Before I left CP4 the feeling of deja vu overtook me again – here I was, having my feet taped while Rachel brought me breakfast. However this time the taping was much less extensive than last year and some of it was simply preventative to protect some hot spots that were developing. One kit check and a hug from Rachel later and I was off to do what I hadn’t managed last year, get to Checkpoint Five.
There is little to say about the route from Alston, the Pennine Way climbs a little out of the river valley before bowing to the inevitable and going back down into it. Not long after leaving the checkpoint I was caught by Gerry, Wijnand (a Dutch runner Gerry had teamed up with sometime before and who came into CP4 with us – he just walked a little ahead of us as I assume he wasn’t interested in phone boxes) and another runner whose name eludes me. I stuck with them until Slaggyford but they were setting a faster pace than I was really comfortable with so I let them go. Sadly we arrived at Slaggyford in the early hours of the morning and so the Angel was in bed.
Hartleyburn Common South Side was fairly easily navigated apart from the very last section to the A689 crossing. It’s not that it is hard to navigate, there just is clearly no path exactly where the Pennine Way is supposed to go – I just followed the GPS and bashed my way through the heather anyway, eventually there will be a path. I met a marshal at the road crossing who was leaving snacks and water for Spine runners, he agreed that I had quite definitely not followed any sort of visible path. I took a bottle of water and a chocolate biscuit and continued.
Last year I got hopelessly confused trying to cross the Black Burn and ended up climbing a barbed wire fence, crossing on a derelict bridge and then climbing a dry stone wall to get back on course. It was much easier in the daylight with at least 50% of my faculties working.
At the road crossing at Greenriggs I met a member of the media team who asked about my lean. I made a joke that I wasn’t turning into Jeremy Corbyn but I had developed a strong lean to the left and that the medics had decided I was fit to continue but just a bit weird. I hadn’t immediately realised I was actually being videoed and that my weak jokes would make it into the Day 6 round-up… (https://www.facebook.com/TheSpineRace/videos/427118255950339 about 2:45 in if you are interested).
After my brush with fame I continued on to Hartleyburn Common North Side. I didn’t seem to be able to find the exact path across it as I did when I recced it but as it was fairly dry I concentrated on making progress in the right direction rather than worry too much about my exact route. Soon I was rewarded with my first sight of Blenkinsopp Common
Fortunately Blenkinsopp was more Common than Bog and the path across it fairly easy to follow. After the Common there were cows. Just before the safety of the track to the A69 there was a bull – with a cow to impress. I tried to look uninteresting, hide up a bank and generally behave like a complete wuss until I could make a break for the gate. As I was walking towards the A69 I met Gerry and Wijnand coming towards me, convinced they were going the wrong way. They weren’t but I could understand their confusion. I remembered from my recce that one of the gates appeared to secured with a bicycle lock and had no signs to indicate it was on the Pennine Way. In fact the lock could be lifted over the post and the gate opened and a few yards further on was a post with the acorn symbol denoting a National Trail, but it wasn’t obvious. After the A69 it’s down to the golf course and exit via a very overgrown path to cross the B6318.
At Thirlwall Castle the Pennine Way starts to follow Hadrians Wall. A short climb saw us arrive at Walltown Quarry car park at two minutes to ten, perfect time as the café opens at 10! I had a coffee, ice cream and chocolate.
I intended to do another Facebook Live piece from Hadrian’s Wall but a patchy data signal meant the video kept stopping and restarting so I gave up and carried on running instead. I say running, by now I was rarely getting much above a fast walk. It was also getting very warm and – as far as I knew – there were no more water stops en-route. The next 8 miles would follow Hadrian’s Wall and were very up and down.
Last year I was in a world of pain along the Wall and so possibly didn’t realise just how long it went on for. The weather was great but I was getting a little worried about whether I would have enough water. I did remember last year I was taken to a snack van in the car park at Steel Rigg by a safety team while they assessed my fitness to continue. I thought it worth the short detour to see if there was anything there – there wasn’t. Just when I was thinking of offering anyone in the car park large sums of money in return for water, I saw a Spine Safety Team (Five, I think) in the car park with water. I was grateful for the sit-down, the chat and, of course, the water. I was less happy about the picture Gill took of me – I look like E.T.s Grandad!
Shortly after Steel Riggs I saw the remains of a Mile Castle. According to the OS map there are many features along the Wall but when you are doing the Spine Race unless you actually have to walk round it – like Mile Castle 39 – you are inclined to miss them, well, I certainly was anyway.
Eventually it was time to leave Hadrian’s Wall and head towards Wark Forest. The Pennine Way follows its own path through the forest and last year proved quite boggy. Due to damage still remaining from Storm Arwen, this year we were diverted and stayed on forestry roads. These were dry, hot and seemingly always uphill. I started to take a strong dislike to ‘forestry’ as I walked through the plantations. It wasn’t helped by the fact my back was starting to hurt and I was having to stretch at regular intervals. I like forests, they have undergrowth, birds, animals, an entire bio-diverse eco-system lives in them. Forestry is battery farming for trees. Non-native spruce planted so close together nothing can exist in the forest just to ensure the trees grow straight. When they are ready for harvesting they are ripped down with chainsaws and piled on lorries leaving huge grey scars on the countryside.
After a few hours of walking past unnatural forests and devastated hillsides I was quite angry about the whole thing. Fortunately I would soon reach a point which would reaffirm my faith inthe human race – the wonderfully named Horneystead Farm.
I followed the signs and was greeted by a lovely lady who gave me a ham roll, some cake, a can of Fanta and a cup of tea! I have been told she is an ultra runner and makes her barn available to runners with a stock of food and drink on both the Summer and Winter Spine Races. She doesn’t charge but will accept donations. I’d accumulated a fair bit of change by this point so I was happy to donate some pounds and slightly reduce the weight I was carrying!
Finally it was time to move into uncharted territory – once I passed Shitlington Crags I would have got further than I managed last year. Then it was uphill, past the tower and across the fields and finally along the road to Brown Rigg and Checkpoint Five. As I started up towards the tower it started to rain, however as I was already wet with sweat and it wasn’t cold I pushed on and was met by a marshal (in waterproofs) at the entrance to the camp site.
I had made it to CP5! As always I was incredibly well looked after. I drank a couple of pints of squash and tea as I had got a little dehydrated in the afternoon heat. I was given two bowls of the most amazing sausage casserole and even had someone picking up things off the floor for me as I had been made to sit with my leg up as my right knee tendon had swollen again. After a while I went into the sleeping area for a couple of hours rest before I would set off on the last leg of the 2022 Summer Spine Race…
The Only Way Is Pennine... 