Pendle Way in a Day 2021

 This was my second circuit of the PWIAD. I somehow never got around to writing up the 2020 edition. It was cold and rainy and extremely windy. I swore a lot, mainly that I was never going to enter again.

So of course I did, but it was a very different beast in 2021. Delayed from February by covid restrictions, April 3rd was about the earliest it could be run. The organisers hoped that it would still have a chance of being a winter ultra, which hopes weren't born out. It was boiling.

Start times were staggered between 7 and 9 am. I opted to show up early, mainly so that parking wasn't too much of a ball ache. I parked up in the car park opposite the Heritage Centre around 7, faffed around aimlessly for a while and eventually headed over to kit check.

There was a short queue for kit check made longer by the need to distance. Once that was done, I walked around the corner, took a couple of appalling 'start selfies', and got going.

Then 100m further on I remembered to start my watch.

I deliberately kept my pace down to start with, to let my body get used to the idea. My stomach problems make it impossible to consume loads of sugar to get me through races at a faster pace, so I really have to minimise the glycogen burn if I don't want everything to turn to crap.

According to my HR record I did an OK job, never hitting more than about 150 in the first hour or so. It was fresh and cool this early, I had a thin long sleeve, a thin short sleeve and a windproof gilet on (kit list below), gloves and buff and was on the cool side.

It's quite a long way to the first CP at Earby and I made reasonable time but not roaring. A quick chat with a marshal who spotted my barefoot shoes, a water refill and off again. The next section was quite pleasant this year, in comparison to the godawful swamp it was last year.

At this point what I should have thought about and didn't was that I should be banking time for the big climbs later. A quicker pace in the mid section would have paid off a lot later on.

I had one of the day's few low spots after CP1. My niggly left foot was niggly, my ribs (pranged and possibly broken about 8 weeks ago) were a little uncomfortable with a heavy vest on, and I had a spell of about half an hour where I just had to keep working on my mood.

Approaching Laneshawbridge I retrieved a gel wrapper from the path. I'll be charitable and assume that it wasn't deliberately dropped - it was one of two pieces of litter associated with the race that I saw and picked up all day.

I remember my mood here improving when I realised that I felt in much better shape than the same stage last year.

My foot was niggling more on the approach to Wycoller, but the calf stretching climb up to the CP worked wonders. As did the fact that Karen & Bob were marshalling the CP. I refilled with water, troffed down some crisps, Karen told me to pick up a spot prize at the end**, and I got going with a new burst of energy.

The next section that passes under Boulsworth was horrific last year. Marching into a 30-40mph head wind uphill was energy sapping and grim. This year it was a fairly pleasant challenging climb. I passed a few people who'd been ahead of me for ages, briefly chatting with them before pushing on to Caldwell.

The Caldwell CP had moved - last year it was someone's car in a layby, this year we had the luxury of a very plush hut. I topped up water again, grabbed a packet of sweet chilli crisps (which turned out to be a mistake) and cracked on down the side of the dam.

My hands got really greasy from the crisps, and they were a bit rich for my stomach at this point. I still had plenty of peanut butter in my squeeze tube so I should probably have stuck to that.

Passing Briercliffe stepping stones I met a couple of rather damp teddy bears. Slogging up that long hill I felt pretty OK, and managed to resolve the nav screw up from last year. The supplied GPX for the route misses out a few subtleties and this was one that caught us out.

After that I rambled on for a while, through the riverside swamp, along the river then up the climb to Higham. That's a long climb. A very long climb. I walked most of it, with odd bursts of running. By halfway up I'd drained my main bottle and had to fish my backup out of my pack.

On the approach to Higham I ran briefly with a woman who'd set off half an hour later than me. I didn't keep up with her for long...

At Higham I refilled both bottles, shifted the now empty peanut butter tube into my pack and replaced it with the tartex/instant mash mix. Then on again.

At Newchurch I first started to see how busy the Pendle area was for the bank holiday, there were a lot of cars on the road. My concentration was a bit foggy on the climb up out of Newchurch, conferring with another runner briefly sorted that out and we marched on chatting. Once the path sloped down into Ogden Clough I took my leave and ran on, jabbing my tender left foot with a sharp stone on the descent through the woods and hooting loudly with pain. Brief nav confusion once more below the woods, then the beginning of the climb up to the top.
Just like last year, I followed the GPX file where it sets off uphill too early and had to come back down, then picked up the right path just after the wall. It's a tough march from here to the top, and a group of 3 guys passed me here who I'd see again and again before the end.

Last year I'd marched up this slope in the fog, wind, rain and cold with Sarah. This time it was boiling hot and I was overheating. It's a beast of a climb, and the top of the hill was too crowded to enjoy so I cracked on down the slope. The pointy stones make thin shoes very uncomfortable on this descent, and it's tough on tired quads, so it took quite a while. Near the bottom I encountered a runner who was limping badly - it later turned out he'd sprained his ankle at 25 miles and somehow finished all the same, which was impressive going.

Barley CP was in the car park. A water refill and on I went, with only about 3.5km to go according to the GPS. It seemed a lot longer last year, but sure enough it's a very short leg from Barley to the end. I did most of the last couple of miles with a woman whose name I didn't catch, who was nervous about the stepping stones, then jollied me along when I ran out of steam at the top of the slope. We had a pleasant chat as we covered the last mile or two. Finally weaving my way through a very crowded park I got back to the Heritage centre and spent a happy half hour lying on the ground.

I completed in 10:27, 10 minutes slower than last year. There were a few places where I could have gained some time, especially the towpath section - without Sarah C pushing my pace along it was easy to bimble, and I lost a few minutes to a stupid nav error just before the climb to Newchurch.

Eventually I managed to limp back to my van, freezing cold and with numb fingers, bumping into a fellow Tod Harrier who'd just finished an hour and a half quicker than me. A change of clothes and a hot cup of coffee sorted me out, then a drive home to the cat stopping for pizza and ice cream on the way.

The Pendle Way is a really well organised and marshalled event. Thanks to everyone involved, it was a cracking day. 

** Thanks to Karen & to our Runfurther sponsors (Tentmeals, Ultimate Direction, IceBug, Injinji, Mountain Fuel and Romney Mint cake). I picked up an Ultimate Direction soft flask. I really like these, the tops are big enough to be able to fill quickly and easily unlike some. The valves don't seem to go manky either.

Kit:

• short sleeved Awdis base layer
• long sleeved Awdis base layer
• Montane ultra gilet
• Omm 1.0 flash tights
• Kalenji lycra undershorts
• Vivobarefoot Primus SG shoes
• Bridgedale hiking socks
• Grivel 12l Mountain Runner vest
• Garmin Etrex 20x handheld GPS
• thin Ron Hill gloves
• Buffalo mittens
• Samsung Xcover 4 phone
• Harrier Catbells poles (didn't use)
• Montane minimus waterproof smock
• Gelert waterproof trousers
• Zebralight 600 head torch & spare battery
• 2 spare eneloop AAs for GPS
• SOL survival bag.
• Inov8 Thermoshell mid layer
• Suunto Ambit 3 Peak
• Polar OH10 HRM
• 2 buffs
• Montane Coda hat
• Silva Ranger compass
• small bottle alcohol gel
• dry sack with van key and loo roll.
• 2 squeezy-snackers, one of peanut butter, the other of a 70/30 mix of instant mash and tartex
• Ultimate Direction soft flask
• Inov8 soft flask
• 3 small individual cheese blocks

Lessons:

• I didn't use the poles and didn't need to carry them. I used them a lot over the winter, but I think for good weather routes with moderate climb and distance I won't bother in future. That said, I should definitely use them for PWIAD 2022 if the weather is crap.
• I was dressed too warm. It was predictable that the early morning would be the coldest part of the day. One base layer with a buff and windproof gilet would have done it, and 3/4 leggings would have been better than full length. I didn't need the buffalo mittens, although they're not that bulky or heavy.
• Similarly, I didn't need to carry 2 full bottles from the start. Half a litre was enough as far as CP3, it was only when it started to warm up after Caldwell that I needed the second bottle.
• I probably didn't taper enough.
• The GPX file cuts some corners. Rather than thinking and looking at the map on my handheld I allowed my brain to go blank. I should have been more alert and relied less on following/asking others. In particular I should have looked at the route on the paper map ahead of time. I haven't used the GPS much since last year, and I've got out of the habit a bit.
• The tartex/potato combination was OK. It made me belch a little but didn't give me any blood sugar issues. Maybe a bit more oil would improve things. Cheese and onion crisps at CP2 were a big help.
• Knowing I wasn't likely to need it, I should have carried the ZL52 torch not the 600. Not much weight difference but a lot of bulk, and a much smaller spare battery.