Kinder Downfall: the recce

Kinder Downfall was on our CR Blacksheep series this year but sadly it got cancelled. I had signed up knowing this sort of race is really the limit of what I can realistically enjoy. At just shy of 10 miles and with 600m of climb, its not an easy Wednesday evening trip out. That said, I have tried bigger.

My real fear was my curse of Kinder; everytime I am up there I seem to get lost! Well not lost, but detached from the path..... You see the problem with Kinder is that it is a massive featureless moonscape on the top. You have the classic walk along the edges but the central landmass is a mass of small streams, bogs and gullies. And no defined paths. The ups and downs make walking of a bearing exceptionally hard and my boyfriend Martin still doesn't speak of the time we tried to walk from Kinder Downfall back to Crowden clough on what was marked as a footpath.

But looking at the route, I figured I had a chance if only because it didn't cross the expanse but mostly hugged the edge. So I did a recce first. 

Of note, I bought the Pete Bland Harvey Map for this race. They are pretty handy and available for several of the more popular races. Not only do they have the race route mapped out but they also have a load of directional instructions on the back. This can be useful. And it is easier to carry a single sheet map than the full OS map for the area in your required kit. 

The Pete Bland Map - please support this small business by buying your own, I have made this deliberately poor quality to give you an idea of what you get but not so you can copy it. 

Having completed Lyme Park parkrun that morning (alternative course so ran quite a big PB but it doesn't really count),  and with a big run planned the next day, I decided to 'speed hike' the root. By speed hike I mean fell shoes but back pack and only jogging the flats and downs. Managing to park in Hayfield and nip in to the old fashioned corner shop to buy a fruit bun to take up with me, I set off from the bridge at the centre of the town. Memo to self: parking on the day will be a mare! 

The first section is road and takes you past the house where the actor who played Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army was born. Its not the greatest race start but it will at least be wide enough. The left hand footpath is pretty obviously signed and there are both steps and a track which in the race pack will prove useful. This is the Snake path and you follow this up a steady gradient through some farm land until you meet the moor edge. 

The next section is pretty pleasant. I trundled across the grit stone paths on to the moor proper. I have run near here in the dark on head torch runs and love how the pale paths almost shine. The water collects in puddles but there are few boggy sections. There were two paths after the shooting hut and it seems to be the upper one yo want round past White and Nab Brows though there seemed little difference. I dropped down to Benny's bridge which was quite steep having got a bit of a nice jogging pace on.

The grit stone paths on the moor

Round the Brows overlooking the reservoir

At Benny's bridge I had a quick drink and checked the map. The footpath across the bridge looked steeper but more enticing than the clough scramble that I had to my left, but the clough  scramble is the race route. A group of young men  had appeared from the reservoir path and seemed lost so I decided to get a move on. The followed me up the first part of the clough but I think decided it wasn't really one to be done in fashion trainers (thank goodness). 

The clough climb is typical; the path skitters from side to side of the stream in the middle and the heavy rain of winter had caused a considerable amount of erosion. Its steep and a bit scrambly in places but nothing too bad. I wasn't going fast but I was getting warm and figured on race day I was just going to have to take my time. There was little indication of where the top was so it was a case of just keep going! 

At the top the the path joins the infamous Pennine Way and its a right hand turn to carry on with a steeper but less scrambly climb up on to Ashop Head. Then you continue on the Pennine way around the gritstones of Kinder. I was grateful for my buff as the wind always howls up here and hurts your ears. Some sections of this are smoother than others, and so easier to get a rhythm on and I moved at a job thorugh these sections but then some sections were hard to judge footing. This is also an extremely popular footpath and so you find yourself dodging other path users. 

As usual, Kinder Downfall had  a cluster of disappointed walkers wondering why they couldn't see the waterfall from the top. The wind was playing its usual trick of blowing the water up but not in a spectacular way. I retrieved my bun to eat as I continued on the next section

The top of Kinder Downfall

The next section gets a bit more craggy and boggy and busy. I wasn't really enjoying it. I couldn't get a rhythm either walking or running but pottered on until two teenagers ended up stuck in a bog (usual story of fashion trainers and adventurous spirit with little practical nouse, we have all been there) and I had to help them get out. This resulted in the curse of Kinder struck as it became easier to get out of the mire by  hugging the edge rather than climbing up to the checkpoint. We came out on the footpath to Kinder End and I walkded back towards Edale Rocks to get back on the flagstone path which thankfully took me around the next knowle as I wasn't really feeling another climb about then.

I was getting tired as I reached Edale Cross.

I had been hoping to get a bit of pace up on the road but my legs were fading. It wasn't looking great for April! The road is the usual rock mountain trail. Then it was over a style on to another footpath that took me up and around before dropping on to some muddy farmland that could get pretty chewed up in the race. I then got a bit turned round in a field, partly because I was looking for a field boundary that wasn't there and partly because I was being a twit. This section is flagged in the race fortunately....

After the farm there is a steepish road section past a fancy house or two then down to the River Kinder. This next section was deceptionally long and I made a mental note not to push too hard too early as the flat section on the valley bottom could easy become a drag and loss of places (for all that matters to the fat girl at the back) is likely if I run out of steam on the day.

Getting back to Hayfield I was tired and eyed up the pub but with a LDWA event the next day elected to head home and rest and panic about what I had let myself in for with the race in April. Little did I know I wasn't going to be back quite as soon as I had hoped.