It's been a while since my last race and a winter break has healed all my lingering injuries and given me a new impetuous for 2010! I would usually run The Hebden in January but I took a complete break and only really started building up for the High Peak Marathon in February. We had initially not got a place but we benefited from another team dropping out and so 'Team Porridge' were on the start list. I've done the event a couple of times before and I knew that it was going to be pretty gruelling. It's not enough to run 42 miles through some of the most tricky (both navigationally and in terms of underfoot conditions) areas of the Peak District, throw in the fact you have to do it at night in winter and it becomes particularly tough.It's a team of 4 event though and I managed to round up Colin Bishop and Chris Maylor from Saddleworth and then Craig Stansfield from Todmorden. None of us had run together before and we each had our own strengths - Colin and Chris were more used to the shorter distances (although Colin had done a BG a couple of years ago) and Craig and I were more used to the longer stuff. We struggled to get together much in advance of the event as a four but we did all get out at some point in various combinations and a night recce the Friday before the race of the Cut Gate to Bleaklow Stones section with Col, Craig and myself proved to be useful on race night. The conditions for the recces were difficult to say the least - thick snow and therefore really slow going.
Anyway, on the night we were all pumped up despite our (relatively) thin preparation. We were off at 11:06 and the weather was perfect. Cold without being Baltic and a clear sky - surely the HPM wasn't going to be this 'easy'?! By Moscar we were running steadily with Chris Maylor keeping the rest of us in check pace-wise. The most difficult section followed but we seemed to breeze over Derwent Edge and be dibbing in at Lost Lad in no time. A good route from Sheepfold Clough to Cut Gate banished memories of a previous year when we went horribly wrong at this point and there was a virtual party at the Cut Gate checkpoint as three teams converged at the same time. I occasionally tried to string out the pace a bit over towards Swains Head but quickly realised that it was a team event and that my compatriots were sensibly holding back! I've never run this section and been able to see before and the sight of a string of lights all the way to Swains Head was quite impressive and we hardly needed to look at the map. The same was true up to Bleaklow Stones although I was a bit iffy about the location of the control which seemed to be a bit off where I expected it to be. Fortunately we saw it over to the east and we dibbed in. Our route choice (via the North-West passage) to Bleaklow Head was, in hindsight, the wrong one and we should have gone straight across but it didn't make too much difference as we weren't going to be troubling the leaders. The snow was pretty thick and we made slow progress.
The Snake served us some hot chocolate and cheese/pickle sandwiches which seemed to revive a flagging Chris who had been suffering. He really dug in a we got over Mill Hill and Kinder in reasonable time. As ever, Brown Knoll goes on for ages but with Edale in sight we were all feeling better and with 12hours looming we wanted to get back. As it turned out we just missed out on getting under 12hours and finished a creditable 17th in 12hrs 10mins. It's the first race of the year and I felt like I had plenty of running left in my legs which bodes well for the year ahead. The winners had clocked in just under 9hours which is really impressive, although I doubt they'll ever have an easier night for navigation. The event was, as usual, organised superbly well by Sheffield University students and the checkpoint marshalls did a sterling job out in the middle of nowhere for hours on end! Sir Ranulph Fiennes obviously found the event pretty exhausting - he had a little prang on his way home down the A6 in Stockport. At 66 and after reaching both poles, the top of Everest etc. I'm pretty impressed he's still doing this kind of stuff - good lad! I'll hopefully be back next year when I reckon we can significantly improve on our time...although I suspect the weather might not be as kind two years on the trot...
