Groovy & Baby Kinder Love

I have added the option of running a shorter version of the Groovy Kinder Love with a totally uninspired name "Groovy Baby Love". Both races start together and follow the main race route to the Broad Clough CP (the baby bypasses the down-and-up to the Jacob's Ladder CP) and splits at the Broad Clough ford. The "baby" crosses the ford and goes over the stile while the main race turns right to follow Broad Clough for 30(ish) metres before crossing and going through a gate to climb back up to the three knolls path. The baby continues around to briefly meet the main route again at Benny's bridge/bottom of Sandy Heys CP, where the baby turns left to climb up to the Shooting Cabin CP while the main race climbs up William Clough. Both routes then meet again for the final descent from the Shooting Cabin CP to the finish. There are instructions in the attached "Baby" PDF and some images at the bottom of this page.

2024 was the first year running the two options, it worked OK(ish). The idea of the "baby" was that it was meant to be an easier alternative to the main race, but in retrospect there was not enough of a difference between the two options. The "baby" is still a hard race and anybody who could do it would also be capable of doing the longer one, so in effect they were in competition with each other.

There are going to be changes for 2025, I will remove the South Head CP for both races to remove confusion with trying to get some people to bypass it while sending the Groovy over the top. The main change will be removing the Jacob’s Ladder CP for the baby. That removes 2Km/170m climb.

This is the stats for each race will then be:

Groovy 24.5 Km 1290m
Baby 16 km 675m

I will just have a single entry for both races (so you just enter the Groovy Kinder Love). You can decide at race number allocation which route you want to run. My race limit of 200 then covers both races so I will not have 400 running.

Google Drive link to a PDF and PNG of the full race map.

These maps show the old Broad Clough and Sandy Heys Bottom checkpoint locations. If printing them off make sure you mark in the new locations as detailed below.

The Broad Clough CP has been moved back down to the Broad Clough Ford as that is where the races split and the marshal can ensure runners go the correct way.

The "Bottom of Sandy Heys CP will be by Benny's Bridge as the baby will be coming around the side of the hill to briefly meet at that CP before spliting again.

Groovy Kinder Love race map image file

Groovy Kinder Love race map PDF file
Groovy Baby Love PDF file

GPX should be available here. PlotaRoute GPX

Sat 14th Sep 2024 – Groovy Kinder Love (R) (24.5 Km, 1280 m)

It will be the "2020" route as outline below

Click here for the 2021 Winners Strava Plot

This will make for an ideal first AL for anybody wanting to give this category a go as it is right down near the minimum acquirements for this category.
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
This area is a SSSI, which does limit where the race can go. Hence there are a lot of checkpoints, to stop people going "off-piste", which would endanger getting permissions for future events. The CPs are not set in stone but the route will be more of less what is shown below.
This is the route details that have been agreed with the NT and have been submitted to Natural England

Check Point changes from the first year

There are a couple of minor checkpoint changes (CP 7 Broad Clough and CP 9 Sandy Heys Bottom), to facilitate mobile phone coverage. The more significant one is CP7 but the consensus from 2021 seemed to be the longer route following the footpath was actually faster and in that case you will naturally be going past the new checkpoint location. CP 9 will make no difference unless you want to straight line it from there to William Clough, not sure there would be much point in that though.

Groovy Kinder Love Start Valley Road, Finish Scout Hut

Start to CP 1 (Christine's Gate)

Broad Clough has been moved 300 metres further south to footpath junction on higher ground to facilitate mobile phone coverage. This is no longer a cut-off point.

Jacob's Ladder to Edale Rocks & Broad Clough

Broad Clough to Kinder Downfall

CP10 (Sandy Heys) has been moved slightly uphill to facilitate mobile phone coverage.
There is a 03:30 hour cut off at this point.