Last Saturday was the Nine Edges endurance race for 2011 – twenty-one miles of running along nine gritstone edges, with about 900m of ascent. I did last year’s race in 3h 58m so was eager to beat this time this year, although I wasn’t convinced that my fitness had improved at all. Sunshine on the M1 gave way to cloud cover further east, but other than a slight headwind along Stanage the weather behaved itself right from the start at Fairholmes. It was there that I met Greg and Stu, and we started up the slog to Derwent Edge together, just over an hour before the mass start for the rest of the runners. At the top we split up and I started trying to match my pace to the timings from last year which I had written on my arm.

I failed miserably to do this, ending up at the first point three minutes early, then ten minutes early at the next four. I took this to be a sign of increased performance rather than an inability to control my own speed, and ploughed on regardless. It was good to have the times for comparison though, even if I didn’t stick to the original plan of matching them. The run up to High Neb wasn’t as bad as I remembered, and the slog from Burbage South to Frogatt didn’t seem as lengthy this year either. My timing points had run out at Stanage Plantation (long story), so I was making timings and pace up as I went along by this point.

The section from the Frogatt checkpoint to the highest point on the edge is always longer than you expect it to be, but towards the top I passed the only other person who remained in front of me. A clear run across Curbar Gap and the Eagle Stone found me at Clod Hall crossroads with just the uphill to Birchen remaining. I was pretty goosed by this point so ran about 40% of the climb and walked the rest. From the top of Birchen it was a freewheel down to the finish line at the Robin Hood pub, and a time of 3h 23m. Needless to say, I was very pleased with this! Embarassingly, it turned out I was also the very first person to finish, so everyone kept congratulating me on winning. I was honest and did confess that I’d started before everyone else, although the temptation to bask in undeserved glory was fairly high.

Greg came in not long after me, and Stu put in a good performance in his first fell race too. Unfortunately there’s been a bit of confusion with the official results, in that Greg and I are missing from them! I’ll update this post with my final overall position when it’s confirmed. After a respectable showing for Team MPS, we met up with other club members who had spent the day climbing at Stanage. We soon retired to Hathersage for a drink and a well-earned cake, intent on returning for another crack next year. Maybe it’s time to try the climbing / running combination? (Or maybe not!).