the half way point for the start of the 14 km race. A bit of banter as my identical twin brother is a regular at IMRA events so I had a number of complete strangers come chatting to as if I was a close friend - weird.

The Wicked Witch of the East and her ugly sister

Just before the race I realised that the I had left my water bottle in the car, well too late to worry about it now just have to rely on the water station, risky as it was a warm morning and it will only get hotter. Eventually called to order given some safety instructions as the early stage of the race is on public roads. then we were off.

And we are "off" to Run the Line

The first few Km were pretty flat initially along public then private roads to get to the reservoir at Bohernabreena. As so often happens I went off pretty fast with Runkeeper on my phone informing me how fast I was going. After 3 km I decided I was going too fast and slowed up quite a bit. This allowed another runner to slowly catch up with me and as he came along side we started chatting and ended up staying together for the next few Km. The run along Bohernabreena reservoir was amazing with the autumn trees in the morning sunshine.

Bohernabreena Reservoir

At 6 Km got to the end of the first reservoir cross the dam then the first climb of the day up to the second reservoir. RunKeeper was now telling me I was going even faster but I felt OK so, "why not" -  lets see what I am capable of?

The Upper Reservoir, Bohernabreena waterworks

We pulled in and passed quite a few runners until the climbing started to get more serious. My companion was training for the Dublin Marathon later in October so while a decent runner on the flat he did not have it for the long climbs on the road. I could see quite a few runners scattered along the hill in front of me and feeling like a bit of a "Show Off" Fell Runner I put the pressure on to drop my companion and overtake quite a few runners on that long climb. Eventually arrive at the water station, at 14 Km, to down a few cups of water and grabbed a couple of handfuls of Jelly Babies. Then off down the Forest trails.

A lot of work has been done in the Dublin mountains to build very good quality walking routes for people who would not be confident in true mountain terrain. For the most part from this point on the race followed forestry roads and these good quality foot paths. Caught up with another runner who was not enjoying the descending, I passed on a hint to try to stop his stride getting too long on the decents to protect his knees. Dropped him on the next climb, not expecting to see him again. By this stage I was running on my own as the 60 odd runners were pretty well scattered along the course and I had yet to begin to catch up the the back-markers  in the "1/2" "Run the Line" race. A long decent down the forest trail to Killakee car park and the bloke from earlier comes bombing past me. He shouts out his thanks for passing on the down hill running advice. Last time I pass on useful info during a race. I was now starting to catch the 14 Km back-markers, which helped massively in setting a target to reel them in. As the race progressed  the frequency of catching them increased considerably. One of the nicest parts of the race was now coming up as we left the road after 16 Km to enter Cruagh Wood. A nice foot path and climb to cross a style then a long section with a narrow path through dense woodland and a forest road to Tibradden car-park at 20 Km.

 Cruagh Wood

Into the car park and an unexpected surprise a water station that had bottles he could give out. "I will have one of those, thanks" and then probably the longest climb of the day including the dreaded "boneshaker" to the summit of Two Rock Mountain, more commonly known as “Fairy Castle”, at 22 Km. This is the highest point of the Dublin Mountains at  536 m/1,759 ft. Just 6 Km to go now and in theory it is all down hill :)

The "boneshaker" is a popular mountain bike challenge

 Approaching "Fairy Castle" - the summit of Tibradden Mountain

The remains of the chambered cairn at the summit of Tibradden Mountain

We were unlucky and did not see anything but on some days, fairies can be seen dancing around the pile of stones which covers an old megalithic tomb.  According to a popular belief, fairies live among the old stones of prehistoric tombs and this is why the mountain was given its name.

Initially the decent from  Tibradden along the board walks and well maintained foot path was pretty easy but as we passed "Three Rocks" the foot path deteriorated considerably. At this stage I was in the thick of the 14 Km runners and hill walkers. It is very difficult to plan a safe decent over rough ground when there are so many people close by.  I ended up following a bloke who had a nice descending technique, so I stuck in behind him as he weaved his way between, the walkers/runners/rocks/etc. down the hill.

Descending from Tibradden Mountain via the Board Walks

Eventually get to yet another unexpected water station at "Three Rocks" (26 Km) that I passed by as I was OK and only 2 to 3 Km to go. This was a long decent on a forestry trail containing a couple of small re-assents that felt like I was climbing Everest. I was really hoovering up the "struggling" back markers from the shorter race at this stage so it was a real motivator to keep pushing.

Late in the race and a tired looking heel strike! with my "roll your own" 3/4 running trousers. 

Looking  Better!

Little sting in the tail near the end as we had to leave the forest trail to run along a very muddy footpath through the woods for a couple of hundred meters to break out onto another trail for the final half Km to the finish.  Rounded a bend to see a large "blow up" finish arc. It's done "I ran the Line"

This is the End

My finish time was 2:47 to give me  24th place out of 60 odd runners. Beat the brother by 15 minutes or so. Then a 1Km walk down the road to a very welcome pint (or two, or three...)

"Run the Line" RunKeeper Race Route

This was the inaugural (and low key) running of the "Run the Line" event so on the organization front it did not exactly all go to plan. At the finish line we had to give in our race numbers so they would have hard evidence of who arrived back OK. After a rest and drink, off to bag drop to retrieve our bags that were all identical brown paper bags identified by (you guessed it) race numbers. Now who actually remembers their race number once it is finished? We had loads of people peeping into each bag to try to identify which bag was theirs. There was also the issue of a rather impatient bus driver that left loads of us in the pub. Usually having to stay in a pub for another 90 minutes is not the worst thing in the world but we had a family dinner to get to - appreciated the lift in the Mountain Rescue Land Rover. The results published by the organisers were not presented that well so I hacked them  together a bit better here.

http://www.imra.ie/forum/topic/id/3193/

Hopefully it will be back next year and if in the country I would do it again.

Full "Run the Line" Men's Winner (02:03) approaching Tibradden

Full "Run the Line" Ladies Winner (and 7th overall, 02:20) descending from Tibradden

What I would do for a Tee-Shirt! but I enjoyed the couple of pints as well!!

The watering hole - Johnnie Fox's Pub, Glencullen

What it was all about

Training Comments 2013

PFR Run 12/12/13

GeoffB suggested a great run last night. Dragons Back, South Head, then Kinder Trog in reverse to Edale Cross to pickup the Kinder Downfall route back to Hayfield. Amazing the difference to this time last year. It was very mild last night misty and a slight drizzle. Really enjoyable evening.
Back to the Trigger.

This year I actually done some work for the Stockport 10 road race so each Tuesday I have been doing a 7 mile route on similar accent to the race itself. Now that is out of the way I have to start concentrating on the Trigger. Got out last night for 1:30 and done a couple of assents of Cobden Cross. Met two groups of Mountain Bikers, I always like meeting them, makes it less lonely when out in the dark. Pity I was not a couple of minutes further up the hill as I could have caught and overtook them. They were too close to the top road so I only passed one and met the rest of them on the road as they waited for the tailender. A quick good evening then the climb (for me) gets to the really serious section through "the banks" before the final road section up to Cobden Cross. Repeated the climb again before returning back to the Guide Hut for the pickup. There needs to be a lot more Cobden Cross reps done over the next five weeks.

All ready for the BG weekend.

Up at 5 am on Saturday morning for another 6 reps up to Cobden Cross. Went very well got the whole lot done in under 3 hrs. I even set my second fastest time for the hill climb segment. That is it now a couple of handy runs this week then upto the Lakes on Fraiday Afternoon.  Lets hope we are lucky with the weather and Stolly has not taken September's quoto of good conditions. Stolly was very lucky as 24 hr later the conditions were horrendus.

The Summer is Over

 Since getting back from Germany I have been working pretty hard in preperation for helping out with a Bob Graham attempt later on in September. Quite a few of the runs have been with the Head Torch. I also had to use it for the last 15 minutes of Pennines run last Thursday and I was sorry I did not bring it with me when running over in Hayfield on Monday while waiting for Cadets to finish. I has been a good summer both on the weather front and the running went well. A long six months of headtorch running now.


Thursday, July 18, 2013
Usually Thursday night Pennine get together. It was a lovely evening in the Car park and on the spur of the moment I suggest to AndyH would he be interested in a long run tonight? I suggested 2 hours and when I explained the route Wardy commented that it would be more than two hours, which did not really surprise me.

Kinder Clockwise Circuit Team.

I ended up getting a group of 5 so we headed off to the base of Sandy Heys  to have a very difficult climb in the sweltering heat. From there we headed directly north-east to hit the northern edge path round-about  Red Brook then followed that path around to Fairbrook Naze and onto Seal Stones. From there we took Tanky's famous five-minute-crossing to the south edge above Edale. It took us about six minutes! Done the reverse of the Edale Skyline around to Grindsbrook Clough and as it was now over two hours I decided that we would head straight across the platue to get over to the River Kinder. I did not have a map so I just tried to keep heading west using the compass when in reality I should have been heading more North-West. We ended up at the trig point at Crowden Head, I had never been there before and it was a surprise to meet two young lads that had a big bag of sweets so I helped my self to a crunchy bar! We continued west and eventually hit the edge path by Pym Chair which is further south than I intended but OK. Straight forward return from there by following the Kinder Downfall route back. It was starting to get a bit dark across Tunstead Fields but the running is pretty good underfoot along that stretch so no problem. We finished at about 10:30 so nearly 3 1/2 hours. Very enjoyable evening.

July 15th. 2013
Back to my usual assault on the Snake Path and Sandy Heys. I felt I was going pretty well going up Sandy Heys in sweltering heat while running in "Luv Shack" mode. Got home and uploaded the strava plot to get a time of 16:24 (my PB is 15:45 so it was my 3rd fastest.). That PB has stood a while now and the closest I have got to it is 15 seconds. Tonight I even check it to make sure there was nothing odd about it in case it was a mistake but it looks OK so I genuinely done 15:45.

July 10th. 2013

Another fantastic evening last night on the Pennine Relay from Ladybower reservoir to Hayfield. Trashed myself on Leg 2(Mam Tor) to give Stevie a chance on the last leg. It worked we WON
by 23 seconds in 2:08, 3 minutes outside the course record.  I am particularly chuffed with my 15:04 for the Loose Hill climb segment giving me 8th place out of 68 in the Strava League.

June 4rd. 2013
I have been concentrating on hill climbing lately in preparation for DazH's race later in June. The longest hill I have is the river Goyte upto Cobden Cross (about 210 metres climb). It is a quite a wooded track and on six reps of it on Saturday this is the resulting Strava Plot.

I done four reps last night and I was expecting the worse as I was assuming the trees were the cause of the poor sat. lock. but this was last night, pretty much perfect (with some illegal descending through the golf course between 10pm and midnight). I held the phone pretty much the same place on both runs and weather conditions were the same. Many times I have had it go a bit mad but never as bad as on Saturday.

June 3rd. 2013
Just an excuse to put up a photo from my phone (pity it is not better quality). Went up Three Knolls, last night. Went onto Kinder Low then the  top of Jacobs Ladder then back via Edale Cross and the Kinder Downfall route. Fantastic evening. Met two pensioner age women at Kinder Low at about 20:15, they had got lost following the Pennine way. I set them on the right track. they were intending on camping so did not matter so much that they were late. They tried to load a pile of sweets into me!! Probably could not get their head around somebody running.

Kinder Low Trig

April 15th. 2013
 It was the Kinder Downfall race over the weekend. With a lot more people using Strava  I had a look on Sunday to see I had dropped quite a few places on the Snake Path segment. I headed over to Hayfield last night to repeat what I done the previous Monday in a very strong head-wind namely Snake Path and Sandy Hays climbs and return the same route. It was a lovely evening and underfoot conditions very good so I thought I would be able to have a good blast at it. Went very well I set a PB on the snake path and jumped from 38th to 23rd out of 63 people with posted times. The one I am very happy about is talking about 67 seconds off my Sandy Hays time to jump from 10th to 7th. Have to see how long I hold that as now we are into the improving weather some of the faster runners in Pennine ,who have not posted a time yet, will start having a go at the segment.

Paul's Bob Graham this weekend. I am feeling good so hopefully it will be a successfull day for Paul and me! I would like to do three legs.
 
Feb 11th. 2013
Got myself involved with the "Overweight to Raceweight goal" on the FRA forums again. Determined to get down to the 70 Kg this year (did not quite get there last year before creeping back up a bit again). It is the next weigh-in on Wednesday so with that in mind I have been out running the last 4 days. Got out last night and done a 24 Km via Cobden Cross, Rowarth, Cowen Edge, Mellor Church and back to Marple. Very cold night and with frozen snow in most of the sheltered areas. Very enjoyable run and unsurprisingly did not see one person the whole night.

Strava
Started to use Strava now instead of RunKeeper. It is a bit of fun with the segments where I can see how I compare to other Strava Users and the Pennine Strava Club. My best Segment is the climb from the Foxes to New Mills golf club where I am 9th out of 80. Most of the 80 would be MTBers. On a climb like that running would be faster that trying to cycle it. I have overtaken MTBers a number of times on that climb. One of the segments last night was from the Little Mill up to the top of the climb. Not doing so well on that climb, well down the ranking. I see quite a few members of Pennine in that league table.

Jan 23rd. 2013.
I need to stop reading the FRA forums! After struggling in the ice last Thursday a guy on the forums let us know of an offer on at SportsShoes.com. They have
Inov-8 Oroc 340 on at £45. That is a bargain so for the umpteenth time I made a snap purchase because the "price was right" They arrived this afternoon so I went out at 9pm tonight for a five mile run. Lots of packed snow and ice. The shoes were great. I really enjoyed the run, so bright with all the stars and white snow.

Jan 17rd. 2013.
Pennine's long distance coordinator put another of her three hour runs on for last night. We arrived in Hayfield to a cold night with light snowfall. After some debate 3 of us decided to follow the Trans Pennine Bridleway from South Head to Rushup Edge then down Chapel Gate to Barber Booth. The return would be along the Pennine Way to Edale Cross, over to the fields below Kinder Low End and then down through Tunstead Fields to Hayfield. It was a tricky enough night, epically on the Trans Pennine bridleway as there was a lot of ice. The wind and snow was not so much a problem, in fact when in shelter it was a lovely evening. The steep descent via Chapel Gate was to prove to be my most difficult section as three times within a minute I lost my footing in the ice to go crashing down. The final fall wrenched my right arm and little finger (it is still sore). On the way back my five hours on Sunday's Trigger started to catch up with me and I started to struggle to keep up with the pace. Overall an enjoyable evening. We were out for 3 hrs from 7:10 to 10:10 and done about 13.5 miles.

Jan 10rd. 2013.
Last run before Sunday's Trigger, Not run since last Sunday as I felt a slight issue with my left ankle. Felt it again last night so kept it very steady, pretty much in last place for most of the night. Should be OK for Sunday. We went up to Lantern Pike to get an amazing night time temperature inversion. The Hayfield valley was shrouded in cloud with all of the hills visible with the starlight reflecting off the cloud. We have had so many incredibly memorable (for the right reasons) night runs

Roll on Sunday, weather forecast looking similar to last year.

Jan 3rd. 2013.

Lovely conditions tonight, still pretty tired from the Trigger reccie on Monday. Stephen and I decided to do  a bit extra by doing an up and down of Sandy Hays. Very misty on top and we lost the path on the decent. Lovely runkeeper plot of our antics.

The kilometer from 7km to 8 km should have followed back the same line as the kiolmeter from 6 Km to 7Km

Running Style

I became aware of running styles when I read the book "Born to Run"  (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Run-Hidden-Ultra-Runners-Greatest/dp/1861978774).   The important aspect of running style is running cadence (http://sciencebasedrunning.com/2011/07/the-basics-cadence/) and which part of your foot strikes the ground first. I think I have probably succeeded in getting my cadence up as often when out with Pennine I compare how often I take a step compare to those around me and I tend to be faster. Basically the rule is more steps per minute but they are shorter so the speed is the same.

The other rule is landing on the front of the foot instead of the heel. I though that  with my higher cadence I would not be too bad on that front. However the two photos from the Stockport 10 and Run the Line would seem to contradict that.

Near the end of the Stockport 10

Near the end of Run the Line

Two beautiful heel strikes!
The thick padding on modern shoes encourage heel strikes. I found a pair of these going cheap so "why not" lets have a try with minimalist shoes.

 Inov8 Bare-X 180 Running Shoes

With the flat soles and very low heels in these a heel strike is going to hurt so lets see if I can change my style.

Low heel

I will update this post as things develop.

Please post if you  have some comments/advice, 

I have had a couple of 20 Km road runs in the new shoes now and fairly happy with how it has gone. I am getting the front foot strike OK and the very thin soles on the shoes are no problem. Only problem is a slightly sore and stiff left ankle that is not allowing me to get as clean a front foot strike as I would like. This has been a problem I have had for a long time.

Bleaklow Marsden to Edale "The Trigger" Reccie

Jan 1st 2013 The Trigger Reccie 
Wanted to do the last Trigger section from the snake top to Edale. Parked up in Hayfield and went up Williams Clough then along the flags towards snake top. This time I managed to find the flag with the broken corner that marks where I needed to head directly south to the plane wreck. It was not as easy as I remembered it from the last time I done it so I am now not sure if it is better than going over feather bed top. I will use this way on race day so just have to see how it goes. The accent up onto kinder does seem a bit easier so got up to the Boxing Gove OK and then cut across to Kinder West. There was driving wind and rain at this stage. I got to the Pennine Way and met a family with a small boy that was only about 8 yrs old. Commented to the Dad that it was horrendous conditions and he replied yes but great fun thought. Not sure if the young lad agreed. Lots of running in the water along Kinder downfall to get out of the stream bed at Crowden Head then head straight east across to Grindlow. It is absolutely awful around Crowden Head, the gruff dams are being very successful so it is incredibly wet up there I got stuck a couple of times.

Completely lost my sense of direction when I picked up a gruff and decided to follow it. The gruff finally brought me out at Crowden Tower which is not where I had intended on going. Initially I did not realize where I was and started to head in the wrong direction before turning around and following the edge path to Grindslow. Between Grindslow and Crowden Tower I met a couple of women who asked for directions for the shortest way back to Edale, so I told them to just follow the new flagged path to Grindslow and they could descend from there. I ran in the same direction and then started the decent to Edale. Cut a bit of a corner off on the decent from Grindslow to Edale and had a bit of fun galloping down the very wet grass at the bottom of the hill, which involved a sprint against a couple of young lads that were doing belly slides in the mud. Their mother is going to love that when they get back to the car.

I had intended on following the Pennine Way to Edale Cross then back to Hayfield from there but:
a) it would be a bit short,
b) I was not happy with my route across Kinder
c) it was a nice day at this stage
d) I was a bit worried about the two women I had met. The path of Grindslow is not obvious at the beginning and they could easily have followed the wrong one.
So when I got to the  Pennine Way into Edale I turned around and started to head back up to Grindslow again. Lots of comments from the muddy family about having to do it in reverse. My vanity also meant that I had to keep running as well until I was out of sight. I had hoped I would meet the two women while ascending to Grindslow Knowl but no joy. Means they missed the decent I had hoped they would take, just hoped they had gone down Grindslow Brook, which would have been OK as well.

 Got the reverse trip across Kinder perfect so arrived at Crowden Head OK. Head a meander around there to see if there were any lines that would be a bit firmer but no joy so I just headed to the Christmas Trees to drop into the stream bed to follow the river Kinder back to Kinder Gates. When I got to Kinder Gates it started to get very dark extremely quickly, a bit spooky as it was only 3:30. I was starting to regret not bringing my head torch. I said to myself, "Pat I think you are going to get wet". I couple of minutes later the heavens open up on top of me. Not often I have seen rain as heavy as that. A few weeks previously a Berghaus waterproof running jacket just arrived in the post. My brother in Dublin is the worlds greatest scrounger and he saw it as a "second" on a rail in some shop and thought Pat would find that useful. It is an amazing jacket just designed for these type of conditions. So hood up with toggles pulled tight to cover as much of the face as possible and I was able to carry on quite happily. I descended via the 3 Knolls path, which was a bit tricky in the pouring rain then a lovely sprint down through the three fields to get to my car near the quarry carpark. As I approached it I said to myself is that my car with the lights on? Oh (insert appropriate word) am I going to have  a flat battery? Thankfully the car started OK so I just got in with all my wet gear as I could not be bothered changing. Just get out of the gear in the garage when I get home.


07 Dec. 2012 Trigger Reccie

Last year I went up Lawerence Edge which was OK I got over to Wildeboar Clough by following a couple of women that were heading across on a compass bearing. I overtook them and ended up having to find my own way to Bleaklow summit. My line to Bleaklow summit was not brilliant.

For January's race I want to be a bit more sure of the route over Bleaklow. So yesterday I parked up in Crowden to have a go at the Bleaklow section of The Trigger. This leg starts with a rough accent through the heather and rocks with bits of trods in places. This is followed by a steep accent of Lawerence Edge with a couple of moves at the very top that require some care. The runkeeper plot below shows the line I took once I got onto the plateau. The little out and back at the bottom of the image below is deliberate so that I can identify where the style over the fence is. As can  be seen my line was way off it should have been more directly south from where I reached the plateau.

How not to run on a compass bearing.

Once I crossed the styal there are trods in the grufs that go the whole way to the Pennine Way. The grufs split a number of times and it is very easy to follow the wrong one which can result in rougher travelling. But if you keep going generally south (and possibly slight west of south) you will hit the Pennine Way eventually. This section of the Pennine Way is very faint so if there is snow it can be easily missed.

From the summit of Bleaklow it is a case of heading directly south to the Higher Shelf Stones Trig. The line is via Wain Stones, Hern Stones and then straight south from there. There is a trod the whole way but once again it is faint and easy enough to unintentionally leave it.

Back and forth to get the right line to Wain stones.

Last year, after the road crossing at the Snake Top,  quite a few guys went along the flags then cut directly south to climb Kinder via the Boxing Glove. This is a rough route passing to the east of Within Clough as there are a lot of side tributaries that have been dammed up and must be crossed. It has been suggested to go past Within Clough and go down to the west of it. I tried it yesterday but did not go far enough past it. The flags were so icy I  spent too much time watching my footing on them. I probably should have went as far as Moss Castle/Glead Hill area before striking directly south. I have done this in reverse (coming from the plane wreck up to the Pennine Way flag stones) in the past and it worked really well. You just have to identify the correct place to leave the flags, which is easier said than done. It is a pretty featureless area around there. What I done in the plot below was hopeless.

Left the flag stones too early.

My phone battery was getting low because I forgot to put it in Aeroplane mode so it spent hours desperately trying to get a signal and eating up my battery in the process. I had to turn it off once I got to the wrecks. I had intended on going to Kinder West trig but it was 15:15 and while I had a light I did not fancy descending off Bleaklow in fading light so decided to call it a day and headed straight back to Bleaklow summit via the Pennine Way. Pretty much a perfect line back to Wildboar clough and I descended on the west side of it, which is a much better way for going up/down Wildboar. Just had a one mile trot back along the railway line to the car to finish at about 4 O Clock, having started just before 11 am.

Loads of mistakes made but a lot of useful info gained as well, so overall a successful day out in clear blue sky and sub zero conditions.

Galtymore Co Tipperary Ireland July 2012

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Pat Barry

Galtymore (1340 metres climb 12.60 Km distance)

Galtymore or Galteemore (Irish: Cnoc Mór na nGaibhlte, meaning "big hill of the Galtys") is a 919 m (3015 ft) mountain on the border between counties Limerick and Tipperary. It is the highest of the Galty Mountains and the 14th highest peak in Ireland. The prize for the highest peak is taken by Carrauntoohil in the Macgillycuddy's Reeks range in County Kerry, at 1,038 metres (3,406 ft). 

 Straight out and back race route.

I have had my eye on this IMRA Mountain Race (IMRA Race Details) for a number of years but it always occurred before the Stockport schools broke up which did not allow me to get back to Tipperary for it. This year however there was a week in between so I informed my wife we were off to Tipperary that weekend.

 I tried to reckie the route up Galtymore on a very misting morning last Christmas but the maze of little roads defeated me until I found what I thought was the correct road with a hill where it should be so off I went into the mist. Climbed Cush OK and dropped off the back into the coll between Cush and Galtee Beag still OK but it went pretty wrong after that, why was that lake there and why was I on a ridge that did not seem to make sense on my postage stamp sized map. I just gave up trying to get to the Galteemore sumit and headed directly south to hit a road about a mile from the car so an interesting couple of hours but overall not a very successful outing. Roll on eight months and this time I had my brother so back to the Christmas start point and an hour before the race nobody around. Strange I know there are small fields in Irish races but this is ridiculous my certainty that we were in the correct place was starting to get a bit shaky. Back to the slightly less small road and counting farm entrances suggested we were not not in the correct place, so micro navigating from the car, counting yet more farm entrances brought us to a little hand written sign and arrow “Hill Race” that looks promising. It also explained a lot from Christmas while I thought I was climbing “Cush”, I was in fact climbing Slieve Cushnabinnia, which, in my defence, does have a very similar profile.

Galty More from Galty Beag

IMRA insurance requires all runners to be members so up to registration with my IMRA application form. For one off races in cases like mine they wave the race entry fee so I just had to pay the 10 Euro to join IMRA. It was a mild after noon low cloud base (below 600 metres) so I could wear my Pennine top with pride and not buried below a waterproof. I felt I was in the presence of royalty when Paul Tierney (sub 18 hr. Bob Graham this year and two 3rd place finishes in the Lake Land 100 recognised the Pennine Fell Runners top from the FRA forums and came over to say hello. This was the final of five races in the IMRA Irish Championship so there was some serious individuals around.

Clean Runners waiting for the "Off"!

The usual pre race safety pep talk then 49 hardy souls set off to the long haul to Galtee summit. Soon after the start the field split into two with about 10 of us following a fence line on a rough track the remainder of the field were 10 metres to our right. I was wondering if I had taken a bad line here but nothing to be done about it now, just remember this for the return as the race was a straight out and back over the summits of Cush, Galty Beag and Galty More. Over the stile and a soft flat section before the steep gradient of Cush.

Cush.

 The first serious climb of the day was upon us and we were soon reduced to a walk. This is the first of five climbs today so no killing myself so early. The mid-packers were still fairly close together and I was climbing with a  lady, (Loretto Duggan) who would go on to be the ladies winner and Munster champoin. Eventually the first serious climb was over and we had the “short” descent, where Loretto overtook me to the col between Cush and Galty Beag. This was a slog as it was soft and grufs that Kinder would have been proud of! Cross the coll and this wall of Grass and rock appears out of the mist. I can’t say I did not know this was coming so head down and begin the long slog up. Thankfully I had read some old race reports so I knew about the “step”. Approaching it, it looks like the top but it is only an insultingly brief reprieve before the climbing gets worse. Eventually we reach the summit of Galty Beag where the summit marshal shouts words of encouragement from this hideaway behind a rock. Then the badly eroded descent to the quagmire that is the col between Galty Beag ‘agus’ More. Galty More is very much a hill of two halves on the north side it could be in the Pennines but the south side is a vertical cliff straight down to a corrie lake.

Cliffs above Lough Curra, with Galtymore on the skyline (mountainviews.ie)

 The foot path, that follows the very top of the cliff, is Okish for going uphill but I would not fancy running down it as a bad trip to the left would leave very little room to save yourself.

Summit Cross on Galteemore (by John Finn)

Around the summit and start the return leg. This was the only decent that I would consider myself fast on. The ground was stunted grass and small stones that were just setting on a layer of water. I have great confidence in my Mud-Claws that are made for these conditions. I just shot down a line I had identified on the way up (well away from the cliff) and overtook loads of people who were struggling with grip. The only problem was my line dumped me into knee deep peat in the coll at the bottom that I had to dig myself out of. I accidentally discovered a secret line up to the summit of Galty Beag the the leaders must have taken as there were some mud claw tracks heading down it. The summit of Galty Beag is a short narrow ridge. The natural line off it is to follow the gentle descent east along the line of the ridge. The North and South are both steep drops. Loretto and another bloke hesitated just after the summit but I knew the line was directly south so turn left and hurdle myself down the steep slope. Eventually break out of the mist and a mixed blessing, a faint trod can be seen across the col so the line can be fine tuned but that trod leads to this massive climb up to the summit of Cush, I have absolutely no memory of descending that much on the outward leg. Loretto overtook me yet again on the decent (she is just faster on the down hills) across the col where a foot into a bottomless pit resulted in a lovely face plant. Back on my feet and I had a target I was a faster climber than Loretto so I caught and passed her but I had to keep pushing to get as far ahead as possible because of her faster descending. Across the summit and passed a couple of blokes who were really struggling on the extremely steep decent due to wearing what looked like road shoes. Knowing there were 3 people not far behind me I had a 3 km sprint to the finish. Over the style and I choose to go down the route the majority of the field used on the accent, big mistake

Final Decent

it was a trod about 6 inches wide and a foot deep it was horrible. I was so slow in it and I could hear foot steps and breathing getting closer to be overtaken by Loretto and another bloke 50 metres from the line.

Muddy Finishers and the Ladies winner

The winner was Brian Furey in 89:40 (he was 20th at Snowdon) I came in 2hr 6 minutes in 22 place out of the 49 starters, which I was very happy with. Off to the pub then for a great feast of sandwiches and biscuits washed down by a couple of pints of Guinness.

I have to give a special thanks to the organisers. The difficulty of the race was shown by the number of DNFs and they had to go looking for the lady who ended up spending 5.5 hrs on the hill goes to show the responsibility the organisers take upon themselves, so a very big thank you to Tom Blackburn Et al.

Pennine top in an Irish Race (A First?)

Kinder Trog June 2012

 Great day out. Started with meeting IainR from the forum and Sara to show him the last Km of the Trog route so a nice little run and chat. Lots of banter with the large Pennine turnout and comments about me not usually being out on Sundays (I am only too aware of that) This time I did not pull my calf coming off Latern Pike so a great run over the early stages. Heading to Chunel Junction there were two runner just behind me and they never stopped chatting to each other. Do not know what Language it was, not Welsh something Eastern European I reckon, I hope they enjoyed a British Fell Race - they seem to be enjoying it at that early stage anyway! Across the road at Chunel Junction where I got a great pace maker along the flags where I slowly drew in and passed a fellow Pennine Runner Mike.

Then up onto Kinder. I have to admit I am not good on Kinder, I struggle with all of the rocks, I am just not light enough on my feet to skip over them and I got retaken again my Mike. Just before Kinder downfall Rob Taylor went past me like steam train, amazing speed for a pensioner :)(infact for anybody). Weird at Kinder Low end, I was completely alone not a soul to be seen anywhere. I knew the way so just kept going in the correct direction to pick up the flaggs. Passed a comment to the poor sod at the junction of the two flagged paths about pulling the bum job. His understatement of a reply “It is not great”

Misty Conditions on the plateau for the Kinder Trog.

Down to (this year going the correct side of the hill) Edale cross to meet a large group of mountain rescuers stood there. I was just crossing the track when there was a chorus of Oooooooohhhhhhhhh. I assume somebody behind me had a crash!

Down the trod to the Sett and then that climb! I had a look over my shoulder to see a long possession behind me so I was not as alone as I felt on Kinder. Half way up the climb from the Sett that mountain rescue man was just a bit too enthusiastic. Lots of comments about me being chased by two good looking women. Being faithfull I managed to run away from them! Then that bog trot to South Head. Those flag stones from Edale Cross are getting ominously close. I suppose they will go to South Head eventually so we will loose out on dragging our mudclaws out of the mud. Across the road at  Peep-O-Day and my game of Leap Frog continued as I cought Mike again again on the start of the climb up to Big Stone, he commented at the end that he was developing a problem with his hip.

I had set a target of 2:40 and at big stone I was just over 2:25 so I had my work cut out. Major sprint down from big stone, along the track through the gate and straight down the hill. I passed a few people to get to the finish in 2:39:15 to give me 77th out of 169 finishers. Top half so happy with that!

I done the race two years ago in 2:55 so very happy with the 15 minutes knocked off my time. My family were meant to be on the course to cheer us on but a misunderstanding with time meant they saw me go through the bus station as they got out of the car!!

I like the Kinder Trog, so overall a great day out!

Say "Hi" to the camera at Edale Cross

Slightly less Novice View of the Edale Skyline! March 2012

The day was promising to be fantastic, sun in the sky by the time we set off to get to the start. Coming up to the turn off to Mam Nic before dropping down into Edale there was an amazing cloud inversion, with the Hope valley being buried under a layer of cloud while the top of the hills were in glorious sunshine. The start was as it always is, a kit check, general banter, nervousness and a repack of the bag as the perfect weather meant the waterproofs requirement was lifted.

With the lessons learned from the Trigger I just had to put them in place again. The Edale Skyline race description said 22 miles and Dave Ward suggested to me a 4 hr target which I was a bit shocked about, but it was a target. This would necessitate 11 minute miles.
Bad start the phone would not get a satellite lock and I was there mucking about with it while the rest of the field was storming towards Ringing Rodger. So in dead last place (yep that is me in very last place, in the photo, trying to stick my phone into its little holder) I was finally off on my skyline aventure.

Startng from the back!

Obviously I am a fast walker as I must have overtaken 1/4 of the field by the time I got to the top of Ringing Rodger then off on the easy bit to Win Hill. Passed various penniners and got over taken by others (Ron, et al) Couple of miles into the race my pace maker was not talking to me so I had to stop to check it out, turning the volume up makes all the difference! Rob Taylor went by just before Win Hill. He passed on the useful hint to just take it easy, very true Rob that is exactly what I intend on doing. I felt privileged to have been in front of somebody of that calibre for so long. The little out and back on Win Hill gave the opportunity for a quick hello to Tim and others. Then the long decent to the road by which time I was below the required 11 min/mile average. The climb up Lose hill put paid to that. Last year I ran/walked this climb. On the Pennine Rely I ran the whole lot but today I walked 95% of it. (take it easy Rob said). I enjoyed the cow bells and I was even happier to know that they did not mean that I was just starting the last lap:). On the approach to Mam Nick, Mark had the courtesy to shout before snapping so I had the chance to get my head up and smile!
Got chatting to a lady on the last section of the walk to Mam Tor. When I saw what seemed like hundreds of people up on the Mam Tor summit I suggest we can not be seen walking through that lot so heads up, smile and run until we were past the crowds.

A plan is born!

Over the top and she disappeared off in front of me as I kept too far to the right on the decent and felt like I was running over big moguls. Crossing Mam Nick, despite my conscious decision to keep things under control I was still 10 minutes faster than last year. I am about 10Kg lighter so it shows the effect weight has. The phone had me at 11:30 min/mile so I was well down on my target. But in my stupid optimism I decided that there is less climbing from now on so I may make some of this time up. The "old hands" say that this is where the Edale Skyline really starts. The going does get considerably more difficult form this point on.
The long slow climb then the first of the short cuts.  I rejoined the main field but had to stop to transfer some chocolate bars from my rucksack into my pockets. At this stage a Pennine runner in yellow shorts (who is he) passed me. He had over taken me earlier in the race so it clearly showed the advantage of that route. A lightly built lady who I recognized from much earlier in the race when she overtook me before Win Hill also overtook me while I was stopped. It is a slog to Brown Knoll but keeping your head up and seeing what the runners ahead of you are having to do to avoid the softer bits really pays off. On a number of occasions I was able to drift to the right or left of the muddy trod in plenty of time to avoid particular soft sections. I was starting to suffer a bit here and decided I needed to get some food into me. Now there is a scam I had two posh gels that cost £1 each and a pack of Aldi Mars bar copies (Titan bars – somebody at Aldi knows their Greek Gods or is it Roman:) – I don’t) They are less than 15 pence each, about 2/3 the size of a mars bar and have more calories than the gels!!
Passed Jacobs Ladder and the food I had earlier was paying off now I felt perfectly OK so decided to go for the contour. On Thursday night I ran from Hayfield up to Edale Cross then done the contour to Pym chair. By staying very high on this contour there is a very good trod which I picked up and got around it pretty OK. When I started it I could see a runner ahead of me doing the contour. He was just passing Noe Stool but I caught him by Pym Chair. I asked him if he thought it was worth it (he did not)?. I have not done any timings so I can not say if it saves any time but at least (unlike last year) it probably did not cost me any time. Got to the edge foot path before Pym Chair and went straight across. I done this for the first time on Thursday night and got drawn towards the rocks by Crowden Tower. Today I done the opposite I went too straight and my satellite plot showed a definite hard turn when I joined the grough. I probably should not have joined it for another 50 metres to the right. Going along it a darkpeaker appeared out of nowhere and I ended up doing most of the rest of the race fairly close to him. He had the worst breathing I have ever heard, he was telling me that years of smoking followed by 4 years of running is the cause! I must say the cut around the back of the wool packs is one of the most enjoyable sections of the race.
Back onto the main path to rejoin my fellow skyline runners and got to Grindlow Knoll very quickly. On the Trigger this was pretty much the end, not so today, plus my timings were going in the wrong direction with each mile my average pace was slipping more and more. I was now heading towards 12 minute mile. Bit disappointed with this as it meant I as looking at close on 4:30 which would only be 10 minutes faster that last year's Edale Skyline result. After Grindlow a slightly build lady caught up with me. This was not lost on either of us I commented that she needs to work on her lines as she is clearly a faster runner than me (this is the third time she passed me) but she is missing all of the quicker lines. She slowly drew away from me and I caught up with another runner. He had 4:10 Skyline result from last year and was on for a similar time. This was a surprise to me as I thought I was looking at closer to 4:30. It was quite obvious that the race cannot be 22 miles. This gave me some hope for a significant reduction on last year’s time. Geoff’s little hint on Thursday to find the trod after the stream crossing proved very useful as a lot of people were missing it.
There is something very strange about the landscape in this area as Ringing Rodger just does not seem to get any closer especially when the out crop of rocks you decide is Ringing Rodger is not it. Keep pushing I continue to overtake people as I have done since Brown Knoll and eventually the real Ringing Rodger appears. Some better lines along this trod allows me to overtake a couple of people and still feeling “Okish” just go for it on the decent, through the gate and there is a lady half way between me and the finish.

It's all over - Finished the Edale Skyline for the second time!

Can I catch her? flat out down through the field I catch her 30 meters from the line. To come home in 12:03 min/mile. My phone gave the distance as 20.77 miles giving me a time of 4:10:20. 35 minutes faster than last year so very happy with that.
Very interesting to see the results with such a large group of Pennine finishers crowded into the half hour between 3:45 and 4:15, felt good to be part of it.