Well the day finally arrived that I’d spent twelve weeks training for or as the wife might say, spending money on. To be fair I had spent a sizeable chunk of my hard earned on getting the lightest weight kit possible although it wouldn’t be just for this race. “What, there’s others like this she says”??.

We travelled up to Edale on the Friday afternoon to attend the race briefing and to go through the kit check. The weather was rough and the forecast was even worse with wind looking like the major problem. On arrival we parked by the race start and would be sleeping in the van. After faffing around a bit I went through kitcheck relatively quickly without problems which was a relief. I saw a few familiar faces. Last years winner and race favourite Marcus Scotney now on his way back home for vegan brownies in prep for the race and looking fitter than ever.

Onto the brief where I met Daniel Hendrickson who I’d raced in the Nomad50 last year. He did the challenger last year and finished 7th. I picked Dans brains a bit for information about the course. After the brief it was down to the ramblers for dinner and a few refreshments. Just fizzy pop for me of course. Then it was Back to the van to finish off the kit and bed down for the night not that I would get much sleep as ever. The wind was howling and the van was rocking, no pleasure been had though ;). It was very cozy…. Thank god we are in here and not doing something daft on the hills I said to lisa…. I think the second word was off anyway…

So to race morning and a knock on the van. The rest of my My support team had arrived. Dale Colclough who coached me through my Bob Graham success and Frank Murphy. Frank runs StokeFit. Along with the wife they would be following me around the course intercepting me at various points on route.

The startline then, the weather was not too bad I thought but just as we lined up….the heavens opened, to accompany already strong winds. Time to Don waterproof.

Ed Catmur another race favourite lined up beside me in just a T-shirt and some rather eccentric leggings to say the least. He would soon layer up though. Ed has a number of 100 mile wins and mountain marathon titles to his name so has to be a contender. He has run 100 miles in 15:45 hours :/. This race is a different beast though.

Away we go, Ed and Marcus are off like rockets, I have no intention of going with them and eventually settle into a pack of four runners behind the front two.

We meandered along the Pennine way from Edale to Jacobs ladder the first climb of the day or even days. It was like a sketch show and we were just having buckets of water tipped over us to make it harder and this was before we got onto the kinder plateau.

The running paused as we climb Jacobs ladder. Then like a scene from saving private Ryan the machine guns opened. Ratatat ratatat on the hood of my waterproof. Then bang, mortar bomb gusts were coming in at 100mph. This was a battle to stay safe and upright. We were all disorientated and I noticed a few taking the wrong path on kinder, back to Edale. Perhaps wouldn’t have been a bad idea. I shouted them back onto the PW line over to kinder down. Which of course in this wind was now kinder up as the waterfall blows back up the entrant. One was Ed catmur who had dropped back from marcus

The guns intensify as the water slams into you with every gust of wind. Just get across this f****r quickly I thought. Now my race plan was to keep my heartrate at 125 bpm and to stay aerobic for 112 miles. That plan was being carried off kinder scout in the wind somewhere as I could hear my panting behind my buff. I’d been anaerobic for a while now and I knew I’d pay later but this was about the moment in hand, I had to get out of the line of fire.

Next task was to get to snakes pass where there were lots of people waiting and for a while the wind was on my back for once. Longtime friends Sue and Nigel Jeff were waiting. The race is suspended she says and Marcus is out, he has sprained his ankle. I was gutted for Marcus and gutted that the race was suspended. I gave sue a hug and climbed into a waiting van with a log burner manned by race officials. Wait a minute…. I gave sue a hug? She got me into running from my hill walking background. I should of given her a slap ;)…

The officials said we would be credited the time we spent in the van on our overall finish time. I started voicing my opinion. ” I think we need to get going. There’s no point holding us here as we are over the dangerous part for now and we are going to be left on the moors in darkness in the elements if we don’t move. I was shivering now and was wrapping up in blankets and duvets. There won’t be any room in the van for more. I was released after 28 mins. Others runners had gone through while I was putting my layers back on so I’d dropped back in the field. I was annoyed that I’d gone anoerobic and really could have walked to here now from Edale and been in a better state. I eventually worked my way past folk, not intentional to be at the front, just keeping my race pace. I eventually caught Daniel who had got out of the van earlier. Looks like I was leading the race…. 10 miles in. Just another 100 to go then :)

I arrived at Torside resovoir which was my first point with my crew. “Trackers all over the place, it’s got you in 15th then 1st” Dale said. I explained what had happened. I scoffed some food and was out on my way after a few minutes.

Just as I got out Ed came by and we ran together for a while and had a brief chat. I let him go. I had no intention of running at his pace for the race, I was on a different strategy. Just before we were to ascend from torside I saw Ed fall. I caught him and checked he was alright. Bleeding a bit he said but ok. This race was going to be about getting to the end in one piece. Sort of last man standing. Keep eating, keep drinking , keep warm was my mantra. I’d now taken out my running poles. One to help keep me upright and two they are supposed to conserve energy. I’m still debating them.

The next part of the race I hate. It’s all barren moorland which on a nice hot summers day may be lovely…. Today it isn’t. When I reccied the route it wasn’t so in my opinion it’s shit. I just knuckled down and got through it. There were Marshals at wassendon with flapjack and water and were appreciated. I made my way past reservoir after reservoir until I got to Bruns clough where the team were. A bit of paleo cake here and paracetamol I think and good to go then it’s across saddleworth to the M62 bridge. My team intercepted me a few times which was nice and morale boosting. They were Snapping pics as I laboured across the moors into 60 mph winds. It was getting the norm now. I knew I’d added at least 25% energy exertion fighting the wind.

I could see the M62 mast and then noticed a runner approaching with two patterdales…. There’s only one bloke I know that runs with two patterdales, it was Steve foster who had come out to say hello. I’ve ran with Steve and his dogs on BGR reccies. We ran down to the Mast where the crew had intercepted me. A short slurp and I was away. Steve stopped for a brew and later caught me by the trig on blackedge. My crew would go to the whitehouse pub where I’d scheduled another feed.

Now the weather demons had returned in the shape of hail storms. Wack, straight in the kisser. Ouch, I put on my goggles and buffed up. It was rough but passed after half hour. On to hebden bridge and the climb out of Calderdale is crap to say the least. Then, when you get to the top you have to go a mile or so out your way to get to the race checkpoint and then back again to the PW. I made a slight nav error here which cost me 5 mins which annoyed me since I’d reccied it. I got to the checkpoint where the filmcrew were filming and the officials were waiting with my drop bag. I forgot I was only the second runner they would have seen for the day and they were all over me which was great. I didn’t go in for warm food as I had that already in the van. I just got on my way. As I worked my way back to the PW I passed daniel. A brief chat and hug and we made our ways in opposite directions. I also passed another runner too. I think it was Lee walker.

It’s night now, my next meet with my team was cowling and boy was this section grim. It was quite scenic on reccies but tonight it was black and the weather demons were out to get me. Just when you think you’re getting a reprieve it unleashes another element upon you. This time it was snow. Not particularly thick and heavy but enough to create whiteout in combination with headtorch and wind. Just get off the moors quickly I kept saying to myself. The descent into cowling is horrible. It’s just a boggy rocky marshy mess. Running ain’t possible, then when I got to the bottom I found myself wandering around somebodies garden trying to find a gate or stile onto the Pennine way. Thankfully I saw dales headtorch. They had been watching the tracker. Phew, that was a low moment in the race. The crew said that Ed had only come through half hour or so and he didn’t look to good and I was catching him. Well I must have looked ok but I felt how Ed had looked