The Spine Challenger South 2018 Blog

Well, where do I start? I’m Howard, I’m 33, 15 stone, 6ft3 with 2 kids. I’m an engineer and I live in Rochdale. I participated in the montane spine challenger last week which for those of you that don’t know or haven’t heard of it or read any of my previous blogs- It’s a 112 mile, self supported, self navigated footrace over the Pennine way. The Pennine way is a national trail that begins in the village of Edale in the Peak District and finishes in a place called Kirk yetholm just over the Scottish Borders but my race ended In a tiny village 112 miles north of edale called hardraw. You have to carry a mandatory kit list of a sleeping bag, tent or bivvy bag, ways and means of producing a pan of hot water I.e jetboil or trangia stove, map & compass, gps unit, knife, snow spikes, snow goggles plus more! I won’t write it all out but you get the picture.

So Friday the 12th of January I got my mandatory kit together into 2 large, red plastic boxes. I didn’t bother packing my bag as I knew I was going to have to crack it open in some way shape or form for kit check. So I just had every item out and on display ready to show the officials. I put the boxes in my car boot and headed to Edale for registration to collect my race number and have my kit checked. It didn’t open until 12noon so I set off from home at 12ish knowing it would take me an hour and fifteen mins to get there. So armed with a rice crispie protein bar, a banana and a bottle of water with some tailwind in I’m cruising down the M60 listening to a pure garage cd…..with a million thoughts going through my head. That many millions of thoughts that i subconsciously followed the satnav and got all the way down the m60, came off at bredbury and had practically got all the way to Edale without realising it! It’s only then that I come to my senses when I drive over a brow and I can see the whole of the “hope valley” open up beneath me-  grindslow knoll hit me right in the face! Wow this is beautiful I thought…..and began to pray that the weather stayed exactly like this- it was about 7degrees Celsius, fine, no wind but slightly misty- purrrrfect! (God or somebody must of been listening to me at that moment in time because that’s exactly how it stayed for a majority of my race- apart from the last stretch).

When I arrived at the village hall around 1.30pm the car park was already quite full with a mix of competitors, staff and other Pennine way goers. I could see the big “montane” banner on display tied between 2 trees giving it the professional look I’d expected to see. There was a small crowd congregating at the side of the building and a fire exit opened at the front – so I headed for the fire exit with my 2 red boxes. Plonks them down next to the window as I got through the door and looked up. Straight away I could see Stuart smith taking pictures of people with there numbers and scanning there barcode from their race number onto the tracker system. I loitered there for a second or 2 and nobody noticed me, everybody was busy doing there stuff so I went back to my car for my mobile I don’t know why I did that as I didn’t need it. I think it was more of a nervous thing because I was stood there like a lemon ha. So I went back in- through the fire exit AGAIN and it was the same result as last time . So this time I loitered again for a second and went to the toilet and decided to exit the building again but through the side entrance bumping into Matt and Ellie Green from summit fever media. We had never met before but often like each other’s pictures and comment on them on Instagram so I introduced myself and chatted for a minute and when I turned around after finishing speaking I saw a sign and an arrow on the side door saying “entrance” . Ha I thought so this is why I’d been left hanging- all the time I was stood near the fire exit! Staff would have assumed I’d been sorted out as that was the was the end of the chain in the registration process. DUMMY I thought. So upon leaving Matt and Ellie and walking in the right way this time, on the left I see a registration table and I’m greeted by my friend Anne Marie Lord who is also a runner/ultra runner and an ambassador for team OA like myself. (Feel free to google teamoa.co.uk to see what we are about and our events we put on ranging from ultramarathons such as the “Oldham way ultra” and “the white rose ultra” to choc’athlons, gin’athlons, pie’athlons, king of the hill 5ks/10ks, baby trails for beginner trail runners and everything in between). So I chatted to her for a minute, she asks how I am and if I’m ready etc before passing me onto her friend next to her who checks my I.D (drivers licence) and gives me my tshirt, race number, drop bag tag, spine challenger iron on transfer badge & ice card (in case of emergency ring these numbers. X2 mobile numbers) and gives me the great news of a 100% kit check ha! So the next part of the process is having your picture taken with your race number in front of you stood in front of a huge spine race billboard – this was done by Stuart Smith ( a good friend of mine and an absolute top bloke ) so I gave him a man hug and shook his hand for him to say ” what was that haha” so I shook his hand again with a firmer grip this time and we both just starts laughing. ” I asked you if you was at the spine race and you just said you would be lurking around (his exact words by the way ha) you could of said you would be in Edale Friday haha” I said! It was a nice surprise – it’s always a pleasure to see Stuart so we cracks on with the picture for the live tracker

(yes that’s why iv got a cheesy grin on it because he was saying something but I can’t remember exactly what ha) then he scanned my barcode and was about to do my kit check with me until a guy called Tony Clapham arrived and it then became his task. I wasn’t nervous or anything as I’d already met Tony on the training weekend at hebden back in October (another top bloke). So we goes through his check kit tick sheet and it was over and done with in 5 mins – no discrepancies. Apart from Stuart trying to give me a wedgie in the middle of it hahaha! So I’m left in the middle of the hall looking like my kit boxes had exploded – I’d had to open my stove to show it full of meths, pull my sleeping bag, bivvy and mat out and even pull out my first aid kit while he counted my 16 paracetamols , the lot! It was an extensive kit check and fair play to tony for being vigilant because him actually doing this and catching people out could potentially save lives summiseing the individual came into a sticky situation! This race could potentially turn lethal at any point- I always knew this because of a couple of dramas I’d faced out on the recces, but now iv finished the race Iv realised even more how dangerous it is! So I thanked Tony and asked him how he was etc before I think he had to go and check another competitor . So I scooped up my belongings and threw it all into the boxes “I can put all this away again at home” I thought to myself . So I said goodbye to everyone and jumped back in my car and headed out of Edale.

”I must get out of Glossop and back on the M60 before rush hour ” I thought – so I’m a man on a mission heading back towards Manchester. I’m about 30minutes in when it dawned on me that I’d not sat the compulsory race brief that runs every 30mins starting at 2pm. I was absolutely fuming!!!!! – with myself for rushing to get home and forgetting all about this. So I pulled a U turn and starts heading back to Edale. I was really annoyed with myself at this stage as I had loooaaadds to still get on with at home and I’d just wasted more than an hour with this stunt! So back on the village hall car park I am and into the event centre explaining what I’d done- they gave me directions to the peak centre which was a 5 minute walk up the road towards the village centre. I passed a few people enroute which was a good sign to me that one briefing had just finished and another was about to start. I bumped into my friend Will Green who had just finished his brief – I shook his hand and he asked the usual things that everybody’s been asking, “how am I, how do feel” etc before he says “you better crack on the next ones about to start” so I’m just about to leave him and Marcus Scotney comes running down the path so we all had another brief conversation for a minute which resulted in me again having to say “sorry guys gotta go see you tomorrow and good luck” I could see the peak centre from where we was chatting and this is the 1st time I had ever met or seen Marcus in the flesh (i follow, comment and like his strava and Instagram posts) I remember walking away up the path for the brief and thinking to myself “wow I have never met anybody so lean, healthy looking, small (small is the word I’m going to use even though he’s not actually small- but in comparison to me I’m 15stone and 6,3) and more than anything so so so strong – I could just tell by his handshake and the effortless speed he ran at approaching us down the path. He’s literally a running piece of pure muscle. I was very taken back – in a good way, like being in awe at someone. Just as I’m about to go through the door of the peak centre there’s an exile medic with a flat tyre – I asks her if she’s ok, she’s got the car jacked up but looked to be struggling with the nuts on the wheel so I offered to undo the nuts and she told me she’s fine, she’s done them but she’s struggling to find the locking nut to undo the final one. “Oh I’m sorry love I can’t help you there then” and off I goes into the peak centre. “Which way is the briefing please”  I asks a young team of medics and they nervously point to a door which they was heading towards. As I peered through the window it was clear to see the briefing had began. “Dammit” I was going to have to politely wait it out for the next one but one of the medics said “shall I go first” ? “Yesssssss” I thought and she slowly opened the door so I crept in with them and found myself a chair quick! Scott Gilmour was stood up giving the race brief and I entered as he was talking about where there would be water on the course provided by mountain rescue at various points- I took a picture on my phone so I could plan on this later – it was good to know exactly where there would be fresh water along the course. After scott had finished a lady from the Pennine way national trust briefed us on what they require from us with regards to closing gates and not scaring animals etc and finally a lady from the exile medics called Nadia finished off the brief by introducing herself and basically just let us all know that we were in safe hands but we had to remember that there resources where limited- they are all medics, doctors, nurses, physios of the highest degree but we had to remember that we were not in hospitals where miraculous operations could be performed even though they would try there best and that the team was small so if we did need treatment please wait patiently and they will see you as soon as they possibly can (and they did do a great job).

So with the brief finished I was now power walking back down the road and I managed to catch up with Jen Scotney, who I met a month or so ago before the race on a recce with Will who I’d just coincidentally bumped into before the brief. So I chatted with her on the road back down to the village hall before wishing her good luck and saying “il see you tomorrow”. Registration was in full swing now and the car park was booming. “Let’s get the hell out of here I thought” chomping away on a rice crispie protein bar.

So on the drive back home my heads thinking of the million and one things that I still need to do. I need to prepare my food/ration packs for each leg and put them in cling film/grip bags and put them in the right places in my drop bag/race bag. I need to make decisions on how I surmise the weather is going to be and how Im going to dress for each leg and what I’m going to potentially have available should the weather sway one way or the other. Ultimately these choices can make or break your race. So my heads all over the show and in a million places on the drive home- and if I’m being genuinely honest I felt really really really stressed- far from the relaxed state I’d envisaged and wanted myself to be in the day before the event. So I’m finally home at about 5.30pm after the 1hr30min drive. Firstly I put my iPhone on aeroplane mode so nothing could distract me then secondly I popped my favourite pre -long race meal into the oven (a meat feast stuffed crust pizza) and delved into chopping up (and eating the home made flapjack I’d made in the morning). Once that’s chopped I’m onto slicing up the huuuggggeee homemade chocolate brownie that Becky Johnson made me! Thanks Bec! Then I’m onto making sandwiches and wraps – chicken sandwiches, cheese sandwiches and jam and peanut butter sandwiches & salmon and avocado wraps. When that was done I began clingfilming it all up and segregating it into race bags as well as eating my pizza- it was gorgeous, pizza is one of my favourite foods and Id banned myself from it prior to the race. Naturally I’m a big lad and I’d lost a stone in weight just for the race. Then I had the most crucial decisions to make- I lined the basic kit choices up which I was obviously taking and which would be in any spiners possession and organised the basics in the appropriate dry bags and then I had to play around and decide which midlayers and items of clothing I was taking with me – which was so hard to do as at that moment in time,  as I had a bedroom full of down, primaloft, pertex, goretex, neoshell and event jackets, pants, midlayers and accessories which all varied in weight and did more or less the same job but had pockets in different places, some with hoods and without hoods, some warmer but less breathable than others and vice versa. Each item had its own specific use to me which is why I’d purchased it in the first place but when your trying to combine it all together to use In sequence in a race and each item contradicts itself or has slightly the same uses as a garment you have already packed but will save you should you need it – your head soon becomes a huge cluster fuck. My heads burnt out by this stage. I’m tired and I can feel my face is bright red with stress and it’s about 9pm. 8 hours until my alarm goes off- “I should be in bed now” I thought. My foods still in bags in the kitchen and my kit bags are ready in the bedroom waiting to be combined together to go in final bags labelled “HEBDEN” and “MALHAM” I also had bin liners with different trainers in. A clear plastic bag full of a variety of food and a bin liner with all the other garments in which I’d chose not to use but could potentially be of use when I got to hebden had the weather changed and then I had a finisher bin liner that had my luxurys in. So I finally made my last minute decisions on the food bags- I had to put food back in the cupboards. I’d made it way to complicated, I had ample amounts of food. Better to have food than not have it I suppose plus I could always bin it if not needed. I took the food packs upstairs and put them in the hebden and malham bags along with my clothing choice and correct amount of battery’s and sealed them up. They looked like torpedoes/works of art and weighed a bloody ton

I then tipped out the contents of the red boxes I’d brought back from Edale which was mandatory kit and begin packing it up again ready to go in my race pack- this was easy as I’d done it umpteen times over the past 2/3 months. I’m begging for bed at this point, it’s now about 22.45 “thank god that’s over and done with” I remember thinking looking at my neatly stacked drop bag and racebag. My dropbag was immensely heavy I suspected it was over 20kg but I had no way of proving it so I thought il have to arrive early at Edale and get it checked and amend it accordingly if it’s too heavy. There was no way I could go bed right now I was too stressed. I needed to unwind, so I ran a hot bath and sat in it for 15 mins. Over and over again in my head I went through what I’d just done in the past 5 or so hours. I was happy with it so I took my phone off aeroplane mode and had a look at a few peoples words of encouragement. When out and dried I pampered my feet ready for the morning and realised I’d not fastened my race number to my bag or put the drop bag tag on my bag. “Will I ever get to bed” I wondered? So I sorted them 2 minor problems out. Made sure my gps watch was on charge and I had my clothes for the morning layed out good to go and then most importantly I set my alarm for 5am and triple checked I’d done it right. Then I messaged wane saying pick me up at 6am and not the initial time of 5.45am which we’d discussed earlier. So I checked my alarm one last time- put my phone back on aero plane mode so I couldn’t have anymore distractions and attempted (yes attempted) to get to sleep!

I lied there for like an hour trying to nod off……nothing…..my mind kept delving off into stupid random thoughts. I can’t even tell you what thoughts they were as they weren’t even race specific. But subconsciously my mind was probably going over everything I’d been doing for the last 4 months- food, equipment and hoping the injury to my tibialis anterior tendon which I’d just had 5 weeks of physio on was going to hold out. I was trying to think of nothing to get to sleep and by trying to think of nothing it kinda kept me awake! I think I was that highly excited and nervous combined with agitated and stressed it was near impossible to try and relax and get to sleep. Then I needed a pee. That was like going back to square one again. Then I was hungry….rice crispy protein bar to the rescue. I goes through the night with few more pees and eventually woke up wide awake at about 3.45 and ends up getting out of bed at 4am‘ish as I was getting absolutely no where. I may as well get up and start eating I guess and get ready in a more relaxed manner rather than trying to rush getting ready in 1hour.  Im guessing between 11.45pm and 3.45am I got around 2/3 hours sleep. It is what it is I thought as I poured myself a strong coffee out of the cafetière and made myself 2 pieces of jam and peanut butter on toast topped with banana. Mmmmm this tastes so good I thought washing it down with coffee and a mild solution of tailwind. I think I managed to refrain from taking my phone off aeroplane mode too which I’d always planned as I get massively distracted by Instagram and Facebook- 2 minutes can turn into 20 minutes so easily.

In fact I’m lying…..as I’m typing this blog it’s come back to me- I took a peek!! Because I got up an hour earlier than planned I justified it to myself to have a quick nosy on my wall on Facebook and look at some Instagram notifications from posts I’d made on Friday about the race. With this little Ego boost I decided to turn it back on aeroplane mode and start getting ready. My usual ritual haha- Beginning with putting my contact lenses in first and then applying barrier cream wherever I may chaffe ( yes use your imagination) . So after that I washed my hands and cracked on with dressing myself. I’d had to leave my drop bag open last night as the last things I needed to add to that, I couldn’t add until Saturday morning I.e my glasses, contact lenses solution, talc, barrier cream etc as I needed it all. So carefully making sure I added each item into the appropriate bag inside the dropbag as I’d finished with them including my mobile phone charger and gps watch charger. So I sealed my dropbag finally and took it all downstairs- drop bag, race bag and the gear I was starting in, that alone took me 2/3 goes up and down the stairs and I was sweating buckets already ha. I unzipped my merino wool baselayer to vent abit and realised wane was outside. “Right stop fannying now” I let wane know I’d seen him- then got all my gear and chucked it into the back of the “team OA van” before going into my room and kitchen one last time to make sure I’d forgot nothing…Lights were off, door locked, key stashed and “yessssssss” were off to Edale.

Wanes the founder and boss of Team OA – he’d kindly said he would pick me up from Rochdale (bearing in mind he’s from Huddersfield ), drop me at Edale AND be at Hardraw when I finished!!! What an awesome guy and a good friend he is. How could you turn that down!! So there’s me, Wane, his wife Kati and there 2 dogs all in the van enroute to Edale . I can’t remember the exact topics discussed on the way down but I know we was talking about the weather and how optimistic it was looking and the rest of the way I think I just nervously waffled! We arrived at Edale village hall at about 7.15am (45mins before the start) and the 1st thing I did is went to the loo. Then I came back and grabbed my drop bag ASAP and took it to be weighed and taken off my hands as I wasn’t convinced it was under 20kg. I joined the dropbag que and within 2 mins my bag was on the scales and I was right. ….21.5kg approx!!! “Sorry” the 2 baggage handlers said. “It’s ok iv panic packed il go and loose some of it and come back in 5minutes” so off I went back to the van and lost the clear bag of “a variety of food” and a heavy’ish but warm 900g sleeping bag I had packed just in case I wanted to sleep in it at the end and wane wasn’t there. With them items dumped from the bag I went back to the drop bag area, re weighed it and got it to about 19.5kg. Result!! So with that now lifted off my chest I had a little float around the hall- it was way too busy for my liking but I managed 10 minutes in there and managed to speak to Anne Marie and get a cuddle off her and managed to talk to Jeff Mitchell for a minute before I decided on exiting the hall to get my final thoughts together and try the loo one last time! I bumped into Wane and Kati again as I’m loitering outside. Wane takes a last minute pic

and I make last minute checks to my pack- are all the zippers up, is everything in the correct pockets in the right place and is it secure and safe?? With all that being good I put the pack on my back and asked myself the final question “right are you ready for this pack to stay on your back apart from the one time you should only need to take it half way off to remove a food pack” with the answer being yes I fastens the Velcro waist belt and clips on the chest strap . I got my pack to about 5kg including food and water. I’m good to go. It’s about 7.55am and people are slowly starting to make there way out of the car park and down to the start line ready for the 8am start. So I joined the slipstream and found myself at the front. That’s where I wanted to be but I didn’t want to be so boldly at the front so I’m some .5 of a metre back.

I sees Will Green so we chat for the final 2 minutes while the countdown to 8am begins and before you know it one of the race directors, Phil Hayday Brown is giving one of his epic pre race speeches and I quote it “so there’s about ….ohhhhh 20 seconds to go by my watch. This is the 7th year of this so….do us proud …and have some special moments….. 3, 2, 1  GOOOOOOOO! and at that one moment…in that one second….all my worries, all my fears, all my agitation all the stress and weight which I felt to be carrying on my shoulders in the past few weeks seemed to just…..melt away- and was replaced with a huge feeling of happiness and relief. I was finally at the point of having to think about nothing but run, walk and have fun.

Everybody set off at which I thought was a ridiculously fast pace (bear in mind I’m not fast ha) I looked at my watch and I was doing about 9/10 min per mile pace in the first 100 to 200m or so, slowing down to a 12 mpm (minute per mile) efficient yomp as the tarmac road leading to the start of the Pennine way became a little steeper. As I took a left at the nags head I’m drifting between power walking and yomping whist I opens up my jacket and undo the under arm vents dumping as much hot air as possible. “I mustn’t start sweating” I thought and then I unzipped the zip on my base layer. I couldn’t get any cooler than this now unless I took my jacket off and this was staying on all the way to hebden so that was that I thought. I looked ahead of me and could see 1st place about 80m ahead, I counted back all the body’s until I got to myself and I was “about” 10th so that was my datum, anybody that went past me or I over took I subtracted or added accordingly (These are my head thoughts and in the midst of all this I’m having a full blown conversation with Will ha) “I’m gonna slow down and try not to get roped into anybody else’s pace pal” I said to Will. “No worries mate” and slowly but surely without even knowing it- Wills natural pace and my natural pace set a slowly increasing gap between us. I was back and forth with one or 2 people enroute to Jacobs ladder fluctuating between 10th and 8th I’m guessing. I was passing people on the slight climbs with my long legs and they was over taking me on the slight descents. I have a miniscus injury that I’m really trying to refrain from having an operation on. It flares up whenever I run too fast or go downhill too hard- so I tend to hold back on the descents. When I hit Jacobs ladder I was alone. So I ate half a piece of flapjack whilst moving and began the hike up. Halfway up it I passed 2 people. Just as we came off the ladder but still ascending up towards swines back I said hiya to Damien hall – “alright Damian” I don’t think he had a clue who I was haha and there was somebody else which im sure was Ellie green- my eyes were watering abit so it might not of been Ellie but I’m sure it was. Upon reaching swines back and Edale rocks it was quite claggy so I turned my GPS unit on to allow it to find a signal just in case I needed it to check my position. I followed the natural path through the rocks and before you know it Im jogging past kinder low trig. I looked at my gps unit to see if it had found my location and I bloody tripped up! For a split second I’d taken my eye off the trail and I’d bloody tripped ha. It’s a very tricky, very technical but very, very beautiful trail along the kinder plateau. Lots of Little Rock’s and big rocks sticking up out of the ground, some are secure, some are loose. Foot placement is everything- it takes no prisoners! Uggggh I said as I hit the deck it didn’t hurt so much but what I’d done is when I hit the floor, both knees hit the floor like I was praying or something- I outstretched both hands which cushioned the fall – BUT I’d over extended my feet as I’d gone into the prayer like position and my bum landed on my calfs and over stretched my left tibialis anterior tendon going up from my foot and into my shin. For those of you that have had tendinitis in this area before- which is a very common injury in ultra runners will know the tell tale signs of this injury creeping up on you. “Bastard” I thought! Quickly jumping up before anybody saw me. I looked over my shoulder and there was nobody in sight. Straight away I could feel the niggle coming from my foot into my shin- with some luck it will run off I thought. Abit further up the track I passed Matt Bennett who was just releasing a HUGE drone- it flickered and flashed an assortment of neon colours whilst it booted up and came to life and then hovered up off the ground- that’s the last I saw of it but I could hear it somewhere in the distance following me- it sounded like a swarm of bees! Up ahead of me now I could see the leading group, the fog had cleared up a little bit and they was about 200/300m ahead. I was enjoying the views now- it was stunning! But with one eye haha as the other eye was on the floor looking out for trip hazards! Down goes the other half piece of flapjack too. The wind had picked up a little bit and it was cooler now that we was up on the tops. I zipped up my merino base layer and my coat,  looked up and by this time I was at Kinder Downfall and I could see the front runners running back downstream but on the opposite side of the river towards me. They had made a slight error and must have all followed each other and the track that runs parallel with the river and hit a crossing way too far upstream and had to come back down to the edges to get on the Pennine way. I was back with will again but not for long . The clouds would come and go and I’d see the front runners getting further and further into the distance every time the clouds shifted but I was happy with my pace. I was averageing about 14 minutes per mile overall which was always my plan in good weather and my aim was to be in and out of hebden and back on the track by around 8pm! By the way I hadn’t set myself a bad weather pace! The bad weather plan would of simply been “roll with it” ha. So all was going to plan – apart from the niggle in my left foot of course but that wasn’t getting any worse and i didn’t feel any huge amount of pain with it- it was simply a niggle! At around the mill hill area I could see some competitors just leaving the bottom of the steep descent as I was beginning to come down- the bit before you get to the 4 way sign. “Take your time” I thought- these speedcross 4s are ok but not the best on wet slippy rock. I made it to the bottom without skidding or slipping in any way shape or form. I then eats half a piece of Beckys brownie- mmmmm these just melt in your mouth you didn’t even need to chew ha, perfect! I went straight on at the 4 way junction- the one where you can either go left to hayfield or right to snake pass. Then abit further ahead at the stake I took a right turn to follow the Pennine way to the snake pass crossing and somewhere along this section I was passed by Emma Hopkinson, Zoran and Richard and another chap. After they had gone I remember trying to pee and walk at the same time- it didn’t quite work I had to stop for a few seconds. At the road crossing I filled up an empty water bottle out of a water butt provided by mountain rescue, topped it up with tailwind and thanked the guys who were manning the station. “What number are you”? “333….half a devil ” I shouted back over my shoulder as I kept moving. They all started laughing – I think they liked that one. So next is the nice steady climb out of devils dike leading up to bleaklow head. I was averageing 13mpm with a power walk so I kept it at that . I could see nobody in front of me and nobody behind me- which I like as it keeps me going at a more relaxed natural pace. I’m not chasing or being chased in other words. At every mile my watch buzzes and every one so far was below 15mpm apart from the initial climb up Jacobs ladder and onto the plateau but I had gained them few extra minutes back over the distance with keeping it under 15 mpm. I was in good spirits and moving well.  I looked at my watch and I worked out I’d not eaten enough food. I was going on 1 item per hour and just lucky dipping into my pocket and eating whatever came out. Ohhhh it just so happened to be a quarter of a piece of a family sized cheesecake this time ha! So I started undressing it and was interrupted by an official showing me a diversion which I’m guessing is between 2 sets of rocks called hern stones and Wane stones ” just follow the little flags mate” he shouted and pointed me off the track with 1 arm and blocking the original route with the other arm. “Cheers pal” so the cheesecakes in 1 hand and the garmin is in the other hand trying to work out where I was just incase I couldn’t see the flags. The land was very mossy, peaty, wet and boggy…..”aaaaaagh” I tripped again. But I saved the cheesecake ha! So I decided to take a massive bite of it resulting in it being half in my mouth, half in my moustache and all over my face! Ha. I’m glad nobody could see me. I wrapped the cling film back over it and put it in my pocket until I got back on good ground again. The terrain was featureless, the flags soon disappeared and it was foggy- about 20m visibility. I’d followed a few flags but hadn’t seen the next one so the quickest, easiest, way to get back on track was with my garmin. As I was getting back on track and still licking cheesecake out of my facial hair ,footsteps appeared in the bogs I was passing through – the other Runner’s had come this way too, so before you know it I’m at the top of bleaklow head and i demolish the rest of the cheesecake before it becomes a mess in my pocket! It’s downhill now through to wild boar grain and then a steady climb coming out of it along a beautiful single track leading along clough edge. The views were amazing …all the cloud had gone now and I could see Torside res and Crowden . On the descent down to torside I could see Richard and Zoran at the bottom. Again I took my time coming down, it was taxing on the quads and I didn’t want to set my knee off with bouncing down too fast or set myself off cramping which has happened to me in the past. When I hit the road at the bottom just before the B road there was a few spectators saying well done and cheering. I was walking fast downhill at 12mpm, I didn’t need to run I was covering good ground…well that was until I saw Andy Connell with a camera just before I got to the mountain rescue checkpoint. “Go on Howard” shouts Andy. “Better run for the camera ” I shouted while jogging past haha. I topped up both my bottles out of mountain rescues water butts and added some tailwind. “Cheers guys, see you later Andy ” and off I go heading towards Crowden. I catch up with Richard and Zoran again and had a little chat with them. Upon hearing there Irish accents I knew who they was or should I say I had a good idea who they was anyway, as I know there friend Taryn. She told me to say hello if I saw them. ” do you guys know anybody called Taryn” ? I chanced asking the question ….afterall there was more than 2 Irish males in the challenger – these 2 could be anybody so I was taking a risk with the question ha. “Yes” they replied “she’s our team mate” . So Richard and Zoran are team mates, Irish adventure racers sponsored by Columbia. So I introduced myself and we chatted a few minutes more before they they broke off. This would go on for quite some time, the back and forth business as we were climbing out of Crowden and along laddow rocks- i bumped into dave Reilly along here aswell taking photos.

I think we all stopped though at some point along here to check out the stunning view behind us. I think in an event like this, every so often you do need to stop and just take in the views for a second or 2- it makes it all worthwhile! I remember passing 2 more people just before I started the gradual climb up to the top of blackhill. I’d forgotten where I was position wise so I’m telling myself I’m around about 12th. The huge piece of cheesecake hadn’t left me feeling very hungry but I hoped that by still consuming a little bit of food every 30mins, equalling 1 item per hour this would pay off in the later stages. So on that note I dipped into my pockets and produced another bit of flapjack and a boiled egg. So I tottered off the top of black hill – Richard and Zoran passing me again On the descent. Then there was the little sharp climb after the descent to get up onto the road at wessenden head. At the mountain rescue van i again filled my waters while Richard and Zoran where chilling out eating some food on the grass. I carried on heading up wessenden head road jogging up the tarmac to where the Pennine way begins again. It was a 2 mile decent from here now past the reservoirs , so I gently let gravity take me down without letting it take me too fast – no faster than 12 mpm. To no surprise Richard and Zoran come past again followed by 2 other men who I hadn’t seen before at all in the race. This was before butterfly. I never saw them 2 men again, they was both looking very strong. More flapjack before the climb out from the base of butterfly and up onto blackmoss and between the reservoirs heading towards brun clough, where I was met by ash lomas and his wife and kids on the approach and then by Fiona Dyson, clapping and cheering me on in the car park where mountain rescue had more water which I filled my flasks up with again.

I’m guessing it’s around about 3pm ish now as the sun was getting lower in the sky. This was local territory for me now so I felt at home. I was getting low on food in my pockets- the next food pack was stashed at the top of my pack so whilst walking I removed my race pack and took the food pack out of the top and at the same time took my headtorch out and put it on my head ready for the darkness. I shouldn’t have to go in my pack again now until I got to hebden. Passing over standedge and millstone edge, I took the right turn before castleshaw moor and passed over Huddersfield road and on up to white hill and past the trig and hit the A672. There was one competitor eating a hot sandwich from the burger van and talking to his wife/girlfriend- I was tempted to get a burger I must say ha but I managed to refrain . I started looking through the new food pack whilst on the go – I had way too much food on me. I was only about 13 miles from hebden. Straight away I threw the salmon and avocado wrap as I had a vision of getting a bad tummy summiseing the fish hadn’t kept right or whatever. I also threw some of the flapjack as I knew I had a load of it. By the way I threw the food for birds to consume but removed the clingfilm and kept it in my pockets and disposed of it in bins, as and when I passed one. Next was the black stone edge crossing before I got to the whitehouse. I knew at the whitehouse I’d have friends and family there. Definitely my Mum and maybe my kids. Coming down the Roman road I bumps into Gareth hunt and his little girl and Duncan and his wife Fiona. Abit further down I bumps into Paul, Selina and Garry Bower.

Finally I bumped into my Mum, nefa, Bernadette and Martin. I stopped to give my mum a hug as I knew she was worried sick about this whole race. I’d been told off a few people that she was really quite distraught but wasn’t showing it or telling me. When I gave her a hug she gripped me and was trembling- not the kind of tremble where your cold but the kind of tremble I’d only ever got when I’d been in trouble or in a fight- when your scared or something bad is happening ….it felt like pure fear- iv never had a hug off anyone in my whole life and felt that. I honestly felt the fear coming off of her. It knocked me for 10. ” your limping she said” “no I’m not it’s how I look when I’m trying to run efficient” . I must of been running funny to compensate for the niggle in my left foot. I crossed to the mountain rescue checkpoint and they made me a cup of coffee. I thanked everybody for coming out to cheer me before cracking on. As I left everyone I felt really unsettled. Mums fear still surging through my body- I felt upset. Don’t ask me why but I could of cried. Which is strange as in the past iv been quite cold hearted in times of need and iv questioned myself as to why iv not felt sad or not cried at certain things but this ….. This knocked me for 10 and I felt upset for about half an hour. Past the reservoirs I went that would eventually lead me to warland where there was a boggy diversion in place. The headtorch was on now and I skeeted through the bogs and got back onto the Pennine way heading towards stoodley pike. I’d forgotten about Mum for the time being and I was now in a new environment called the dark! Like I said with this section being local I was quite happy just making my way to hebden CP without a map and compass or my GPS it was straight forward, easy navving and I think we was all playing games with each other at this point lowering the dimness on our head torches- I even had my headtorch off a little while and was using a small single LED handheld torch. I found the game playing passed a little bit of time and before I knew it I was at the road crossing in Charlestown. On arriving at the road crossing I was certain that there would of haveen some kind of official there or some kind of support vehicle but there wasn’t. There wasn’t one needed but I think I assumed there would be because there was somebody there on the training weekend back in October. Next was the gruelling climb out of Charlestown up some oldy worldy cobbles and through some little backstreets- this bit was tricky if you had never done it before I thought, like you had to be on the ball. As I’m climbing I can’t see any headtorches or anything and I’m worrying abit thinking I’d missed something on the race brief, maybe a diversion or something? Nah it can’t be possible I told myself, there would of been signage! So I proceeded with caution and by the time I was at the badger fields I could see Zoran and Richards headtorches which cleared up my doubts about a missed diversion. By the time we hit Colden we was back in a group again and pretty much ran into slack together. Then down the muddy boggy track and into hebden hey scout hut CP1 we was clapped and cheered upon arrival.

Pt2 TBC