Peatlands Way in a night!
Doncaster Humberheads Partnership are seeking UNESCO Biosphere designation, an accolade that recognises areas where people, places, and nature thrive together.
I wanted to find a way to celebrate the application and raise awareness of the incredible landscape at the centre of it. This landscape contains the largest expanse of lowland peatbog in the UK, an area that has been devastated by historic peat extraction and been vulnerable to wildfires over the last few years due to much hotter and drier conditions.
Ironically, although planned for weeks, another heatwave threatened the challenge itself and rather than battle dangerous conditions. I switched to an overnight challenge.
Going into this I was already quite sleep deprived, with 3 days of heatwave affecting sleep quality leading into the event, as well as hydration levels. Doing an overnight run meant I had to change the event to be supported as I could not rely on open convenience stores / cafes etc. for hydration and fuel.
The route is multi-terrain, from spongy peat tracks, and trails through agricultural land, to river banks, old mining waste, and the inevitable tarmac. With little in the way of elevation, the route relentlessly beats away at the limited muscles groups in play, and never yields. The course takes a detour over Hatfield Moors due to conservation projects re-wetting the bog and allowing the area to recover from previous wildfire. The last 10k was by far the worst on the body, taking in the old slag heaps of Hatfield Colliery and coming through the tarmaced pavements of Stainforth, before joining the River Don to Fishlake and weaving through agricultural trails, with hard, deep troughs dug into the heavy clay soil.
Due to the challenge being moved to overnight, I was met by my husband in Crowle, Haxey, Hatfield, and Fishlake to replenish water. Fuel was carried independently, although given the heat, humidity, and sleep deprivation it was a fight to take anything on and I largely consumed liquid calories.
I had running support along the route, particularly for the night sections over the moorlands which were remote and extremely vulnerable to wildfire given the tinder box conditions.
The Doncaster Humberheads is an amazing area, perfectly connected by the Peatlands Way. Extraordinary, breath-taking, historically, environmentally, and contemporaneously significant and well worth protecting. The Peatlands way directs you through old mining sites, against a backdrop of wind farms, perfectly demonstrating the transition from industrial to green revolution. Signs of regeneration are evident across the areas of moorlands as Thorne, Crowle, and Hatfield Moors communities come together to protect and restore these precious peatbogs previously devastated by peat extraction. As the route weaves through the Isle of Axholme, the legacy of Cornelius Vermuyden is evident, from re-routing the River Don to draining the land and creating canal and dyke systems to curb flooding. Everything here connects to the culture, heritage, and nature of the land - and it was a pleasure to run it all in one go and immerse myself in that story.