From Jeff Green…
One road marathon was enough for me and I remember thinking similar thoughts after running the Tour of Pendle three years ago after seeing stars on the way up the last – and steepest – climb. It’s a brutal route with six major climbs and plenty of strength-sapping bog, which packs in more climb per km than the Three Peaks fell race. However, after a relatively injury-free year and some encouraging results, I decided to have another crack at it to see if I could knock a few minutes off my previous time.
The race started well for me and I felt good on the first climb, though conscious that there were five more to come. The long downhill stretch to the second checkpoint had changed slightly since last time which – combined with a bank of fog rolling in – left me hoping that the runners I was following knew where they were going, as I had no clue! As the cloud lifted, I started to recognise the route again and the sun even came out for a while, prompting a hasty removal of my base layer to avoid overheating on the second climb.
My knees hadn’t fully recovered from the OMM a few weeks earlier, so I was pleased to get the steepest descent of the day over with (known as “Geronimo” apparently, though my descending style was more Geriatric than Geronimo!). Ben caught up with me shortly afterwards as we started to climb out of Ogden Clough and we ran more or less together for a while. It’s always nice to exchange a few pleasantries with a fellow Harrier on a race instead of having to politely decline offers of WD40 for my squeaky ankle braces! Pacing and fuelling were working out well for me and with only two more climbs to go, I was comfortable skipping the jelly babies and sweets that various spectators were kindly offering. No stars on the last climb this time, but it’s steep enough that having four points of contact with the ground is a sensible tactic, both to take a bit of pressure off the quads and to avoid the feeling that you might fall over backwards.
With the worst of the last climb over, it’s a short section of track up to the trig point for the second time of the day. As more cloud rolled over the summit, I took my compass out as a precaution, though as I descended out of the mist, the wall on the far fell-side became visible as a useful sighting-point. From the last checkpoint, it was just a case of hanging on for the last 2.5km down to the finish. A final reminder that my legs are no longer as springy as they once were, was seeing a youngster ahead clear the two cattle-grids in a single stride, while I took three gingerly-placed steps over each! Nevertheless, I was delighted to beat my previous time by just over 12 mins… but no, it hasn’t inspired me to try another road marathon!
From John Hayes…
For climbers in the mountains worried about the perilous drop beneath them, they apply this simple rule: Don’t look down!
As I ran, stumbled and then crawled on hands and knees around the Tour of Pendle course, I realised a similar rule applies but in reverse. To avoid becoming an emotional wreck as the climbs become ever steeper: Don’t look up! However, for the final three (of six) climbs, this is hard to achieve. Two of them loom up ahead of you, and it is impossible not to notice the line of runners, winding their way up the steep skyline. Then for the last climb – which is even more brutal – you are forced to look up, if only to try and vanquish the feeling that it may never end.
Why do we put ourselves through such torture? Well, it is a classic race over a great route. And the lovely team in the village hall at the finish serving cups of tea, soup and cakes, make it all worthwhile. There was a great Harriers turnout and some excellent times/results including Nea Weston winning 1st female under 21. Congratulations Nea and everyone else who got round!
From Alison Weston…
A great turnout at Tour of Pendle from the Harriers and a pretty good weather day in the end despite all the rain last week. Lots of bog and hills (well the same hill really just up and down from different directions!). First home Jeff Green in a brilliant 25th position out of 350 runners and 3rd MV50, with Ben Sheppard just a few minutes behind. Great runs by Steve, Paul, John and James followed by Nea and myself in under four hours (and Nea 1st FU23)
(1. Harry Bolton, Keswick AC 2:21:39)
25. Jeff Green 2:47:15 – 3rd MV50
43. Ben Sheppard 2:51:54
105. Steve Turland 3:16:07
162. Paul Carman 3:27:09
185. John Hayes 3:31:57
197. James Batterley 3:35:50
256. Alison Weston 3:56:22 – 2nd FV55
257. Nea Weston 3:56:23 – 1st FU23
350 finished