Sorry about the lack of photos; in my defence, this day was all about getting from A to B as quickly as possible (i.e. without photo stops).

The Nine Edges Endurance race is about 20 miles long, and takes in 900m of ascent. It starts at Fairholmes below the Derwent Dam and goes south from there along the eponymous nine edges; Derwent, Stanage, Burbage North and South, Froggatt, Curber, Baslow, Gardom’s and Birchen. I first heard about it last year, just as I started running, and decided it would make a good (possibly too ambitious?) target for 2010.

For our first Nine Edges experience, Mat and I started earlier than the rest of the runners, at 08:30. The forecast weather of hail flurries and 30mph winds failed to materialise, and we set off with frost in places but not a cloud in the glorious blue sky. It’s a brutal start with 400m of ascent up to Derwent Edge, and I was relieved to see Savage puffing and panting as much as I was as we approached the first checkpoint. From there we got into a decent pace as we ran along the edge and descended towards Moscar. The trudge up to Stanage had been worrying me; I found it hard going on my recce a few weeks ago. However, on the day  I was feeling really strong and had no problems. Mat and I had stayed together thus far as our pace had turned out to be very similar. As we passed Stanage Plantation, Mat let out a pained cry and pulled up sharply; knee trouble had left him in agony. He popped a couple of ibuprofen and we walked for half an hour past Popular, over Cowper Stones and on to the next checkpoint at Burbage North.

At this point it became apparent that Mat wasn’t going to be able to run any further, so I mercilessly left him to walk the rest of route and set off down Burbage valley. I made good time to Burbage South, but lost time between there and Froggatt. It was the only bit of the route I hadn’t checked out in advance, so faffing around with the map and generally not knowing where I was going slowed me down. I caused momentary excitement at the Froggatt checkpoint, as the marshalls informed me I was the first runner through! I pointed out that I had started an hour and a half before the rest of the runners, at which the excitement level dropped a bit. Nevertheless, it was VIP treatment with people refilling my water bottle, handing out Mars bars and insisting I take a big handful of Haribo. All races should be like this.

Out of the trees and ascending Froggatt I started to feel a bit tired, finally alternating running with walking. However, at the top of Froggatt I got a second wind and made good time down to the checkpoint at Curbar Gap. A lapse of attention meant I ended up on the cliff-edge path along Baslow Edge, not the big flat motorway which runs past the Eagle Stone. That section passed in a bit of a haze although I maintained a good pace, but I came down to earth with a bump when I had to negotiate my way past a cow. I hate cows. We reached an agreement to just leave each other alone, so I continued on to the final checkpoint at Clod Hall crossroads. Glancing at my watch, I could see that I had about 12 minutes to get over to the finish if I wanted to come in under my target time.

From the crossroads I headed up the track below Birchen edge, slowing to walk the last couple of hundred metres of what was a bigger-than-expected climb. From the top, I had the end in my sights and powered down the hill. This tactic worked well until about 300 yards from the gate at the road, where I mis-judged my footing and twisted my right ankle badly. The watch showed three minutes to go if I wanted to make my target, so I hobbled at speed down to the finish and triumphantly crossed the line. My time was duly recorded at 3h 58m; result! Despite my fears of the entire field overtaking me, it seemed I was one of the first people to finish, with only a couple of bikers and walkers there already. Savage bravely crossed the line some time later, vowing to return next year to avenge his enforced walking. Sounds like a plan.

Boring self-analysis for anyone interested in running:
This race was furthest I’ve ever run, and I was quite pleased with my performance. My public target was “just to finish” or “5 hours”, but in reality I wanted to be under 4  hours. My final time of 3h 58m included 35 minutes walking with Savage while his knee was playing up, so I reckon without that I wouldn’t have had to rush to beat 4h. Target for next year is 3h 30m, but that will require some training! My main issue with running is always pace; running with someone else was useful in this case as it slowed both of us down to a reasonable speed. I also managed to deal with my other main failing,hydration. All in all, I was really pleased with both my overall time, and the fact that it really wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.