We all assembled at the given hour in Edale, ready for the start of the Winter Spine Sprint. Conditions up to a week before were looking good, dry, and not that cold.
Then Winter happened. Edale went from fairly dry to being knee-deep in snow in 3 days. Along with the negative temperatures this also brings. But undeterred, we went on our race.
The first part of the race takes you from Edale Village Hall up the road to the Old Nags Head (The official start of the Pennine Way) where you turn left onto the proper Pennine Way. This path leads you up to the bottom of Jacobs Ladder, first Major climb up to the top of the Kinder Plateau.
This is where the race really starts, once past Jacobs Ladder you should be able to run more. Except at this point we were calf-deep in powdery snow, something that would continue for another 44 miles. Getting through Kinder and off to Bleaklow Moor went as well as can be expected given the conditions. A few people slid down some slopes as it was quicker and easier than hiking down, but knowing my luck I’d probably end up with a rock up my rear so decided to avoid that.
Bleaklow is when things took a turn for the worse, we knew that it would be the worst of the snow and we were not wrong. Coming into Bleaklow there was a trail but that quickly disappeared multiple times with the light wind blowing the powdery snow over the trail. Then having to bushwack to find the trail again. Ending up with your foot through the snow and ice into the bog beneath so you’re up to your waist in snow. It was hard going, Black Hill was even worse with deep snow drifts in places contributing to the hard going. Once you’re passed Black Hill however you get to Torside and your first respite from the snow with Glossop MRT running a drinks point. So cups of tea and a good munch on some food, deciding to put on my yaktrax for the first time as well and off we went again. The next stop is Oldham MRT at Standedge. This is where my brain gets a bit fussy, I was getting a little cold in my fingers from not eating enough, grabbed some food from my chest pack and felt a bit better. You do need to keep moving however, you can’t stop as the cutoffs for the Sprint are tight. 18 hours for the 46 miles (sounds easy, except for the conditions).
By this point, my adductors in both legs were cramping up on every climb so it was a case of just pushing through and gritting my teeth to get to the top of the climb. Eventually, we got to Oldham MRT, which had plenty of hot drinks and snacks. And then it was a short hike to Nikki’s food bar. Nikki's is infamous as a roadside cafe that stays open until the last runner goes through. A quick stop there for a superb bacon bap and a coke, catch up with some other runners who I’d been chatting with earlier in the race and off we go again. Don’t be lured in with the warmth and comfort of Nikki’s, like the siren song you need to ignore and keep moving.
On we moved ever slowly towards Stoodley Pike and the final descent down into the finish at Hebden Bridge. As this race started at midday we’d have about 4 hours of light until head torches came out, so I’d been looking at a small circle of light for the last 10 hours or so when I got to Stoodley. It seemed to take forever to get there, you could see the Pike in the distance but it never got any closer. Eventually, I got there and made a right turn which took you down towards Hebden Bridge (finally).
Coming off the trail into Tarmac was interesting, I was still wearing my yaktrax at this point and really couldn’t be bothered to take them off with just about a mile to go. So onwards I plodded down the hill, right at the bottom, over the bridge. Right along the river, left turn through the town centre right then left at the lights (oi Mike)… What…. That was my mate who had come out at silly o’clock to pick me up waiting at the bottom of the last climb to take my photo, so after the photo was taken he scampered off up the hill leaving me that last climb. Up, round to the right, keep going, lots of car lights, oh we’re at the finish.
Brilliant!!!!
I get taken into the Birchcliffe centre and told to sit down and they’ll take my shoes off for me. (better them than I tbh). Then, when I was ready, some hot food was available, so I had a lovely bowl of Leak and Potato soup and some water to drink. Then it was a quick jump into the shower, get changed and head out for my lift.
I said at the beginning Horrific, Wouldn’t Recommend. But as you can probably tell from the words above it wasn’t that bad in hindsight. Was just very hard going with conditions; it's near impossible to train for coming from down south for the race. Would I do it again, assuming that snow wasn’t predicted the week before probably yes. Would I change anything, yes I’d focus more on strength training as I’d been a little lax on it for the last couple of months. What kit would I change? Kit was actually pretty good, I used a Montane Trailblazer 30ltr pack which was fine, just wish the frontpockets were bigger so you could have bottles in them. I may switch of the chest pack for a waist pack in future. But generally all the kit worked really well together.
Final time 16:11, cut off was 18:00 so was well inside it, I’d expected to be closer to 17 hours so was happy with that.
Comments