There comes a stage in your life when donning a pumpkin outfit and running up the hill in the rain seems like a perfectly good way to spend an hour on a Saturday. Only me? Oh well.
Race you to the Summit is a Craggrunner race which in fact goes from a pub call the Summit Inn, and heads up towards Blackstone Edge Reservoir where you touch the wall of the White Inn pub and turn around and run back to pub number 1. Two pubs and the propensity for a bit of mud should be enough but due to the time of year, they throw in encouraging fancy dress and supporting a local charity. It seems to be a winning combo given the numbers today.
I dragged Martin to Watergrove parkrun in the morning. It was a wet morning fortunately not too cold as we proceeded to be soaked all the way through at parkrun. Martin put in a good first timers time at Watergrove which is one of the more challenging parkrun courses. I had the dog on a hand lead which wasn't the easiest, and I miss being able to use a canicross harness. There were 42 runners today (maybe a few more given a few people didn't have a barcode...Martin). And then we jumped in the car after a quick change and headed to the start.
It was pretty organised at the start, and we were early. I'd pre registered but there were entries on the day. There wasn't however, much parking except on street. You could have walked up from the train station at Littleborough. There was a board with the route on it and some charity info, as well as an advert for the Stanza Stones ultra next year (looks good but a bit much for me- lonely Pennine bogs for 50 miles is more than Lakeland 50 to my mind). The pub wasn't really open yet but the bar lady got Martin a can of coke to drink whilst I put the pumpkin outfit on. I felt a bit of a tit. No one else was in costume yet. The kids races were going on outside. And my leggings were soaked from parkrun and I had forgotten my race pair.
Eventually the pub filled up and a few more costumes appeared, along with the odd Chorlton Runner, some of whom had done Todmorden parkrun that morning. A few people were running up and down the lane warming up but I was stood shivering as we headed out on to the road next to the pub and stood on the canal bridge. Rounding up everyone for a team photo was hopeless so we got who we got in a terrible selfie and then got moved back up the road to the start in time for the inevitable car to try drive through the runners.
The race started (after the official photo, above, see my social media for the group selfie!) across the bridge, up a short bit of track and then cutting up a steep ish footpath on to the fell. I tried to run as much of this as possible, aware that the big steep climb was later on, but it was bit congested so I went with the flow. I am not a competitive person and there was no point in this case as I was effectively wearing a sale. It was a grey murky day bit there was some view down the fell towards a reservoir. It was Pennine terrain but the bogs were far from bad.
At the top of this rise we enjoyed a short drop down towards a farm on a grassy path and I suddenly wondered if mudclaws would have in fact been the better option. Fortunately it was only a short skitter and I was back running but being over taken by some of those I had caught on the up. I didn't feel very balanced or spritely and looking back at the videos of the start, I look heavy and laboured running.
After another little drop past a farm where the post man was waiting for us to get out the way. Dodging the cattle grid we then began the short introductory climb to what would be the steep and longer climb to the pub. It was a narrow footpath and quite steep in places but definitely not a hands and knees affair. It wasn't too slippery either, with a marked trod. I did worry that it was going to be a mare with faster runners coming back down but the clever Craggrunner guys had us go back a slightly different way at this point.
One lady passed me on the way up and I felt pretty unfit with burning calves on the way up. But it could have been worse and then we bobbed back out on the the pennine bridleway at the top, and it was more runnable with faster runners coming towards us. I cheered a few of the Chorlton guys and tried to get back running again. I should have pushed more here to be honest as it was a good track with a runnable gradient. But I felt tired and worried about the run back and so let myself off a bit too much. I also couldn't see the pub until we were practically in the car park which made it hard to know how much further to go but you could hear the small crowd from a bit further off.
I touched the pub wall and turned to begin the descent, praying we weren't going back along the steep section. Fortunately, it was a long section of swooping bridle paths down the first section of the hill. I got over taken quite a bit, seemingly having forgotten how to descend but also with my costume acting as a sail to the uphill wind. I enjoyed this part of the descent, with my hat sort of choking me as I went (see photo) as I knew the part by the farm would be tougher and more slippery following the hundreds of feet churning it up.
A small motor bike appeared just before the farm, but that was it to distract me from the now uphill turn and gradual (deceptively) uphill past the farm. My legs were tired now. I was worried how much I would be able to push on the way back and had the sensation that one of the girls from my club was going to catch me up so I kept pumping away with my arms and legs like a little nut job. At the farm, the horses were going nuts and one of the sheep had gotten out but none of this was my problem. I tried to scurry on above the reservoirs and eventually saw the final descent on to the track.
At the bottom of the track is a very small car park. Unfortunately for me, it is also a very popular car park and just as I went to cross the car park, a horse box pulled out in front of me and decided to very slowly drive up the narrow road that lead to the finish line, meaning I couldn't run around it. I jogged behind it and finally over the finish line. Someone shouted that Darren should take few minutes off my time for that (obviously in jest) and I saw a few more people get held up by traffic on the way in.
Given the cold and wet, I let Martin off for hiding in the pub with the dog and not walking up to see me in. I said my hellos and good byes and headed off to get some dry clothes. The above photo made it on to the work WhatsApp chat ruining any kudos I ever had....
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