A rare Barrow Runners fell run happened a couple of Saturdays ago (the previous such event having been eighteen months ago), but not before I’d spent the Friday night in the company of our arch nemeses, Stilton Striders! I met up with Rob and his compadres for the Castleton Fell Race, which I last did in 2011, and which was just as much fun as I remembered. I ran reasonably well, coming in 75th out of 230 runners. The Striders were kind enough to let me stay in the bunkhouse they’d secured for the weekend, and they were even reasonably restrained in teasing me about being a member of Barrow! Sleep was a bit lacking after a very sociable evening spent in two pubs, and then sorting gear for the following day, but I was ready at Edale car park to meet the Barrow contingent on Saturday morning. Well done to the Striders who, after racing 6 miles on Friday night, completed the Baslow Boot Bash on Saturday and then went on to race at Edale on the Sunday; that’s dedication!
Our focus on Saturday was on distance and climb though, so we set off from Edale up to Hollins Cross and then commenced the standard Edale Skyline route. The race bit me hard in 2012 and I’ve never entered again, but it’s a lovely route. This time, however, we started in cloud and stayed there.
Despite horrendous rain the previous evening the newly-paved route across Brown Knoll was surprisingly dry, and we made good progress past Grindsbrook Clough and Ringing Roger. Andy suffered a pretty nasty sprained ankle along the way, but gritted his teeth and got on with it.
After skirting Jaggers Clough, Toby and I elected to carry on to complete the circuit over Win Hill and Lose Hill, while the others made a strategic exit in order to track down some cake. The gradient up Win Hill is frustratingly runnable, meaning there’s no excuse to slow down and catch your breath. The cloud had lifted by this point though, and views began to open up around us. We had soon dropped down past Hope and started slogged slowly up Lose Hill in increasing heat. I was definitely slower than in the previous evening’s race, but it was nice to complete the loop at Hollins Cross and descend back to Edale.
A sandwich and a cake finished the day nicely (well-earned, I feel, after 34 km and almost 1200 m of ascent). Food was followed by a Laurel and Hardy-esque hour of Toby and I wandering around Edale looking for the others, while they did the same and we repeatedly missed each other by mere seconds. Andy’s ankle did later balloon up to a horrific size, but it doesn’t seem to have put him off.
So I seem to have got away with two nice runs, and not being disowned by my club. Hopefully none of them will read this and realise what I’ve been up to, or it might give the game away!