The Summer Spine Race 2022 – This time…(Part One)

I started this blog to record the mistakes I made last year to help me plan a successful campaign for the Summer Spine Race 2022. I’d like to think it has been a little more than that over the past year as it has documented my preparation, other races and thoughts as I approached the start line on the 19th of June 2022.

I guess this blog post should start with a spoiler alert – I finished. I think many of you reading this already know that and for anyone interested it is a matter of public record on the Open Tracking website so I’m not really giving much away, other than to say that whereas last year I couldn’t wait to write this blog and to start the process of understanding my failure, this time I’ve spent the last week eating, drinking, staying in a pub, visiting a vineyard, eating, drinking, visiting some telephone boxes, eating, drinking and finally going to a festival of fake bands where I also ate and drank.

Anyway now I’m finally getting round to the blog so lets start. I booked overnight accommodation a couple of miles from the start at Rushop Hall, a very nice B&B which provided me with breakfast two hours earlier than normal in order to ensure I started the Spine Race well fed. We travelled up on the Saturday before the race to arrive at Edale for my 2-4pm timeslot for registration and kit check. Kit check went reasonably smoothly – there was a question regarding the length of the baseplate on my compass but it was pronounced good by the kit guru Lindley Chambers. I wasn’t trying to ‘get away’ with anything, it was a decent compass made by Silva but it was also the cheapest in their range and hence had a shorter baseplate with no magnifying lens, unlike the ‘standard’ compass favoured by most runners. It was also checked for its ability to point North. I thought this was unnecessary until I was told a number of people had kept their compass against mobile phones and demagnetised them or even reversed the direction completely! I was photographed and made a feeble joke about whether or not my feet should be photographed as they were the bit that would be sticking out of a bog. Despite my obvious lack of ability at humour I was still given a race number (357) and that was it – I was now registered for the Summer spine Race 2022!

We went to the B&B where I sorted out my kit ready for the next day and Sharon secured us a table in a very nice Italian restaurant in Castleton. It is a testament to how seriously I was taking this year’s race that I, for the first and hopefully last time in my life, ordered a bottle of alcohol free wine.

The following morning, after more sleep than I expected to get but not as much as I would have liked, I got up and dressed as a runner – almost, it took two attempts to get the shorts on the right way round. We went for breakfast, came back to the room, where I took my top off and put that back on the right way round too. Bottles were filled, last minute checks were done and we drove to the start at Edale, where I dropped off my drop bag and had my tracker fitted. This was essential not just for my safety during the race but for the army of ‘dot watchers’ that enjoy following the progress of runners during the event. I knew many, many of my friends and running acquaintances would be following my dot but occasionally random people will become invested in a particular dot because of a picture or story on the Spine Facebook page, or that dot has run with a friends dot for a while, or any other reason that causes them to be interested in a particular runners progress.

I also met up with my 2016 MDS tent mate and fellow Spine Runner, Darren Wilson. I wasn’t expecting to see much of Darren during the race as he is much fitter and younger than me. However he had been suffering form recurring calf problems and was wearing brand new running shoes in an effort to alleviate the issue (for those that know about/are interested in these things, he had been running in zero drop shoes without realising and had switched to some with a 6mm drop)

Anyway the moment I had been waiting for almost since my 2021 DNF was finally here, the start.

Last year I started at the front of the pack and tried to run with the fast guys and, as we know, it didn’t end well. This year I had a plan which involved averaging about three miles per hour and arriving at CP1 at around 10pm.

At one second past 8 am (according to my tracker) we were off! I started somewhere towards the middle of the pack and ran chatting with Darren until he gradually edged ahead of me. Looking ahead and up I could see I was unlikely to be distracted by the view from the Kinder plateau – things looked a bit cloudy to say the least.

Soon I found myself at the foot of Jacob’s Ladder, the second biggest climb on the Pennine Way according to Damien Hall and if anyone should know it should be him. I got my poles out and started the long climb.

As I expected it was very misty on the plateau. I had the route on my watch, and the runners were still sufficiently closely spaced, so route finding wasn’t a problem but I was still very aware that I had to keep an eye on my navigation to avoid being caught out.

For much of the crossing of the plateau I was trying to keep the runner ahead of me in view. After a while I caught up with said runner, who turned out to be Sabrina Pace-Humpreys, a first time Spine runner who asked if I had any tips. As all I had was DNF to my name, I didn’t feel I was the best source of advice but I told her to to look after herself as that was my biggest mistake in 2021. I also warned her that some of the moors would go on for ever and that Stoodley Pike never got any nearer, no matter how long it seemed you were running towards it.

After a small amount of indecision on a short climb at Torside (there were several paths that all lead the same way, the runner in front of me didn’t take the one on my GPS so I was about to go back until a marshal called to me to tell me I was going the right way) I was up onto Torside and used my experience from my recce to take the correct path through the heather. Several people didn’t and to be honest it doesn’t really matter but it was nice to know that, for once, I was on the ‘official’ path. Then it was the steep decent off Torside, across Torside Reservoir and up towards Laddow Rocks. This was a significant point to me as it was the end of the final recce of the first leg I had done with Sharon earlier in the year.

As I ascended, the clouds started to clear a little and I wasa rewarded with a decent view.

Wessenden Head Moor seems endless but isn’t and in fact today ended much better than usual. The final climb from the moor is up to the A635 where I could see Snoopy’s Food Van! This van isn’t mentioned much in conversation about the refuelling on the Spine Race as it is often gone by the time the majority of the racers get there. However this year it had hung on as the ladies running it could see thirsty runners coming across the moor. They only had diet drinks left when I got there but a coffee and a can of something claiming to be fruit flavoured was very welcome.

Not only had I had some unexpected refreshment, the weather was improving! It hadn’t been really bad up until now, just a bit grey, but some blue skies were definitely a welcome sight to me at least.

Of course, welcome though Snoopy’s was, the legendary food van, there for every single Spine Racer, is Nicky’s. This year was particularly exciting as Nicky’s was now in a large container so had indoor seating and a toilet. However even these features seemed unlikely to justify the huge number of cars in the car park… and music.. and purple smoke. It appeared that an Asian Wedding – or at least some part of an Asian Wedding -was being held in the car park. It was certainly a lively affair, especially when the fire crackers were set off!

After Nicky’s it’s a trip across the M62 on what I think is the biggest footbridge in the UK and along Blackstone Edge until Blackstone Edge Reservoir and its compatriots leading ever onwards to Stoodley Pike.

Finally Stoodley Pike came into view but I wasn’t fooled. Although the Pennine Way goes right past Stoodley Pike, it isn’t a straight line form the first view of it to the monument and so it takes a while before you actually reach it.

After A while I actually felt I was approaching the structure and at least this year I could see it, last year I arrived at this point in pitch darkness.

There are still over 5 miles to go from Stoodley Pike to CP1 but for me it still makes me feel I’m almost there. Last year the checkpoint was actually in Hebden Bridge but this year we were back to the scout hut at Hebden Hey. This made this leg slightly longer but it did mean a particularly horrible section was got over with on the first leg rather than the start of the second. A short section of the way is between two dry stone walls in a narrow, weed and rock filled almost trench. I was quite happy to get that bit done and hopefully have a better start to leg two than last year.

A clearly signposted diversion took me off the Pennine Way and along a road until a turn off onto a path towards the checkpoint. I met a few runners coming out of the checkpoint that had decided not to stay for too long, including Darren. He’d had some food and a shower and was pressing on through the night. My plan was to get some rest and leave in the morning. After negotiating the slightly tricky ‘steps’ to the scout hut I was greeted by the ever enthusiastic volunteers and reunited with my drop bag and a large plate of lentil stew. My plan had me arriving at 10pm. I was about 40 minutes ahead of that so all in all the first leg seemed to have gone very well.

When I started this post I thought I would cover the first two legs but I seem to have gone on quite enough for one post, and anyway the next leg is the longest and a small amount of interesting things happened (well, one anyway) so we will leave me happy at CP1 and save the second leg for another ‘thrilling instalment’ as they say!