Pennine Barrier 50

Ultra number 14

This was the first race I'd done with GB Ultras. The runfurther race for June is the Lakeland 5 passes, which has been full for ages, so I was casting around looking for something fairly long. I know the south western dales well, it's not far to travel from Calderdale, so the PB50 was a good choice.

I drove up to Malham on friday night and parked for the night on the race field, along with a load of other camper vans and a few tent dwellers. Things quietened down very early, and I was in bed by around 10.

0530 - what's the '0' stand for? Oh my god it's early

I sleep badly before a race as a rule, so I was awake by the time my alarm went off at 5. Coffee, breakfast (skyr yoghurt, walnuts, peanut butter and walnut oil), and I was ready to register by about 5.50. The advice was to turn up ready to race 15 minutes before your start time. When I looked at the queue it stretched right across the field by 5.55, so I joined the queue at 6, 20 mins before my 6.20 start time.

The queue groweth

That worked out about right, after a quick scoot across the field to pull my normal shoes out from under the van in case I forgot about them in the evening, I set out at 6.28

As usual, I forgot to start my watch for a couple of minutes, remembering as I went out along Cove Road from the village.

The cove is beautiful very early on a summer morning, and there were a few early people out other than PB50 runners. Up onto the limestone pavement, briefly reassuring a couple of runners that the route does indeed lie across the deeply fissured ankle wrecking rocks, then left up towards the tarn.

I was making reasonable time and chatting vaguely to people as we passed through this section, then onto Henside Road for the out and back. This is just a short section (a couple or 3 km or so) to regulate the distance to 50 miles I think. Not much fun, especially coming back against the wind, but quite short. I spotted Linda M. heading the opposite way as I returned, then didn't see her again until we were dropping back to the limestone pavement ten hours later. Along the side of the tarn, up behind the activity centre and up the path towards Fountains Fell.

I was just starting to properly warm up as we climbed up from the farm towards the top of the fell, and my legs were still a bit stiff.

Coming down Fountains Fell I made up some time, letting my legs go and enjoying a fast descent. Quickly through CP1 for just a 500ml water refill, and off up PYG.

Sunny and bright

PYG was pretty busy at this time of day, lots of 3 Peaks walkers out. PB50 runners were excusing themselves, dodging round, finding other lines. I know the scramble pretty well and got up quickly, then down onto the long run out to Ribblehead. This was heaving, so so busy with 3 Peaks walkers. It was slow in places calling out to try and get past, or leaving the path. Coming up to Nether Lodge I met and got chatting with Matt, and we ran together a good part of the day talking about books, language, variation in culture and of course food and running.

climbing Whernside

Crisps and a litre of water at Ribblehead, and up Whernside on the walkers route via Force Gill. It was just before noon when I passed the Whernside trig (maybe 11:45) and I was happy to note that I was bang on target.

Leaving CP3 at Chapel le Dale

More crisps (prawn cocktail) at C-L-D and a litre of water, then across Southerscales and the long slow march up the Humphrey Bottom slabs to the steep climb. The erosion work has made this last bit of the climb much more friendly, although it was a bit of a plod. Finally up onto the plateau and across to the trig, where RD Wayne was taking photos of competitors.

The run down Ingleborough is hard on the feet and ankles, although it eases off towards the bottom. About this time we encountered Donna, who it later turned out had pranged her knee on this stretch (didn't seem to slow her down much until later).

A litre of water at CP4 Horton in Ribblesdale, then behind the Post Office and through Brackenbottom. We chatted about the many offensive words in the French language as we climbed back up to the PW at the bottom of the scramble. I stopped for a pee on the way down to CP5 and lost the other two.

CP5 was both bottles again, a reassuring marshall told me I was looking strong although to be honest I was starting to tire, then trying to keep my pace up along Silverdale Road. Turning off up Fountains Fell I was back to a slow plod. My hill routine probably contains too much that is very steep and technical, I should do more climbing on easier slopes for stuff like this.

Back up Fountains Fell

Leaving the top of Fountains Fell (downhill all the way!) I caught Donna again. She was struggling with the steeper sections of downhill, then outpacing me on the flat. 

Here hare here

I remembered to grab a photo of the hare sculpture near the activity centre as we got back on the lane, then got a water refill from a very cheery couple out supporting friends by the tarn.

The rocky section down from the tarn to the limestone pavement was particularly gnarly for Donna, and a big group including Linda passed us at this point.

Finally we dropped through Janet's Foss, which was beautiful on such a lovely day and not too busy. My left quad cramped up as we came out onto the path, but with a stern talking to it got moving again and we finished the run to the event field. My chip time eventually came out to around 11:25, which was right in my target range. Matt had finished a few minutes before, Linda too with an impressive 3rd female.

Back to the camper to get changed into dry stuff and make some coffee, then hung around for a couple of hours chatting and waiting for my legs to stop hurting enough to drive. Linda was waiting to cheer Tom in, then they were off to the pub.

I headed home to my squeaky cat, who had been fed by the timer bowl at 5pm promptly, but wanted attention. He wasn't too keen on my lap though, I had to keep stretching my legs which annoyed him considerably.

GB Ultras go all the way to give races a sense of occasion. The organisation is excellent and seamless, in spite of the challenges of the pandemic controls. The volunteers were all full of enthusiasm and support, Wayne was popping up all over the course cheering people on and taking photos. The 3 peaks area and Malham are popular for a reason, they're some of the most scenic parts of the Dales, which makes for a fantastic course (and easy navigation).

I'm more used to very low key races, so this made a fun change. I'll be looking at the GB Ultras race list to see what else looks interesting.

Unusually I had no low points at all during the day, which I ascribe to a combination of good company and getting my food pretty much right. Maybe tapering properly helped a bit too. Sunday my legs were a bit too battered to run, so I stretched them a bit by climbing up and down the step ladder washing the van. Monday I got out for a nice slow 17km in the evening sun and felt a lot better for it.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5459490046

Kit:

• Raidlight Performer t shirt
• Omm 0.5 flash tights
• Altra King MT 2.0 shoes
• Drymax crew running socks
• Montane coda hat
• Montane Gecko VP12 race vest
• Montane anniversary windproof
• Montane minimus waterproof smock
• Zebralight H600fw mk IV main light
• Zebralight H53fw backup light
• Awdis long sleeved base layer
• 2 spare eneloop AAs
• Garmin 20x handheld GPS
• Suunto Ambit 3 Peak watch
• 2 squeazy snacker baby food containers with a mixture of instant mash, tartex and walnut oil
• 3 snack size cheddar cheese prewrapped
• some jelly babies
• cheapo ebay foil blanket
• buffs
• Silva Ranger compass
• OL2 lamfold
• 5 x 40g Romneys kendal mint cake