I don’t know how it works for other people but I find sleep at checkpoints slightly more elusive than I feel it should be. However I got some rest and a bit of dozing in so I did feel at least slightly refreshed when I got up. I showered, dressed and went looking for food. My food hunt was a great success and resulted in a bacon sandwich and more sweet coffee.
I checked my phone whilst eating and was delighted to see a message from my friend Terry. Terry was on SST3 and had messaged me to say he was on shift at the Tan Hill Inn until 6pm. I would be leaving the checkpoint at about 9am so unless things went badly wrong I expected to arrive at Tan Hill comfortably before 6pm. However there were a few obstacles in the way, Great Shunner Fell being the biggest of them…
The Spine Race doesn’t have any easy sections but on paper at least Leg Three is one of the easier ones, certainly when compared to the first two legs. My initial plan was to take things a bit easier today, as I told one of the photographers when I passed him just outside Hardraw. I’d never done the Hawes – Hardraw section in daylight before and was keen to see what I’d been missing, not a lot from what I saw but then today was a very grey cloudy day after the previous days of blue skies and sunshine so I wasn’t seeing anything in the best light.
I reached Hardraw and the site of the Summer Spine checkpoint at the start of the track to Great Shunner Fell. It was on this track I stopped and put on my Yaktrax – a set of metal coils on a rubber ‘frame’ that went over my shoe to provide more grip on ice. It took a while to fit them, I had practiced at home but after 110 miles of the Pennine Way and dressed in cold weather gear my body didn’t bend quite as well as it had sitting indoors at home when I practiced.
Speaking of clothing, today was due to be a fairly miserable day so I’d broken out ‘Ma big coat’. I’d used the Mountain equipment Firefly for the first two legs and it had performed well. I’d put the Mountain Equipment Lhotse jacket in my drop bag as it was a heavier jacket, intending to use it from CP3 onwards. However the weather forecast meant that I brought the use of the heavier jacket forward. It wasn’t a move I regretted. If I could only have one jacket I would go for the Lhotse, it’s easy to ventilate a heavier jacket when the weather is good (especially as the Lhotse has pit zips). A lightweight jacket can keep the elements out in very bad weather but it is likely to flap more and have less structure to the hood and fewer draw cords to secure it to trap warm air.
Great Shunner Fell represented my first proper encounter with snow and ice. There had been a little the day before but this was proper ‘winter wonderland’ stuff. The way up was fairly straightforward if a bit slippery. I tried walking on some of the ice with my Yaktrax and wasn’t filled with confidence. I had used them briefly on my December recce and they had provided more grip but the ice here seemed too hard to gain any purchase on. It may have been that he coils were between the studs on my shoes and so not getting a good grip, or I wasn’t heavy enough to cut the ice or just that the ice was too hard but anyway I tried to avoid the icy bits, probably a good idea regardless of the expected level of traction if I think about it.
The ‘down’ was a very different matter. In summer coming down off Great Shunner Fell can be enormous fun. The path is mostly slabbed, the gradient is not too steep and so it is quite runnable. This time I was taking every route down apart from any that involved the actual slabbed path as the slabs were mostly covered in solid ice. This was kind of fun but also a bit more tiring. At least in meant I was generating plenty of body heat though. I was wearing an old Haglofs zip top I’d bought for skiing 20+ years ago and my brand new OMM Core fleece. It was proving to be a winning combination with ‘the big coat’.
After leaving Great Shunner Fell I was in Thwaite. The café I’d stopped at on the summer race appeared to be closed but it wasn’t on my itinerary anyway so that wasn’t a problem. What was a problem was Thwaite to Keld, another bit of the Pennine Way I wasn’t keen on. It is possible that anyone reading this is starting to ask the question ‘If he hates so much of the Pennine Way, why is he doing this race?’ It’s a reasonable question and one I will attempt to answer. I love some of the Pennine Way, I hate some of the Pennine Way but the vast majority falls somewhere between liking and ambivalence. However it’s only the really the bits that I truly hate or truly love that make an impact, most of it is a relatively pleasant stroll and so doesn’t warrant too much comment. Some bits are really annoying though – like Thwaite to Keld. It crosses North Gang Scar, an area of rockfall that may be quite spectacular but I’ve never found that being in it is the best place to view it from. It just means that the path has a lot of rocks and things to fall over and hurt yourself on, a situation that didn’t seem to be improved by a covering of snow. It’s only a couple of miles but it seems longer. However I had it much better than the person I encountered that had slipped earlier and pulled a muscle in his back and was finding every step various forms of agony. As he was moving and had painkillers I couldn’t do much for him apart from reassure him that it was less than a mile to Keld so I pushed on.
There was apparently a very good ‘pop-up’ checkpoint at Keld Public Hall. I had it marked on my route but decided not to take advantage of it. It was less than 4 miles to Tan Hill, I felt alright so I stuck to the food and drink I was carrying and carried on across Stonesdale Moor.
The Tan Hill Inn came into sight! A bit further up the path a figure came into sight, waving at me – it was Terry! He took some photos and invited me to mumble incoherently in a video. More importantly he escorted me into a nice warm pub.
I ordered mini fish and chips. I don’t know how big ordinary fish and chips are but this seemed fairly substantial to me.
I met Terry through our running club, Little Baddow Ridge Runners. I get a huge amount of support for my slightly unusual adventures from members of the club and so whenever possible I run in club colours. On this occasion no-one would really see them but I was using my LBRR top as part of my base layering and my compulsory neck gaiter was also in club colours.
Eventually I had to leave the warmth of the Tan Hill Inn and stagger out onto Sleightholme Moor. Terry came with me to make sure I at least started off in the right direction. The Moor has a bit of a reputation as a boggy hell that is easy to get lost on but I didn’t have any trouble as the path was well trodden and frozen. It’s also slightly downhill so as I was refreshed and rested I crossed fairly briskly.
After Sleightholme Moor I struggled a bit across Wytham Moor to God’s Bridge. The path seemed indistinct and I was heavily relying on my GPS as I kept getting disorientated – it was also starting to snow. However I kept going in roughly the right direction until I crossed God’s Bridge and went through the tunnel under the A66 onto Bowes Moor. I’d been across Bowes Moor on both the race and a recce so I knew that, despite appearances, it didn’t go on for ever. Getting across it turned into an exercise in tracking. I was desperately hoping the snowfall didn’t get any heavier as my main method of keeping on the path was to follow the footprints of previous runners. Fortunately the Moor was frozen fairly solid so when I did go wrong I didn’t sink too much and could cut across to try and find the path again.
Eventually I hit the road up to Clove Lodge. Here there was very welcome surprise, the barn was another pop-up honesty box style checkpoint! I removed a surprisingly large amount of snow from myself and stopped for coffee and a biscuit.
Shortly after leaving the barn I came to a gate. Nothing unusual about that, there are a very large number of gates on the Pennine Way (some of which will be discussed in more detail later). however this was the third time I’d been led to this gate and the third time I found it completely impossible to open – as did the two other runners that had been at the barn. According to my GPS I was in the right place. Is there another way through I’ve always missed or is the only way through this gate to go over it? It seems unlikely that an unopenable gate would be allowed to stand on the Pennine Way for (at least) three and a half years but that is my experience, I’d love to know if this is the case or if I’m missing something (probably).
The people that live, work and run businesses along the Pennine Way have varying attitudes to Spine racers. Many embrace the race and support it enthusiastically. Sadly some have less than positive experiences and want nothing to do with it. Obviously Clove Lodge had decided to embrace the race by opening up its barn but this was nothing compare to the couple at East Nettlepot (I think, I didn’t make a note at the time) who opened their field gate so we didn’t have to climb the stile, and stood in the cold and dark handing out sweets and homemade flapjack (delicious) to passing runners. A little further up the road I passed through a farm where the farmer was letting his dogs out for their nightly ablutions and he also wished me well and checked I was OK for water. By now I was only a couple of miles outside Middleton and was mentally preparing to arrive at Checkpoint Three.
Unfortunately there was still the small matter of eight miles along the Tees to the checkpoint. I started along the path, which was a mixture of ice and rock, thinking I would be a the checkpoint fairly soon. I’d snapped part on one of my Yaktrax and as it was a bit rocky I took them off. This was a huge mistake, the further I went along the path the more ice there was. I should put them back on. I can’t be bothered, it’ll be alright. I also made a few stupid navigational errors, some due to detouring to avoid ice. I almost got away with it until I slipped heavily on a bridge and landed on my pole, bending it a bit. I wasn’t at my happiest when I arrived at Checkpoint Three. Today was supposed to be a relaxing stroll but had actually been one of the most challenging days yet in terms of dealing with underfoot conditions. However I’d got away with it and my spirits were soon lifted by the food on offer at the checkpoint – chicken korma curry, rice and naan bread! I had two bowls, ate the naan bread far too fast and had to drink some milk to try and make it soften and go down my digestive tract properly.
Julian Wareham was volunteering at Checkpoint Three. I knew him through a chance meeting when he was doing some training for the Summer Spine Race and I was randomly running along the same piece of footpath. The Spine Race creates a lot of friendships, I knew I would see friends volunteering at the last two checkpoints, and its these friendships that make the race enjoyable.
Checkpoint Three was a short stay for me, about four hours, so I got my shoes and socks off, I think someone had to thaw my gaiters out for me, got everything charging, had some food and then tried to get some rest. If the first couple of days hadn’t felt particularly ‘Spiney’ Day Three had certainly made up for it. Also it was only likely to get worse as the next leg included the notoriously inhospitable Cross Fell…
The Only Way Is Pennine... 