A Pennine Bob Graham Adventure

I had only been running with Pennine a few weeks when one Thursday night there was great excitement about some run in the lakes the previous weekend. I was not quite understanding what it was about but it sounded like a long race. Eventually one of the Lads explained to me that it was not a race but a personal challenge. I was still none the wiser about what the excitement was. Sometime later I got orders from my brother in Dublin to buy a book about fell running for him as it's suppose to be be good. You guessed it "Feet in the Clouds".  I suppose I better read it to make sure it is good - ah! Bob Graham that is what the lads were on about!

Over the next couple of years there were another couple of Pennine Bob Graham weekends with a mixture of successes and failures. I was a bit jealous since I could not get up as they seemed to be a great social occasion. Last summer I got up on a successful BG attempt with AndyG. He was not in Pennine long so it was not a typical Penning BG attempt as there were just the 3 Pennine members involved. He was very lucky with the weather and had a storming round to get back to the Moot hall in just under 21 hours. I ran legs 1,4 and 5 that day and loved it. So this year when the prospect of another Pennine BG attempt got raised, I booked my pass at home as I wanted to be involved.

PaulB is a very good runner having completed the UTMB last year in very difficult conditions, I had spoken to him a number of times in recent weeks and he was very confident. He had a very difficult time with his reccies as the snow was very late this year so while he had great weather conditions, it made for very difficult conditions under foot. Amazingly a couple of weeks before his attempt the average temperature shot up by about ten degrees with some rain that cleared away a lot of the snow. The weather forecast in the week before was pointing to almost perfect conditions for his Friday night/Saturday morning start. I was keen to do the two legs (two, three) that I had not done last year. Leg two (12.87 miles (20.71 km) 1,835m) would be similar difficulty to leg one. There are a lot more summits but, like leg one just the three long climbs. Leg three is the beast of the round at 15.20 miles (24.46 km), 2,024m.

Arrived at "the smithy" at 6pm ish  to find Margaret on her own. Over the next few hours the rest of the crew started to arrive. With my 04:00 start I stupidly tried to go to bed at about 8pm to spend 5 hrs looking at the ceiling and getting very little sleep. It was with some relief when the alarm went off just after 3am, so that we could get started. It was a short drive to the Cricket club at Threlkeld  during which we could see the head torches descending off Blencathra. The leg one crew arrived pretty much on time having had an enjoyable leg in perfect (but cold) conditions. After a slowish change over at 04:20  Paul and a group of six pacers were off  past the sewage works and up the road to begin the Clough Head climb.

Dawn on Great Dodd

We could just see the dawn break at the top of the climb and I spend a lot of the next few summits dropping off the back of the group due to talking frequent photography stops and talking it easy on the descents to protect my suspect left ankle.

Leg 2 Support Crew

In the perfect conditions it was a beautiful run over the three "Dodds" before starting the more significant climb up Raise. From Helvellyn we had the pleasure of an amazing temperature inversion over the Dunmail pass. From here is was more easy running to Dollywaggon where a moment of indecision delayed us before striking down to the fence post leading to the descent to Grizedale Tarn.

Temperature Inversions over Dunmail

Grizedale Tarn appears out of the mist.

After dumping the bags I got a blast of speed from somewhere and was first to Fairfield summit.  My worst fears then struck and the dickey left ankle once again gave out on me. I struggled on the descent back to Grizedale Tarn as the main group got away from me before the assent of Seat Sandal. On my own at what I through was  Seat Sandal summit, a good trod went off to the right so I followed it. But after 50m I was thinking why are there no mudclaw tracks? About turn and back to "the summit" - compass out to confirm I was heading north instead of west. Off in the correct westerly direction to get to Dunmail about 10 minutes after the contender at 08:40  (4:20 for the leg) 

Leg 3 Support Crew and doggies

A very quick bite to eat and water bottle refill then at 08:45 a quick chase after the three Penniners on the Steel Fell accent. I have been up the Langdales and Sca Fells many times but this crossing from Steel Fell was going to be completely new. Granted the conditions were perfect but GeoffB is just so experienced and he led us across to Calf Cragg and then onto Sergeant Man without a hitch, except Paul mentioned he had given his knee a wrench on a little jump. None of us took much notice of it as we just assumed he would be able to run it off. Geoff and IanW set a hot pace across the leg and I was petty much last the entire time as I had to work to keep up. Paul was loosing time on the leaders on the descents but was still generally moving well. We knocked off the  Langdales, OK then I found Rossett Pike hard and Bowfell is an absolute beast. It was funny crossing between the two as there were loads of walkers on the foot path to see these four lunatics descending the steep grassy slope from Rossett Pike, cross the foot path to head towards the crags leading up to Bowfell.

That assent to Bowfell

Eventually we reached the summit then loads of boulder hopping to get to Esk Pike from which I identified a sequence of snow fields that allowed for a lovely decent down to the coll below Great End.

The snowfields off Est Pike

 It was about the only time all day I was in the lead. I expected a harder climb to Great End but it was easy and then the  annoying diversions to claim Ill Crag and Broad Crag before summiting the highest point Scafell Pike (978 m). I find this sort of terrain very difficult in MudClaws as they give very little protection if your foot slips on the rock. Descended down to Mickledore from which Geoff had a rough idea of the climbers traverse route. This worked pretty well and saved on a considerable amount of descent and re-assent that would have resulted from the traditional Fox's Tarn route. Bagged the final summit of the leg and then the long descent to Wasdale Head. I had forgotten to print off the timing sheet so I had know idea how we were going. It was on this descent that IanW mentioned to me that it will be "touch and go" to succeed. This was the first time I had appreciated our situation. Following a slow decent to Wasdale as Paul was really starting to find the descents difficult we arrived at the changeover at 15:00, a bit under an hour down (6:15 for the leg). This was me done for the time being having been on the go for about ten hours and forty minutes. Paul headed up the hardest climb of the day, which is Yewbarrow, with his new support team of three.

Dave's Rolling support

A wash in the stream and the long drive around to Buttermere. The long night caught up to me as I kept nodding off on Geoffs shoulder and when they stopped at the pub I stayed in the camper van  to get a couple of hours sleep (while they had three pints and I missed it!) before heading up to Honister. We got there shortly after eight and I got changed into my running gear and proceed up to Grey knotts to meet Paul and crew in the semi darkness. Paul was really struggling and Hano had to give him a hand on the more difficult bits of the descent. I lead them back down to Honister and Helen shot ahead to tell them Paul, will not be stopping (not given a choice!). We departed Honister at 21:10. 70 minutes down but for a fit runner it was still very much on.

Paul,(in the middle) approaching Robinson Summit

He shot up to Dale Head so he could still move up hill quite well and we got to Hindscart after 45 minutes. The knee was getting worse but we arrived at Robinson at 10:40. 1:20 was doable but the descent off Robinson proved too much. Geoff waiting by the van was telling me he could see the torches all the way from the top of Robinson and could not believe how slow they were moving. We eventually arrived at the beginning of the 10km road section in  Littletown at 11:50 where we called it quits.

Back to the smithy where Paul fell asleep straight away and the rest of us reflected on the day with mixed emotions. It had been perfected conditions so we could have done nothing but enjoy the adventure, while gutted for Paul's misfortune that spoilt his attempt. At 0200 on my second bottle of beer I was falling asleep so called it quits for the night. The next morning awake at 0800 tried to get back to sleep again but gave up and was up before 9. Paul was very positive in the morning as three daft buggers prepared to do  the Langdale Horseshoe. It was horrible conditions for it with driving wind and rain. The assent was not too bad with the wind on our backs. We had a quite moment when we got to Daz's cairn then the difficult run out with the rain in our face and a pair of quads that did not want to go downhill.

In the second half of leg three (around about Bow Fell, I think) I remember thinking to myself I must be mad to even think about having a go at this. Time has a nice way of dulling pain as here I am a couple of weeks later thinking......

There are a few photos here.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.590481477631341.1073741826.100000084824850&type=1&l=4b3cd36883

March Snow

I remember hearing a phrase, as a kid about the March weather, "It comes in like a loin and goes out like a lamb".  Something has gone badly wrong this year as the early part of the month was very spring like but it has been back to January-like conditions the past ten days, especially the last five days with a  long-forecasted snowfall over the weekend. Up early on Saturday morning for my usual "Cobden Cross, Mellor Church" run. There was a bit of snow around the house but nothing serious. Down to the canal and then the climb up to "The Foxes". The fun really started on this climb.

Track up to Shaw Farm

The actual centimetres of snow fall was  not that much but it had been very windy so the snow had got blow into every "nook and cranny" possible and where better but sheltered bridleways.
There were some massive snow drifts on this climb and being out so early I was first so I had all of this pristine snow to trash through. It was hard work, very slow but great fun. Who says we can get too old to behave like a child! Whipping the phone out to take a few photos also did not help speed matters!

Road by "Three Chimneys", Cobden Cross

Eventually trashed my way to Cobden Cross (327 metres) to get an amazing view of Kinder

Kinder from Cobden Cross, with my snowdrift-filled bridleway on the left

Unfortunately coming over the crest of the hill at Cobden Cross mean I was facing directly into the wind. It was brutal stuff trying to protect myself from the snow flakes that were being driven into my face at a million miles an hour. The snow on the bridleway was so variable in places nothing, while in other places it was deep snow drifts. Trying to progress with my face down and eyes half open I managed to trip over a  small snow drift to get a painfull crash onto the rock hard ground.

Trying to protect my face from the driving snow

I was relieved to get to my left turn to "five ways" where the driving wind swung behind me. I was now at one of the highest points in the local area (about 300 metres) with a 1Km bridleway to the road. This bridle way is quite exposed so a lot of snow had been blow onto it to give some amazing snow formations (and more thrashing through snowdrifts)

Snow being driven by the wind

Got to the road that was in very poor conditions to meet a big tractor that was attempting to clear it a bit. He must have through I was mad to be out in those conditions (maybe I was!). Made my way to Mellor Church (222 metres) to meet a lady and gent out enjoying the conditions. From here I quickly lost height on the long decent down to the River Goyte. I was enjoying the run so much I dragged it out by a couple of miles at the end and even met a couple of runners down by the river.

I was out for about 2.5 hours so far from my fastest run.

Goyt Way back to the Railway Tunnel

When I got home and uploaded my strava plot I had a quick look on the FRA forum to find out the Edale Skyline Fell race had been canceled. Having experienced what I saw that morning I can't say I was suprised. This comment from the dissapointed race organiser sums up the conditions over in Edale

"I heard reports that Jude Jepson and Heather Marshal ran from the start of the route to Win Hill - they took 2 hours to do that! Which leads me to think that no one would have made the cut off at Mam Nic... It's almost a shame that we couldn't have had a Championship race where the ENTIRE field was timed out!"

IanFiz.

In last year Edale Skyline it took me 1:07 to get to Win Hill, Heather won the inaugural "The Trigger" so in a completly different league to me. I would guess 45 to 50 minutes would be a more typical time for sombody of her ability to reach Win Hill.

Cobden Cross Hill Reps - Runner Vs Bike!

Since "The Trigger" I have mainly being doing the Cobden Cross, Mellor Church route, which is about 16 Km (10 miles) with about 450 m of climbing. This is a 1:45ish run but I have being doing it quite regularly since January so my fitness levels are not too bad. I am due to help out PaulB on his Bog Graham in the second half of April so it is time I start to ramp up my mileage (and more importantly climbing). I enjoy the Mellor Church but there is not a large amount of climbing on it as once the initial climb to Cobden Cross is complete I more or less stay high until the decent after Mellor Church. The running around Marple would not be true fell running territory, it would be mainly trail running but they would be pretty challenging trails. The longest climb in the area would be about 200 m (over 1Km) of assent from the river Goyte up to Cobden Cross.

Last night I dropped off my daughter off at the Gang Show, went to the supermarket to get some coffee for my wife who has failed in her attempt to give the stuff up. Then at 19:20 off on a run,  with the head torch and  2:30 hours available to me before the post show pickup. I do not normally get out this early, it would often be after 9pm before I get out. I though being out earlier I might meet some mountain bikers as the Marple trails are popular MTB territory. Out of Marple and down the Roman Lakes road to meet a coupe of MTBs comming up and then further down a runner without a light. Obviously he was out a bit longer than intended as it was pretty much dark at this stage.

Overlooking Manchester from Cobden (Mellor) Cross

 I decided to try a few reps up to Cobden Cross. This is OK as are there are a number of routes up to it from the Goyte river valley.  I done my first "up and down" and on the second "up" from Shaw Farm I saw a runner coming towards me it turned out to be Pennine's GeoffB. I have been running these hills for four years and, despite a number of club mates living around the area, only once before have I met another Pennine runner. A little chat about the Edale Skyline then continue the climb. I got up to Cobden Cross four times so you can have a bit of fun trying to trace my route on the map below! The weather conditions were great and underfoot it was not too bad either so a very enjoyable run.

Up and Down from Cobden Cross

Passing Linnet Clough scout camp on the final decent to Marple I met a group of about ten mountain bikers resulting in a race down to Bottoms Hall. I threw caution to the wind struggling on the rocky decent as my batteries were getting a bit tired. I reached the bottom in about 7th place. They waited at the bottom for the stragglers to catch up and I kept going up to start the final climb up to "Strines Rec". They came after me but once on the climb they could not catch up with me as running up hill is faster than a bike.  Another one of my regular climbs is from Strines Station up to the Fox's pub. A couple of times on this I overtook MTBs on this climb. When I first started using Strava I accidental uploaded one of my runs as a bike ride and, I felt very proud, as the Strains Station up to the Fox's pub segment had me in 9th place out of 80. When I realised my mistake and changed it back to a run I was down to 3rd out of 4.
I waited at the top to have a chat and the leaders were a bit put out that I beat them to the top!

Manchester From Cobden Cross

In the end I done 20 Km with 840 metres of climbing so not a bad run.

A Blustry Night With Pennine

Another Thursday night another Pennine run. There were quite a few of us tonight, probably about 20. Little bit of drizzle in the carpark but not a bad night. The quick guys were around (DaveW, StevieK, Stefan, etc) so I though there is a change for a "quick one" tonight. My progress as a fell runner has been slow enough, plain and simply, when on my own, I do not push myself enough (or at all). Thursday night hanging onto the coat tails of the quick lads gives me an opportunity to inflict some pain on myself!

They decided on the "round the res" clockwise route, which is a route well know to us, despite the fact that I went wrong, when navigating it, last week. The route is on the map below, took a bit of work to get that map. I use Strava on my phone and from the Strava website I exported to GPX file and imported it into "My Routes" on Bing Maps. Bing Maps is great as it uses the OS 50,000 and 25,000 maps.

This route starts with the 1.5 Km climb up the Snake Path to the Shooting Cabin. The benine conditions in the car park were quickly blown away as we faced strong head winds and driving rain the whole way up. I am doing a lot of running these days as I try to get the weight down as part of the "Overweight to Race Weigh" thread on the FRA Forums. As part of this (and compition on Strava) on Monday night I done a 20 mile run on the Middlewood way to Macclesfield and back. I was a bit tired, as most of tonight I was in the bottom half of the group when usually I would be further up. It was Ok, the group kept together, as the fast lads kept stopping to allow the stragglers to catch up. We were rewarded for the hard climb into the head wind  when we crossed the bridge below Mermaids Pool. This bridge is followed by a climb and we never went up it as fast as we were literally blown up by the wind, great way of climbing! When I got to the gate below Kinder Low End, the lads were waiting to regroup before the decent down through Tunstead Fields. I saw some head torches continuing towards Swines Back as one of the lads shouted "go on Pat you know you want to!" So off I went trying to chase down the fastest runners in the club. When they got to Swines Back they saw me coming  behind them so waited and asked if they wanted me to wait for them I said no as I assumed they were just going to head down the bridle way and back. But no they turned left and headed over to Dimpus Clough, bloddy 'ell this is going to be hard they are going to head up to South Head. I kept them in sight by running my heart out and kept the gap down to about 50 metres. Crossed Dimpus and "now where are they going?" they kept low rather than the expected climb crossed a stream then started climbing. It went on forever and they were slowly drawing away from me. I had no idea where I was and this climb kept getting steeper . With the mist closing in I lost sight of them. Eventually I hit a trod and and I had no idea where I was. I choose to turn left and head down hill and quickly I hit a wide bridleway and still unsure of where I was but I could see street lights to my right so that had to be the way. Very quickly I hit a gate and knew exactly where I was. We had actually went directly from Dimpus Clough to Mountain Famine and I had hit the trod just below the summit. The other lads had turned right on the trod to go back via Mountain Famine and the Dragon's Back while I turned left to hit the Trans Pennine Bridleway and headed straight down that to get back. I had a great run down the bridle way and arrived in the car park where Stevie was just changing so they were not that far in front of me. Stevie was glad to see me as they did not like abandoning somebody in those conditions. He reckoned I picked a better route back as the Dragons Back was very difficult in the conditions.

Glad I done it as I pushed myself hard and got in a good 13 Km run.

A Kinder Meander

Another planned Pennine 3 hr run last night. Helen had two volunteers, PaulB and me. The intention was to do the Kinder Trog, but going up the Giggle Gaggle rather than the road via Sunny Side. Started off OK but Helen cried off at the top of the Giggle Gaggle as she was feeling ill so Paul and I continued on. It was a nice evening and we carried onto the top of William Clough OK. By now it was getting quite a bit colder and Paul was not dressed warm enough so was not keen on going over Kinder. I would have carried on but we decided to head down William Clough and then follow the res around to Kinder Low End.

Turn right to William Clough

William Clough Decent

 Now I have been around this numerous times,in both directions in both day light and night time. We were going OK got to the woods below Mermaids Pool, crossed the bridge, up the track, took the left fork, through the gate, down the steep hill, through the next gate crossed the stream, crossed the stream again (WHY!!!) I knew I should not be crossing two streams but there was a trod going that way. I just switched my brain off - if there is a trod it must be right! Continued up the steep climb having long since lost the trod and my confidence we were going in the correct direction was waining. We finally got to a small rocky outcrop and I knew this is wrong. We decided to abandon it at that stage so turned around and headed generally west as Hayfield had to be in that general direction.

While messing about we could see a number of head-torches on a hill above and were curious as to who they were. Apparently the main Pennine group had gone up the 3 Knolls path, followed the Pennine Way to Kinder low Trig Point. From there they headed off towards Kinder Low End to decend. After quite a bit of running in the mist they ended up at Kinder Low Trig for a second time. Like us they done a bit of brute force navigation and headed off on a westerly compass setting to get off the hill. We probably  saw them as they found their way off. Kinder is quite forgiving on that front as there are relativly few places where it would be difficult to get off the plateau.

Some excellent navigation by Pennine's best!

 Out compass bearing took us a lovely decent through a number of fields (no right of way) to end up a Hilltop houses, from which it was a straight forward return to hayfield. We ended up doing 10 miles in 2 hrs so a decent enough run, despite my dodgy navigation. The main group had just got back a few minutes before us as many of them were still in the carpark as we arrived back. I fell a bit better about it knowing somebody as experienced as GeoffB also went wrong :)

Paul got the plot up on Strava and we can see this lovely little out and back for 300 metres or so going in an easterly direction. The rocky outcrop we got to would have been in the three knolls path area.

Strava Plot here

Strava - Sandy Hays Segment

I have got sucked into the Strava club following a creation of a Pennine Fell Runners (http://app.strava.com/clubs/pennine-fell-runners)and FRA Forum club on the site. It is actually quite enjoyable seeing what other people are up to and how fast some of them are! Strava has a nice idea called segments which are marked routes that when you do that route you are automatically added to the league table containing others who have done that section. Went over to Hayfield last night specifically to do the Sandy Hays segment. Very cold night  and the underfoot conditions going up Sandy Hays were perfect. I thought I was going to get sick by the time I got to the Pennine way but I pushing as hard as I could to set a good time. It turned out that I am 8th (18:22) out of 16 people who have recorded completions on it. Quite a few familiar names from Pennine in the list, but not the leader at 14 odd minutes (amazing time).

Link to Strava - Sandy Hays Segment

From the top I traveled along the Pennine way to Red Brook then down the Three Knolls path. That was a challenge and there was loads of frozen snow that kept breaking under my feet. Lost the path a couple of times.
A couple of photos nicked from Google!

Looking back to Kinder Low End from Tunstead Fields

 It is very different being out on your own, cannot help but think of the safety issue as even a small accident would have you in a serious situation. I push myself so much harder on the Thursday club training runs knowing that I have people to help out if necessary.

Nearing the top of Sandy Hays

Trigger Happy

Nicky's Black Hill Trigger Diversion

 By my standards I had a very good result last year (70th out of 170ish finishers). There was no way I was going to miss it this year so the entry was in good and early. The past twelve months went very well so I knew that I had a massive challenge on my hands to even match last years result. My prediction was down in writing, which was improved time but finish lower down the field. Before the race I had not really thought about how much the time improvement  would be, but ten minutes seemed a reasonable target. Generally I took reasonably good lines last year with it being the inaugural event many runners had yet to identify the best routes over Bleaklow and Kinder. Before last years event IanW  and I went on a reccie that thought me a lot and really stood to me on race day leading to my vertigo inducing finish position. I  have done a reasonable amount of work for this years race but generally my advantage will have been seriously eroded this year leading to the prediction of finishing lower down the field.
A successful reccie day on Bleaklow  identified the route via Lawrence Edge, Bleaklow Head, Wain Stones and onto the checkpoint at Higher Shelf Stones. Another three days sorted out the  Kinder crossing. After last year’s race it was mentioned on the forum that Oli Johnson had “gone much further along the path and crossed via the plane wreck” That got me thinking so I brought up Google Earth and found a possible candidate for the “plane wreck”. That looks interesting, it is probably a bit longer that going via Within Clough or following the quad bike tracks over Featherbead Top but worth having a look at. A couple of reccies identified it as a very viable route it is more runnable than Featherbead or Within Clough with burnt heather and trods up to the plane wreck. It  was decided that would be the race day route.
Last year my Kinder crossing involved going via Crowden Tower. This is not a particular good route as the grough is quite hard going (especially last year with the ice) and it is not as short as the more direct routes.  More “Google Earthing” identified a couple of large rocky outcrops on kinder in the Crowden Head area which would aid navigation and make for easier running. So basically the route involves following the river Kinder to the two “Christmas Trees” and then head directly East from there. The conservation work in the Crowden Head area involves damming up the groughs which is making the area incredibly wet. However it is quite a short stretch so worth it.
Finally into the final week before race day and incredibly the weather forecast is predicting freezing temperature by the weekend. The general consensus was that it would be too-little-too-late and the freezing temperatures would not have time to make a significant change to the very soft underfoot conditions we were experiencing on our reccies. This consensus was to prove wrong as in reality the conditions were actually pretty good. Not as much ice as last year on the flagged paths but still the peat was considerably stiffer that expected.

Frosty Morning for "The Trigger 2013"

The Trigger Race Day

Two happy "Penniners" before going on to have  fantastic results

5 am rise on a frosty race day to drive to Mellor to pick up  Stefan and Mark then off to Edale to meet the “Grabba Cabba”. Back to Hayfield to pick up the Pennine late risers and off to Marsden. Descending the long hill into Marsden the bus driver shouts out does anybody know where the sports center is? Some off the cuff navigation by me based on having briefly looked at the new race start at the Cricket Club got us to the start without any issues.

Last year we had to stand around in the freezing cold for an hour waiting to get going, this year was not as cold and we had a lovely bar we could relax in while going through kit check and registration then down to the entrance for the pep talk and then “the off”. We had about 100 metres down the road then a right turn to join the path to cross the dam wall to rejoin the traditional route. I was at the back and did not realize it but apparently quite a few of the leaders missed the right turn and and had to do an about turn. This led to many comments on the forum about nobody reccing the start.

The paved path to Black Hill

 This race does not really start until Crowden (about 10 miles in). Up to that point the field is quite close together and it is pretty much an established route, so just a case of follow the leader. The really horrible bit, of this section, is the final decent into Crowden before entering the woods. It is an incredibly rocky track, I found out in the pub afterwards that there is an alternative to that, which I must get over to have a look at. Like last year I choose to do Lawrence Edge where we got spoken to (rightly so) by a lady for climbing over the wall by the old railway line. Got up onto the plateau OK (via an easier final accent than last year) and headed across the moor on a, southerly compass bearing. I somehow displayed a complete inability to keep a straight line possible caused by the two blokes ahead of me who were veering to the west. It was right tussock hopping stuff and then I saw a grough just to my left so I veered over to it to find a lovely trod that brought me to Wild Boar. I overtook the two bloke in front of me so they dropped in behind and followed me the whole way to Bleaklow Head.

Black Dyke Crossing on the way to Black Hill

Approaching the summit of Black Hill

Went a little wrong between Wain Stones and Hern Stones as the trod I picked up veered too much to the right so I had to cut back across some wet ground (involving a bad fall as I put my foot into a deep hole) to got to Hern Stones to pick up the trod to Higher Shelf Stones.
Now I am not sure if I am doing the right thing here. There are two trods from Higher Shelf Stones to the Crooked Clough path. The right hand one is shorter but involves a little bit of re-accent. That is the one I use but I do not know if it is faster or slower.

Snake Top to Kinder West

River Kinder (grinah.org)

Now the homework comes to fruition off down the flags to Moss Castle with nobody following me as everybody else was heading down Within Clough. Then strike directly south. It went very well, totally runnable the whole way and the two streams were much lower than when I reccied it so up the plane wreck and the accent up to the plateau. The accent onto the plateau was probably 80 odd metres to the right of the boxing glove and this give a slightly more difficult line to Kinder West as the ground was just a bit softer. Nice to have the radio mast to home in on!
The crossing to Grindslow was to have been directly east from the “Christmas Trees” To get there I had to turn left at the second cairn. But somehow I missed the first one so when I got to the second I was not sure if it  was the first or second. I thought to continue is the safer option because if was the second then I would just take the more southerly route across the plateau.  Pretty quickly after passing it I knew it was the second one, I was not going back so down the first left hand grough  to catch up with a bloke who had just climbed out and seemed a bit unsure of where he was going. Another couple of blokes were heading south. I just headed directly east towards a rock formation that looked like stubby fingers.

Unintended Kinder Crossing to Grindslow

 Looking over my shoulder a few times I noticed I had developed quite a tail as I picked up bits of trods across. Got to the stones and I had no idea where I was as they were not the stones I thought they might be. Best thing was to veer a bit to the right and I would hit the edge path eventually. My tail followed me the whole way so they did not have a clue either. As it turned out looking at the satellite trace it was not a bad line as I hit the edge path not far from Grindslow Knoll. My watch was telling me that I was cutting it close to beat last years time, I  would probably be OK but I had to keep pushing. My tail finally caught me and overtook me rounding Grindslow and then the decent to Edale. I had reccied cutting the corner from the rocky descent path from Grindslow so going down the extremely steep descent through the heather  I overtook one of them and had to keep pushing hard to the finish to ensure he did not catch me again. It was a small victory and I came home 3 minutes faster than last year.
How do I feel about it? Well none of the reccing produced perfect results, with family commitments I just cannot get  get over to the Pennines to do enough work. So lots of small errors that would have added numerous odd minutes to my time.  If I had got ten minutes off last years time I would have been ecstatic so with three minutes I am reasonably “Trigger Happy”. Tighter lines without being any faster would probably easily have gained those extra seven minutes. So it goes to show the importance of route finding in this race.
Splits
I had my phone running RunKeeper with me on both the 2012 and 2013 race (about 200 metres difference in length) so it was possible to use the runkeeper website to compare splits for the two years. Overall I was faster up to Crowden in 2013 but slower for the remainder of the race. I was 40 seconds slower from Crowden to Higher Shelf Stones which was surprising as I know I went wrong before Bleaklow Head last year. I was disappointed to see that my kinder crossing from Kinder West Trig was actually 2.5 minutes slower in 2013 as the section along the river Kinder was very difficult in 2012 because of the ice and visiting Crowden Tower is a longer route. Likewise the split from Snake Top to Kinder West was also 2 minutes slower in 2013. Obviously I had tired more than I had realized. Maybe that is no surprise as last year I actually done a couple of 4 1/2 hr training runs. This year I done quite a few 3 to 3 1/2 hr runs so being out for 4 3/4 hours is considerably more than what I had done in training.

Even though the route via the plane wreck was two minutes slower than Featherbed Top, I still think it is a better option to pass down to the west of Within Clough. Possibly leave the paved path a bit earlier.