Link to FB report: https://www.facebook.com/mikesamuels90/posts/pfbid07AotDAGDHdqB87pHbywJ…
Yorkshire 3 Peaks Quad: New Fastest-Known Time
A few months ago, I started planning my next challenge.
Having walked the Yorkshire 3 Peaks route last year and enjoyed the terrain and scenery, I decided it might be cool to have a shot at some sort of record for running it.
There was no way I was going to beat the record for a single lap.
And even the double looked a bit too quick for me.
So I settled on having a crack at the Quad - 4 loops of the 24(ish) mile course.
And on Saturday at 12:30, I set off.
Here’s my report:
Loop 1:
The first loop was pretty smooth.
I was accompanied by my friend and fellow member of the George & Falcon trail runners, Pat.
We ascended Pen-y-ghent in decent time, and then had a nice cruis-y section, before meeting Victoria at about 10 miles in. She’d be acting as crew for the whole record attempt.
We barely stopped, just taking long enough to grab supplies, and then set off to ascend Wernside.
The weather forecast had been flip-flopping all week, going from bright sunshine, to consistent rain.
As it was, conditions were overcast and a little gloomy, but not too bad.
We did get some rain on loop 1, and it was heavy enough to don a waterproof jacket, but the only difficult conditions really were at the top of each mountain, where the clag was pretty thick, and it was definitely somewhat nippy.
The ascent up Whernside was long, but not too technical (it’s probably the easiest of the peaks to climb,) and while the descent is a little trickier, we still made good time.
We met Victoria once more at around the 17-mile mark, and then cracked on up Ingleborough.
This is definitely the hardest of the three climbs, as it just seems to go on forever. (For the record, Whernside stands at 2,415 feet, Ingleborough at 2,372 and Pen-y-ghent at 2,277.)
We made it to the top though, and after a little confusion trying to find the trig point due to poor visibility, did the tougher part of the descent, and then finished up with the slightly more runnable section back into the finish at Horton-in-Ribblesdale.
Loop 1 - 24.8 miles, 5,384 feet of climbing, done in roughly 5 hours, 30 minutes.
Loop 2:
Pat stopped off at his car to grab a few supplies, and I took 5 minutes at a pub car park with Victoria to load up on snacks, and have a slightly more substantial refuelling.
We barely took any rest though, and began once more for loop 2.
This time around was a lot quieter, as all the walkers had more or less finished for the day.
The conditions were a lot better, too. Much clearer, still not too hot, and the visibility was vastly improved. As before, the first 10 miles went very smoothly, and we passed just a few people out walking.
Going up Whernside a second time was slightly more challenging, but the legs were still feeling strong.
Going into the FKT attempt, my training had gone really well, and I’d racked up probably my highest training block ever. Injuries had thankfully been few and far between, and the only thing that had been giving me some grief was my lower back, which just felt a little tight. Still, it didn’t seem to be getting any worse, and so we moved ahead.
Before climbing Ingleborough, we put head torches on. Amazingly, it was gone 10pm, but was still very light, and so we didn’t actually turn them on until about 10:20.
The climb went well, and the trig point was much easier to find a second time around. We descended once more, and I bid farewell to Pat a little before the finish of the loop, as he was ducking out to get some sleep before heading home the next day.
His pacing had been top notch, and I’m massively grateful to him for driving all the way from Bournemouth just to support my silly record attempt.
Loop 1 - 49.6 miles, 10,768 feet of climbing, done in roughly 11 hours, 45 minutes.
Loop 3:
Knowing I didn’t really want to be going out into the night alone, I forced myself to stop at the car for no longer than a few minutes.
The good thing about the Y3P route is that it’s fairly easy to navigate, and so I was able to plod off for the start of route 3, knowing that even in the dark, it’d be hard to go off course.
Mind you, that was before I realised how bad the clag had got.
Even though this was my third ascent up Pen-y-ghent, it was VERY difficult to see where I was going.
The beam of my head torch was just bouncing back, and I was having a real tough time seeing where I was going. After a few wrong turns up the scramble, I finally got back on the path, and hit the trig point, although going down, I was very glad the path was well marked, otherwise I could have gone pretty far off course.
Starting to feel more comfortable once more, that’s when the heavens opened.
The rain was light at first, then it bucketed down.
Before the event, I’d had doubts my waterproof wasn’t particularly waterproof anymore.
Turns out, I was right.
The good news? I’d bought a new one the day before leaving.
The bad news? That was in the car with Victoria.
I ran the 6 miles, slowly getting wetter and wetter, and colder and colder. By the time I got back to her, I was soaked through and shivering.
Without being melodramatic, another 15 minutes out in that, and I think I could have been in trouble.
I actually sat in the car for 10-15 minutes here, with a hoodie on, weighing up the risk to reward of going back out.
But after some food, and a full kit change, I decided I was being a bit of a wimp. I put a fresh base layer on, new shorts, and then went with a mid-layer for warmth, as well as the new waterproof, and for a first time ever - waterproof trousers.
The weather was still awful, but at least I was dry.
And warm. Too warm, actually, as within 15 minutes I’d had to stop to take the mid-layer off.
Most of the next section was fast hiking, as I made the decision to just keep a consistent pace and not do anything stupid. If I could survive the next 14 miles, I knew I could have a bit of a kick for the last loop.
Reaching Victoria again, I was in a lot better spirits.
It was about 4:15am, and so I took the head torch off, and went up Ingleborough for the third time.
This was the first point in about 6 hours that I’d felt positive, and it was almost peaceful with the birds singing, and going past the mini waterfalls on the way up.
The run back from the summit to base camp was hard this time, as the rain had made everything very slippery, and I almost fell down a few times, but I got back to the pub almost bang on 7am.
Loop 3 - 74.4 miles, 16,152 feet of climbing, done in roughly 18 hours, 30 minutes
Loop 4:
I had a new pacer join me for the final loop - Andrew, who’d also come up from down South.
I told him before we started - “I’m not going to be great conversation. My head is pretty mashed.”
But he was cool with that, and we still had some good chats as we just ticked off the miles.
By this point, the route was busy once more, as we caught up with all the early morning walkers, and even had to skip round a few queues going up Pen-y-ghent.
I still had some running in my legs for the flats and downs, and we made good time to see Victoria at the car.
I was back in shorts and t-shirt here, as the weather had done a complete 180, and was now pretty warm.
Mentally, I wasn’t too bad, but I did just want to get the climbs out of the way.
The one thing that had started to go, was my foot speed, and doing anything that required any degree of springiness or nimble movement was a no-go. My brain was also struggling.
The night shift had been hard, and the sleep deprivation meant I was struggling to make good decisions about where to put my feet on the descents, so I was losing time here.
Andrew was solid though - holding back when we needed to, and pushing the pace just a little when I’d have otherwise probably taken it a bit too easy.
Finally, we made our way up Ingleborough a final time.
Once more, it was busy, but we still overtook plenty of walkers on the way up. (Which is a nice buzz, even if it does sound egotistical.)
Once we’d done the trickier part of the descent, I did my best to turn on the burners, and pushed as hard as I could for the last 5 miles or so.
This is the part of ultras that amuses me. When you’ve got 90+ miles in your legs, and you THINK you’re putting in sub-5 minute kilometres on the flats, only to look at your watch and see it’s more like 7-minute kms.
Still, with about a mile to go, there was a chance of getting sub-25 hours, so I did push it, with my HR getting back up into the 140s.
Running through Horton, I knew I wouldn’t quite get that sub-25, but pushed hard anyway, finishing in the car park in a smidge over 25 hours.
I collapsed at the car, then went for a well-deserved pint… of Diet Coke.
Final stats:
99.21 miles, 21,535 feet of climbing, 25 hours, 0 minutes, 30 seconds.
And most importantly - A new Fastest-Known-Time, beating the old record by 8 hours, 15 minutes.
I’ll be honest - I massively underestimated how hard that would be.
It was by far the toughest 100 miler (albeit it was a smidge below 100) I’ve ever done.
However, thanks to some fantastic pacing by Pat and Andrew, and top rate crewing from Victoria, I got it done.
As always, the run was followed by a shower, snooze, massive kebab and a whole pint of ice cream.
Now all that’s left to do is keep refuelling, then get back to training for my next challenge in 7 weeks’ time.