A Novice’s view of “The Trigger” Jan 2012

Marsden to Edale "The Trigger" Fell Race
I have been a member of Pennine for a couple of years now but I have done very few races, so I am still very much a novice. I have only done about 6 fell races the first of which was actually the last Tanky’s Trog (last ever?). I went into it with a dodgy left knee and ended up taking 5:35 to do it. My inexperience showed itself in last years Edale Skyline when I went off like a race horse at the beginning and was wrecked by Win Hill. I then hit the wall before the wool packs I had a painful few miles to the end and eventually came home in 4:45.
I was determined to do better in The Trigger. Back in the autumn I made a great purchase when getting an Android phone and putting the free RunKeeper app on it. With this app I knew I was doing about 12 minute miles on my long training runs so with the rougher ground and more climbing over the course of The Trigger  I thought 12 to 13 minute mile would be a realistic target. The day finally arrived and Alan’s great write (Earth Stood Hard as Iron) up describes it beautifully.

The very cold conditions for The Trigger

After standing around in the freezing Marsden morning for too long we were off and after (what felt like) 100 meters my phone announced to me that I had done a mile in less than 10 minutes. After another 200 meters I had done the next mile in 9:30. What was I doing? I can’t keep this up so I slapped on the brakes and every slight hill up past the reservoirs I walked. I was a bit embarrassed every time the phone in my pocked started to announce the time distance and min/mile pace. But it helped get my pace down to something that I could sustain for the duration of the race. Looking back over my shoulder at Wessenden Res I could see that I was probably only about 20 places from last place, but I was comfortable and I could tell from the breathing of the people around me they were working harder. So totally uneventful run to the A635 and the Wessenden Head Road (to Meltham), which is known locally as the 'Isle of Skye' (after a former hotel) then along the flags  to  Black Hill I had a bonus as some of my idle time on YouTube paid off. I watched a short video of the stream crossing of Dean Clough from a previous year's Tanky's Trog and quite a few guys done a sneaky cut off the path to leap frog the queue of people crossing, when I realised where I was I done the same and overtook quite a few people, including Elaine. I reached the summit of Black Hill at 12:14 minute mile – perfect.

Black Hill trig -Soldier's Lump The first summit cairn on "The Trigger"

 Then the long decent to Crowden, this was so hard on Tanky’s as my left knee could not handle the rough ground, but on Sunday I loved it. At one stage a lady was pulling a very muddy leg out of a hole so I though that maybe I will avoid that line! Once again we had another stream crossing at Crowden Little Brook, I decided to make my brand now Inov8s do some work and went straight down the extremely steep grassy bank and crossed the stream a little higher that the queue of people on the foot path. One of the WoodHead guys complemented me on my “faster” line so with my swelled head firmly on my shoulders I shot past him. Next stop Crowden and the accent of Bleaklow.  I was a bit apprehensive about this as I had been up there twice before, both in extremely poor conditions and it would be true to say that I did not find a good “line” from there to the top of Bleaklow. But as it turned out there were loads of people heading that way. That was an interesting little scramble up that buttress to get up.

 Frozen Trigger Landscape (http://www.raygreenphotography.co.uk)

A very funny situation once we got onto the plateau, there was a couple of women heading on a compass bearing across to Wildboar with this queue of blokes following them, because they were navigating they were going a bit slower and I ended up overtaking them so I was leading heading towards the summit and promptly went a “sub-optimal” route, very inconsiderate of them to not run faster. My runkeeper app show a nice little arc between the wildboar clough path and the summit cairn that should have been a straight line probably cost me 3 or 4 minutes. I gladly took a few Jelly Babies from the WoodHead man and the phone now had my average speed at 13:40 min/mile, that is all right because I have a long quick section now until I start climbing Kinder. As Alan said navigation was not a problem, I did not know that trod (notice the spelling Geoff!) to Hern Stones was even there, it was a great run over to the check point and I got to show off a bit as well as I weaved my way though this big group of kids (I can be sad sometimes!).

Bleaklow B29 Crash Site

Higher Shelf Stones Trig The second Trig point on "The Trigger"

Run past the B29 Crash Site and onto Higher Shelf Stones. It is from this point on that "The Trigger" seriously diverges from The Tanky's Trog route. Ian Winterburn's advice came into play as I followed his recommended line down to Crooked Clough and then the little climb back up to the pennine way.
Straight across the road at Snake Top then 2 miles of track doing just over 10 min miles down to Withing Clough. I could see all of these blokes over to my right struggling to work their way from the flags as I was galloping down the slight slope. I met up with a bloke who judged from my speed that I must know what I was doing so he tagged along with me as we headed down to the trod in Withing Clough. Alan described what happen next I overtook him and Mark near the base of final steep climb on the Trigger then some strange foreigner started hollering at me from near the top of the climb. I did not find the climb particular difficult it is just long and steep and it takes as long as it takes. Alan make some time back on me on the short crossing to the final Trig Point at Kinder West as the grough I decided to follow veered slightly to the north of where I wanted to go so I had to do a hard left turn when I saw the Kinder West 50 metres off to my left.

Kinder West Trig - the final checkpoint on "The Trigger"

Once again thanks to Ian Winterburn, by this stage runners were pretty thin on the ground so nobody to follow any more but I knew the route along the river kinder and which side grough to take so I got to Crowden Tower OK. The river and the groughs were incredibly icy which made for a slow crossing. Is that the best way or is it possible to cut over towards Grindslow earlier? I have only been to Grindslow once before on the Edale Skyline and on that day I was beyond caring where I was so I was lucky to catch up with a couple of blokes that took me on a lovely trod around the side of Grindslow  Knoll to pick up that horribly rocky path. I was pretty tired at this stage but nothing like the Edale skyline where I was thinking to myself “why am I doing this, I am not enjoying it”. On Sunday I had enough left in the tank to knock off the last two miles down to the race finish in Edale at a bit over 10 min miles. What a feeling galloping though the lovely soft field near the bottom of decent then the mercifully short road section at the end to finish "The Trigger" in 4:50, which averaged at 13:07 minute miles for the 22 miles. When before the race I was thinking 12 minute to 13 minutes per mile would be doable I was very happy to have come home so close to my intended target.
My GPS plot shows a ridiculous semi circle around Grindslow so I need to have a look at the “straighter” line down from there. I was shocked to see that Hano and Stephen (much better runners than me) had only just got home. With the winner in 3:13 I guessed that I would be about position 100 which I was pretty happy with. It was with total shock that I found that I had finished 70th,
Overall an amazing day and extremely happy with how I was able to manage the pace. The conditions made a massive difference to my time. My lack of knowledge of the route would have been a big issue it the visibility had been worse. So I suppose I have an artificially good time! Couple of things I learned having three gels is very easy. Trying to chomp through two frozen Mars bars is far from easy and it felt like more trouble that it was worth!
Do a bit more Trigger reccing and back again next year to do battle with The Trigger again

Me in 3rd place in the photo rounding Grindslow Knoll - nearly at the end now.

Training Run comments 2012

Dec 17th. 2012.
Wet "un" tonight. Poured down with rain for the first 20 minutes and the whole time I was up high the visibility was about 3 metres. With it having rained all day there was torrents of water everywhere. Thankfully it was a very mild night so getting wet feet and legs did not matter at all. Very difficult underfoot so a slow time. Just under 2 hours for the 16 Km run. It is a regular route and usually I would do it in 1:45. Tried to focus on landing on my front foot rather than the heels. Successfully done that, but hurting the calf muscles - must be doing something wrong.

16 Km "Mellor Run"

Dec 13th. 2012.
Bitterly cold night tonight with Pennine, sub zero temperatures and blowing a gale on the tops. Ended up in a group of 4, including Wardy three fast lad and me! Actually once we got going it was not a bad night except for the wind in the exposed sections.
Had a look at some photos from the Stockport 10 and there is one of me about 500 metres from the end. I am in the process to doing a beautiful heel strike, which I am disgusted about as I through I was not too bad on the running style front. Photographic evidence from Run the Line and Stockport 10 would seem to contradict that! Last night I was paying attention to trying to land on my toes.  It seemed to work except today my calf muscles are sore - just cannot win!

Dec 6th. 2012.
About 15 out last night with Pennine Fell Runners, with four of us doing the long run. It was pretty horrible conditions leaving the car park. On my suggestion we headed over towards Cowen Edge as it is a bit lower and more decent tracks with the weather being the way it is. Helen was apologizing for the noise her tungsten studs were making on the road but as the run went on the the other three of us were doing some auditions for Swan Lake while Helen was loving running through the ice. It was pretty much sleeting snow and rain of varying degrees of intensity for the whole night. It should have been 3 hrs but called it quits at two. Enjoyable run though.
Quite happy to call it quits at 2 hrs as I have the Stockport 10 on Sunday.

My Android phone is really getting annoying now with it being so slow to get a satellite lock for RunKeeper. According to it, we done abut 5 miles last night it was more like 10 to 11 miles.

Dec 1st 2012
Out at 6 am for a fell/trail run on my own. The regular 17 miler up around Mellor, Latern Pike. Conditions not too bad leaving the house. Up to Cobden Cross and visibility was about 5 meters with the head torch - real pea-soup conditions. Ice made it treacherous underfoot and then it poured down with rain pretty much like that for the first couple of hours. But as the dawn arrived the weather improved meaning that I finished the last hour in glorious sunshine. About 3:25 to do the 17 miles 3:00 would be a more typical time.

Nov 20th 2012
On my third (or fourth one if I count the one that did not arrive in the post) Fenix HP 11. Been a bit unlucky with this light with two faulty ones. When it works it is an amazing light. Done quite a few runs with this one now and very happy with it.