Pennine 39 2022 - a hot day for a 37 mile run

Another race I hadn't done before, although I'd done some running in the area a few years back. After work friday we packed up the van and headed up to Alston. We were staying at Hagg Bank caravan site. This turned out to be an interesting little site - 2 gravel parks. One by the road, one by the river. We opted for the river and got eaten alive every time we left the van. The shower block was absolutely outstanding though, and the parking was nice and level. Ideal for a transit stay.

We'd packed full kit earlier in the week apart from water and food. The mandatory kit for the P39 is rather... comprehensive. I'm pretty cautious but full length body cover plus full length waterproof cover, plus a primaloft, plus a survival bag seemed an awful lot in July with only one 900m top. Especially during an extreme heat weather event. A lot of people weren't carrying anything like full kit according to pre race discussion, and that was evident with some of the packs.

We carried everything anyway, because we both err on the side of caution. A surprise kit check with less than mandatory kit could result in a DQ.

Saturday morning we got up early. Another van was staying in the same area and was up early too. They were wearing running kit but headed off early enough for the 7am bus. I may have passed them later in the day. We had some breakfast and trundled off to Alston. Parking in the free car park on the Nenthead road we slathered ourselves in P20 sun cream. We spotted Andy Ellwood a couple of vehicles over and walked down to the start with him.

At this point my brain disengaged a bit and I didn't go register. Not sure why, I had it in my mind that we were supposed to register at Bowlees. The bus turned up and took us to Bowlees where I went and found Joe. Joe dealt with the problem placidly in spite of me being a bit argumentative for which I subsequently apologised, and recycled race numbers from a couple of no shows.

The start at Low Force was thoroughly low key, and off we went. I know this section from a couple of walking trips, and gradually overtook a large proportion of the pack between here and a farmhouse near Forest. Passing through a herd of extremely cute baby Galloways, chatting with Claire when she was nearby but gradually pulling ahead a little.

The rocky section below Cauldron Snout wasn't quite as gnarly as I remembered - possibly because the last time I ran here was in ice and snow. I got chatting with another runner who was nearby for almost the entire race, finishing just ahead of me. We chatted quite a bit during the course of the day.

Cauldron Snout was flowing pretty well and looked spectacular. I clambered up the side, took a few pictures and got onto the first of the two long tracks.

The gravel vehicle track from Cow Green skirts the edge of Warcop for most of the way to High Cup Nick. Red flags warned us not to stray from the path with the threat of flying ordnance rather than werewolves. Shame really, I'd almost rather deal with werewolves than run on that surface.

As I left the track with considerable relief I realised Karen was just ahead of me. I've been running a bit quicker this year while Karen has been doing an awful lot of sport climbing, and have caught her up more than once. Spoiler alert: I've still not beaten her to the finish.

I got ahead of Karen just at the top of High Cup Nick, took a couple of photos then absolutely caned it down into Dufton. At one point I was doing 5 minute kilometres, which was far too fast. I eased off on the way into the village, popped into the CP to fill my bottles and grab some crisps (saying hi to beardy Stu and another bearded chap from CVFR who was being appalled at the thought of being from Todmorden) and got going again.

This next section to the top of Knock Fell was really tough going. It's a long drawn out climb once you get past the foot of Dufton Pike and I took the opportunity to eat quite a bit. As I climbed I could feel myself getting too warm and slowed off a bit, then stopped at a stream to soak a buff and pour water on myself.

The top of Knock Fell was breezier, and the marshal there was probably getting a bit chilly. He informed me there was extra water next to his car on the radar road, and I got going across the top of the fell.

I half filled a bottle at the car - I had a full bottle and a filter anyway, so I could get by as long as I could find a stream (or even a bog if really necessary) whereas some of those behind me might be in more need. A very cheerful photographer was by the ATC beacon fence on Great Dun fell. It reminded me a bit of Snaefell summit, and of the time some friends cycled up from Dufton at easter in the snow. On to Little Dun Fell, then slowly up onto Cross Fell. I touched the trig then took a fast line down to the track to Greg's Hut. One of the volunteers at the hut filled my bottle and told me to crack on as I was currently 9th, which gave me something to chase. Unfortunately I didn't see the other volunteer, my former club mate and regular Craggrunner crew Louise.

The next six or seven miles were absolute purgatory.

I was feeling a bit wobbly so I ate some cheese pitta. Which sorted my mood, but made my stomach churn. The track to Garrigill off Cross Fell is an awful specimen - mile after mile of rocky vehicle path with nothing to relieve the monotony. Like running on the towpath only less interesting and with a worse surface.

At some point another runner passed me as if I was standing still. Then as I ran in to Garrigill Karen and my companion from earlier caught me up. I filled up with water, risked a couple of pieces of melon then we all got going.

Karen took a wrong turn at the bridge and we had to backtrack for 50m or so. But since I'd been following her 2021 track for the previous six hours I couldn't really grumble. We pushed each other along for the remaining miles on a very pretty riverside path, both trying to gain a little here and there and both struggling in the heat. Finally Karen got a sniff of the finish and took off like a scalded rabbit, finishing a minute or so ahead of me.

I sat still for about 20 minutes at the end. I was pretty dehydrated and wiped out, and also worried about Claire. Long sections of flat are not her thing and I wanted to find where she was. Unfortunately the location service we use hadn't updated in the mobile data weak area and I wasn't able to track her. I eventually moved inside for some soup, and Claire joined me exhausted and dehydrated about an hour later. That's a bigger lead than I'd normally have, but I'd had a particularly strong run (partly driven by rivalry with Karen) on terrain that I'm more used to. My final position was tenth in 7 hours 22 mins, which was a very nice surprise.

2 hours or so of tea drinking later I was rehydrated enough to limp back up to the van. Apart from some cramping on the Hartside road which meant a short stretching break, we had a reasonable journey back. Claire was struggling with dehydration well into the following day, which we spent loafing around in the sun, washing and drying kit and drinking tea and alcohol free lager.

Kit

• OMM shorts
• Raidlight t shirt
• UD Fastpack 15
• Altra Superior shoes
• Drymax thin socks
• Montane minimus waterproof
• Montane classic windproof
• Evadict waterproof trousers
• Yorkshireman 2018 long sleeve t shirt
• OMM full length tights
• Inov8 AT/C insulated jacket
• Garmin etrex 20x
• spare batteries
• Skilhunt RC04 mini
• UD body bottle
• Hydrapak crush bottle with salomon XA filter cap
• Montane cap
• buffs
• small first aid kit
• printed map

Food

• cheese and onion roll * 1
• cheese pizza pittas * 3

Stats:

23 ultra events since restarting in 2019
1 bagging round
1 ultra event pre 2019

Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon 2022 - Bracken, beer and bread bags

 I've done 2 mountain marathons before: the 2010 LAMM (linear) and the 2011 OMM (score). For various reasons I never did any more. Claire suggested the Saunders earlier this year to try and build up our orienteering experience and I enthusiastically agreed.

Last week was a busy one at work, so I had a couple of busy evenings getting a bit of training in and then sorting kit. Friday I managed to knock off an hour early and finish loading up the van so we were on the road to Eskdale by 6pm. Google maps took us a very direct route to Eskdale via Broughton that involved an eye wateringly steep ascent followed by a gentle descent close to Boot. On arrival it was raining, hard. We parked up in the camper parking field, far away from the loos unfortunately, and got ourselves sorted for the evening.

We'd booked a late start slot, partly to have an easy start to Saturday but also to reduce the amount of time sitting around mid camp. At 10:16 we dibbed, picked up our maps and started planning.

We'd prepared a piece of string with our estimated distance for the days, and we deployed it on the map to figure out our route.

I'd counted on about 15 minutes planning time, and that turned out about right. We were the last to leave the field and headed uphill straight away, making for a control on a ring feature on Boat Fell, followed by the top of the hill itself. Both were straightforward to find, and we happily yomped down a sheep trod towards the next control, on a bridge over Whillan Beck.

Stone circles on Boat Fell

The bridge was easy to find, and we dibbed and had a quick look at the map for the next control on 'Peelplace Noddle'. The best line seemed to be to follow a good path to a structure, then turn up a reentrant for a while then off on a bearing. We got almost to the building then decided to pick up the reentrant early and started climbing.

As we rose there was a lot of bracken. Reluctant to start bracken bashing too early we ended up climbing a bit higher than we needed. Once a large reentrant off to our left became really obvious we took a bearing and headed downhill towards the control. We drifted off to the left a bit but once the tarn was visible we were able to take another bearing and drop straight onto the control. This one took maybe 5 minutes longer than it might have, but we got it eventually.

Raven Crag from the north

The next one was easier, another tarn under the north edge of Raven Crag. A couple of women just ahead of us took a better line round some higher ground instead of over it. We had to budge them out of the way to be able to dib as they decided to plan their next leg actually on top of the control!

We took the control and moved on to the next. We took a bearing onto a mid point, a reentrant that sloped down steeply, to avoid losing too much height. Then straight across to what must be the biggest sheepfold in Lakeland, dib, and on to the next. The next was a boulder on the other side of some open moor. We opted to take the hit on climb for this one as it was only a couple of contours, while the two women from the previous control sensibly contoured round. However, as we came down on the control it was clearly visible, while they ended up well below it and had to climb (lesson from the weekend - climbing costs time, but you gain visibility of the terrain below and that can be crucial).

competitors coming down from Lingmell Col

It was at this point that we realised we were massively ahead of schedule. We'd set a very cautious target distance to account for control-hunting time, climb and rough terrain. In the event we were navigating better and climbing far better than we expected. Claire was feeling a bit off anyway, so we took it steady for a while. We climbed through a couple of big reentrants then dropped west above the crag on Green How to land on the long wall that goes along the south side of Lingmell Gill.

Wastwater from Lingmell Col

Once we reached the wall we turned east and climbed along it to reach the control on the corner. This was obviously on at least one linear route as there were lots of people coming and going.

Once we'd picked up this control, we'd completed our entire planned route for saturday in a little more than half our seven hours. We had 3 hours plus in hand, so decided to get a couple of high pointers with some hefty climb. We cut across to Lingmell Gill itself and got onto the motorway path to the top of Scafell Pike, then dropped over the col towards Great End.

This is a gnarly area with lots of outcroppings, difficult to see the lay of the land. We contoured to the right under Broad Crag to avoid losing too much height. There was an obvious feature with a cairn, but I was pretty sure our target was something smaller about 150m to the west that we couldn't quite see yet. We took some extra height over a little ridge and there it was - just where I expected. That made me very happy.

We traversed yet-another-bog to reach the feature and just as we dibbed Louise and Zoe appeared from somewhere. They were on the Harter Fell course and had 3 more controls after this one. We took a slightly lower line back towards the col and they trotted off ahead.

Once we got up to the col we handrailed a wall for a while. We were talking constantly about cheese, which was probably a sign of hunger. From the wall we set off on a bearing towards our last control of the day on a lump to the west of Lingmell Col. It took us a minute to find the control behind a wall, then we got on the path down the nose toward the lake and the mid camp.

A quick diversion with time in hand to get the ten pointer above the mid camp, then down steadily to dib at the finish where we were greeted by Dave & Helen who were volunteering on the event.  We finished up with a modest 240 points and had 20 minutes in hand. Mandy and Roz came bowling in with a minute to spare a couple of minutes after us, and after a chat we walked across to the camping field.

Control in front of Broad Crag

Mid camp was at the National Trust campsite on the north east of Wastwater. Most people seemed to have camped on the sloping field near the marquee, but we walked down to the lakeside and got a nice flat pitch in the other field. We soon got pitched, changed into warm clothes (there was a cold wind blowing from the west off the sea) and got a brew on the go.

Mid camp was fine. We had enough clothes in spite of the wind, it only rained a bit, and we were cosy and comfortable in down bags. My merino long sleeved layer was possibly excessive but I regulated my temperature by getting out of the sleeping bag. Midges weren't too bad. Saunders mid camp is a fairly gentle experience as MMs go - you can order beer and milk to collect, the water is generally drinking quality and doesn't need filtering (could have saved ourselves a bit of space there), and the camping space is fairly flat and bog free.

Claire had suggested bread bags as being big enough to accommodate my enormous feet (to keep my dry socks from getting soaked by wet shoes), which turned out to be a win.

Mid camp

Just before bed we walked up to the loos in the main field, and watched the head torches of National 3 Peak's walkers coming down Lingmell Gill.

Bread bags

Sunday morning we were awake from about six thirty. We'd talked to Mandy about our underestimation Saturday, and she'd made some suggestions for Sunday. In the end we did something slightly different, but the advice was useful. Heavy rain just as we were about to take the tent down delayed us a minute, but we eventually got out more or less on time.

Our plan was to cane it down the Wasdale Head road to Bowderdale, climb up along the edge of the OOB area to a control on a spur over the valley then contour round to the next at Scoat Tarn. We made OK time, although with much longer legs I was finding the big rocks and thick bracken easier than Claire. We had a nav blip at Scoat Tarn where I misread the map and was looking for the control on the wrong side of the beck for 2 minutes, then we found it and headed on to the control in the narrow valley between Red Pike and Yewbarrow. This was on a small spur overlooking the valley, and once we'd contoured round we were able to drop onto it easily.

All morning there were sudden heavy cloudbursts dropping rain on us, but it was fairly warm so it wasn't much of a problem.

Clag over Scoat Tarn

A fast run down alongside Over Beck, and we were back on the road. Claire wasn't feeling 100% and the run was uncomfortable so we slowed off a bit. At the top of Wastwater we took a minute or two to consider plans as we climbed up to the next control about 100m above the valley bottom, and decided with 2 hours to go we had enough time to take Illgill Head before heading for the finish.

The climb up Illgill head was stiff-ish. We opted to take the stile low down on the hill which meant a climb through the bracken but there were clear trods all the way up so if anything it probably saved us a few minutes. At the top we had a bit of trouble in the clag working out which ring feature we were looking for, but a couple of guys on a linear waved us over.

Climbing out of Wasdale

Another good run down to our last control on the ridge at the tarns, then we set off contouring round under Whin Rigg. We'd opted to skip a 10 point control on the Rigg rather than do the extra climb. We later thought that it would probably have been quicker to take the climb because the terrain down directly from the tarns was rough. I was counting on being funnelled by walls into the crossing through the OOB area, which sort of worked except that the slope down to the crossing was heavily covered in bracken and some stumpy gorse. We picked some reasonable lines through it, and dropped out onto the path being used on the linear route. A control on the end of the bridge (we missed the bridge and waded the river, then found it from the other side!) and we set off up Bleatarn hill for the final section.

Most people were heading for the 30 point control next to the tarn, but we were already into penalty time and we zig-zagged straight down the hill and onto the run-in along the miniature railway. Claire was outpacing me on the flat and I had to push to keep up. Finally we crossed the line 20 minutes over. We'd picked up 180 points in the day, and lost 80 of them in time penalties.

Running off Illgill

Dave was on the finishing line cheering competitors in (and reminding people to dib in the finish control!). Our overall score for the event was 340. We'd set out on saturday with the aim of finishing in the black and were much too cautious. Sunday we'd decided up front to take a punt on something risky, and if we finished in the red then at least we'd learned some useful lessons. Our planning wasn't a million miles out in the end. We'd finished with a much clearer idea of what we could do when put to it, although Sunday was a tougher day than we'd particularly want to do for fun.

We both had a great time on the event, and are now looking forward to doing more of them and improving. 

Kit

• UD Fastpack 20
• Montane Minimus waterproof smock
• Evadict waterproof trousers
• Montane Ember insulated layer
• OMM flash 0.5 tights (on)
• Raidlight performer t shirt (on)
• drymax socks (one pair on, one in the bag)
• Altra King MT 2.0 shoes
• OMM Flash 1.0 tights (in bag)
• Merino long sleeved base layer (in bag)
• Montane windproof shirt
• Terra Nova Lazer Comp 2 tent
• Rab Neutrino 200 sleeping bag
• Thermarest Prolite (small) mat
• Ron Hill gloves
• Montane Coda cap
• 2 buffs
• 2 chinagraph pencils
• Silva ranger compass
• Salomon water filter valve & 1/2l bottle
• Skilhunt H04 mini torch
• Leatherman micra multitool
• dry bag of loo roll
• 2 bread bags
• earplugs
• lip balm
• UD 0.5l water bottle
• Olight i3e emergency torch
• SOL emergency bivi
• MSR titanium mug
• Noakes long handled ti spoon
• small FAK

(Claire had the stove, a 650ml ti pot, 2 gas cylinders, a platypus & Sawyer mini filter and some of the food)

Food

• 2 * tent meals
• 3 * pitta-pizzas**
• 1 * malt loaf (could have done with another)
• assorted cheese, chocolate, nibbles
• 4 little cans of beer (ordered for collection at mid camp)
• 1/2l of milk (also ordered for collection)
• a bar of Romneys each for emergencies

**my latest favourite portable running food:

    

    take one wholemeal pitta

    cut in half across the shortest axis

    slice open, smear the inside with tomato paste

    insert a slice of mozzarella, and a slice of something else (goats cheese/cheddar/whatever)

    put in a toaster pocket and toast until the bread starts to brown and the cheese melts

    squish slightly, then refrigerate.

    

They freeze ok, so I can make up a few and take some out as I need them.