After tea and pastries (and kit phaff) we headed down to the canal to start by lock nine, lead by a authorative lady in a hat with 'Geezer' across the front. And then we were off in the autumn sunlight amongst the leaves on the tow path. Emma and I found ourselves alarmingly near the front but were glad to follow others especially for the chicane in to Brabyn's park and then past the junior parkrun and out to Compstall. After a quick road cross, it was time to start the first of the main big climbs for the day up to Werneth Low. I was very conscious of not wanting to over do it; I had been off colour the day before and 17 miles is a lomg way if you burn all your matches too quickly. But I was also conscious that Emma is a much stronger runner than I. However, I think we sitll walked quite a chunk of this hill, initially on tarmac, then on a more narrow older track before popping out on a road I know that takes you towards the monument and our first self clip.
The view from Werneth Low in the sunshine was lovely, and I enjoyed the fun and undulating path that takes you round to Idle Hill and checkpoint one. Yes, its only 3 and a half miles in but its time for some biscuits (other options were available). One of my promises to myself was we would not be rushing checkpoints so we enjoyed out biscuits before heading off, almost going the wrong way as I went in to autopilot.... The descent was lovely, through fields and some woods before hitting the valley bottom and the track to Broadbottom. This was a nice runnable stretch with minimal need to navigate, just following the river on tracks and paths. We crossed at what was a seriously idyllic spot in morning light, catching up with the tail end of the walkers as we did.
We now had a few miles to climb to Cown Edge and the top of the course. The breeze was starting to get up and it was a bit greyer, but initially we made reasonably good prgress up a road, then started a weird cross field section. The first turn off the road was pretty tricky to find, and the farmer seemed to have taped it off a bit, but we headed through some fields to Charlesowrth where we met with the main section of walkers. I felt a bit rude running past, and pressured to keep running, but only managed until the top of the Charlesworth play area before it was a stomping walk. Emma got her poles out and we headed across the tussocky ground on a steady slop towards the edge above us. We looked for Catherine in the walkers but didn't see her.
The wind was really up now, snatching at my breath and causing us all to wobble a bit. The path was narrow and we were moving awkwardly a bit faster than the walkers but not so fast as to make over taking easy. There was more walking here than I might have liked but I felt my breathing go a bit and just had to take it at my own pace. I was pleased to see the trees and then the stile over the fence ahead. Crossing it, I felt more back on home turf, as this forms part of a night run route. It was also net downhill to the next check point for a water top up and snaffling some bits to go in my pack. The Peaks were rolling out ahead of us, cloud sitting lower on Kinder and wetter weather threatening.
The course split was ahead and a couple we had been leap frogging on and off made the choice they were going to be on the short route too. They seemed to get faste after this point as they ended up fix or 6 minutes ahead of us by the end, or maybe I slowed down. The bridle path to Rowarth was a nice mixed bag with a touch too much tarmac but some lovely dipping stretches between the trees. I think the first few drops of rain fell at this point, but then stopped. We arrived at the hamlet of Rowarth and headed through the quiet street up to the Children's Inn for our indoor checkpoint. It was quite small in there, but there were loos, hot drinks, a vast array of sandwiches and lots of snacks including some excellent fruit loaf. We enjoyed a chat, a wee and some more chat before heading on up the road towards the fields.
Initially this section was fine to navigate, but a couple of fields over the trod disappeared a bit and the GPX was used to get us back on track. It was also now drizzling. We weaved through pasture and farm field and round a farm gently heading up. There was a little section of road before we turned on to a road to summit the last big hill. My legs were feeling it now, and it there was a little bit of acutally having to navigate again, having over taken the bulk of walkers and fallen behind the couple ahead. The track at the top seemed to go on longer than it should but we were then gradually starting to tilt down to the last checkpoint.
We wiggled through fields, mercifully only going the wrong way once (and only by a bit) before we hit the bridleway that would take us down to the fox. Its a long bridle path and feels old. On this section of hill, I feel there are quite a few old roads and bridle paths that humans have used for longer than we remember, but maybe I am just a bit romantic. I enjoyed the descent to the road and then we shuffled down it to the fox pub, and the checkpoint, which I nearly missed as it was hidden in the corner of the car park. There was even a quiche, but I felt weirdly full and more than a bit tired. The ladies at the checkpoint said there were six miles to go; surely that wasn't right!
We headed off down the rest of the bridleway towards Strines and the Millponds. This is another funny area that is a reminder of some of the industry that once inhabited this section of the Peaks. The flat section at the bottom made my legs ache and was road so I had to keep running. On crossing the busy A road, I thought it was only a short climb to the canal but it was longer, and I had nothing so we walked the climb. Getting on the canal for the last two miles I was convinced I couldn't run it and indeed, we did have a few walk breaks. But it is a gorgeous section of canal with views across the Peaks, pretty farms and then the lovely cottages on the edge of Marple. Still we hadn't caught Catherine!
It actually wasn't as long as my poor legs feared- soon we were up and over a bridge I recognised, then over the bridge to the Macclesfield canal and under the Marple road. We trotted through the park, following a path that didn't quit bring us to the door before arriving back at the hall, to remove muddy shoes and go in to declare ourselves finished.
.JPEG)
Catherine had arrived a few minutes earlier- she had 'walked' the whole 17.5 miles in under 5 hours. Emma and I had leisurely jogged in 4, so this was really some going! Emma and I joined her at a table. A lovely chap asked our food order then promptly forgot it, and then another came and tried to tell us about his 30+ years of running in the area which was a bit more challenging! But we all got some vegetarian hot pot and tea, and to share our tales. As we left, it was properly raining but didn't mind (though we cast a thought for those out on the 24 miler) having had a fab LDWA morning out!
No comments:
Post a Comment