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.

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.