High Peak Marathon

Is it better to write about an event whilst the legs and body are still in pain and things are fresh or wait a bit and reflect? Not sure but I do know the legs and body are still suffering a bit from Friday night / Saturday morning running the High Peak Marathon along with Dave Rogers, John Donnelly and Gordon Pryde. For those not familiar with the event, the term "marathon" is a bit vague. It is actually a 42 miles night time race for teams of four. The route traverses the Derwent Watershed, starting and finishing at Edale Village Hall.

I got an email last November from Dave asking if I wanted to take the place of Manny who had run in previous years – jumped at the chance since it was an event I had wanted to do for a number of years but had been unable to recruit like minded folks (Manny later sent a message of "support" during the extreme weather …or was a message of amusement …not sure). A couple more team changes and a last minute panic over Dave’s well being finally saw us heading south on the Friday afternoon.

Jennie Triger kindly came across from Sheffield to lend some support and it was fantastic to get some time to chat before the start.

We started some time just after 23:30 from Edale and had a prompt blast down the road and up towards the first control at Hollins Cross. Wee clusters of four headtorch beams highlighted the teams above and below which was an usual sight for sure. As I waited for the SI card to register the first control, Dave informed us that this was also the last control before the finish …I wondered how long it would be until we got back to it again.

The ridge towards the second control at Lose Hill made for great running. Control visited we dropped quickly down onto the road and into the small village ironically called Hope. With Dave at the front of the team, we didn’t need to check the map since he appeared to be on first name terms with every path and turning. Short but steep climb up Win Hill and the third control was rewarded by an equally steep (but slippy) descent onto another road section. We took the opportunity to eat and drink at bit mixing in an effective run / walk / run thing. Back off the road and it was up to High Neb where the going was fairly level and all above the 400m contour. Dropping down towards the Moscar control was very exciting since we knew there was tea, coffee and food !

Refuelled, we wobbled down the road for a couple of km before breaking off and up onto the Derwent Moor. I found myself at the front and managed to pick a rather horrible line through the heather. Noticed one of the all girl teams making good progress and figured they either had a better line or were simply just faster.

The big loop from Lost Lad over Margery Hill, Outer Edge and Swain Hill is really the crux of the race. Thankfully, the snow was pretty firm …especially where folks had compressed an icy furrow and we made reasonable time. Dave appeared happy and assured us it is normally far worse underfoot. The ascent of Bleaklow had been in my mind ever since Dave put out an email asking if anyone had a 1:25,000km map (a sure sign tight navigation is a requirement) but as daylight allowed the headtorch to be put away, it was fine (even if the control was not exactly where it should have been). For some reason, I got it in my head that from the control at Bleaklow, all we had to do was drop down to Snake Pass (a wonderful name eh ?) but failed to take in account we actually had a 2km trog to another control at Wain Stones to visit first !?!?! In theory, you follow the Pennine Way down to the road but it was buried deep in snow. A few teams headed in one direction and we followed Dave in a slightly different direction. Not sure which was quicker but we were soon at Snakes enjoying more hot drinks and food. JD had been dropping off the pace a bit and took full advantage of the facilities on offer – so much so that within about 5 minutes of leaving the control, he took off at an incredible pace towards Mill Hill. It never fails to impress me how quickly the body can recover given a bit of a chance.

By this time it really felt like we were on the home straight and with the climb up onto Kinder the sun came out. Without a doubt my favourite memory of the race will be the kms that we ran along the edge of Kinder – we were all feeling pretty good, the weather / views were spectacular and we only had three controls to go ! Dave highlighted exactly where the last two controls were and it was time for one last effort. Over Lord’s Seat …down onto the road …back up to Hollins Cross where we had started the whole thing the night before …and down towards Edale as fast as we could. Briefly stopped to regroup at the gate to ensure we finished as a complete group of four …into the hall and we were done.

Lovely thing about finishing "in" the hall was that previous finishers were there to applaud – it felt good to have the effort of the last 11 hours and 43 minutes recognised.

Huge thanks to Dave, JD and Gordon for the company and support – it was one of the best Friday nights out I’ve had for years :-)

JDs photos from the event