Wuthering Hike Trail Race

Along with Trevor and Dave I returned to one of my favourite long races – the Wuthering Hike (or Haworth Hobble). 31 miles and 5000 feet of trail running from Haworth over the Bronte Way, Penine Way and up and down into the old Yorkshire mill towns of Hebden Bridge, Todmorden. After a night with Dave in the back of his van (!), interrupted by the local neds paying us a wee visit during the night, we emerged bright eyed and bushy-tailed (not) to a dreich 8am start. 232 runners headed off into the moors, me having my usual slow start, and Trevor and Dave haring off, seemingly untroubled by their 12 hrs effort the weekend before in the High Peaks Marathon. I plodded through the first hour, accompanied some of the way by Stuart Barrie of HBT and ex Westies Helene Diamantides. After numerous paths, tracks, reservoirs and visits to fading mill towns I rallied for the last hour and started to feel a bit better. After the steep road climb to Heptonstall I gradually pulled in a few bodies, wondering if I could make it under the 5 hrs mark with 4 hrs under the belt. With the aid of some jelly babies and a banana I felt the adrenaline kicking in as I reached the last junction in 4hrs 55min. Unfortunately this last bit is uphill and I had resigned myself to a steady plod to the finish line with no one in sight to spur me on. However, as I reached the lat 100 yards I caught up a few runners and realised that if I replicated my Graham Kelly-esque sprint finish from Wed night I might scrape under the 5 hrs, so I summoned up a semblance of a sprint-shuffle and rushed into the finish room with 20 seconds to spare. Given my lack of long runs over this winter I was pretty chuffed with that, especially as a year ago I was barely jogging after three months of injury. I was 48th of 232 finishers, Trevor had a good run in 38th place and unfortunately Dave had a fall and had to bail out half way with an injured knee. A truly great “day out” with not much to compare with up here, and well worth making the effort for.

1 – Adam Breaks – 03:43:24

38 – Trevor Richens – 4:48:47

43 – Helene Whitaker/Cath Worth – 04:53:24

48 – John Donnelly – 4:59:43

Full results here