I set off from the Border Hotel in in Kirk Yetholm at 8:02 am on Tuesday, the 9th of June. My aim was to get to Edale by Saturday, the 13th of June to register for the Montane Spine Race. If I achieved this I thought there was a chance that I may be able to set the FKT for a self supported Pennine way traverse.
The weather for the first two days was unseasonally poor with lots of showers topping up the already full bogs. I made a good progress though. I had food and drink cached at Byrness so I didn’t have to carry too much over the Cheviots. In addition to this , I used the CO-OP in Bellingham to stock up on supplies to last me through the section between Bellingham and Alston.
I got to my first planned sleep stop at Greenhead in around 20 hours. I had planned only sleeping for 90 minutes but when the alarm went off, I just knew I needed to have an extra hour. I woke up after 2 1/2 hours feeling reasonably refreshed and ready to crack on.
The poor underfoot conditions continued with the usual highlights of Blenkinsopp Common and Sleightholme Moor above Tan Hill. I stopped at SPAR in Alston and topped up with some delicious Paninis and various other bits and pieces to help power me up Cross Fell. Cross fell was surprisingly calm and I was treated to 360° views from the summit.
My next planned stop was at a fantastic place called Clove Lodge that has a Barn that is open to all Pennine Way walkers. They stock a wide range of food with an honesty box and you can sleep there if need be. I arrived about 6 am and slept for 2 1/2 hours while getting to ready to leave the owners came over for a chat. They asked about what I was doing saying that they would follow me and hopefully see me on my return leg. They mentioned that they really enjoy having the Spine Race come through.
The weather had cleared up for day three, although it was still a little bit unsettled with the odd rain shower. Hawes was my next target where I had food and drink cached. I was broadly still on target for an arrival into Edale sometime around lunchtime on Saturday.
On leaving Hawes I thought I would make good progress along the cam high Road as it is all downhill to Horton in Ribblesdale . However, as it was dark and the weather had other plans as it was very foggy on the tops and visibility was down to about 5 m which meant running was a practical impossibility. The problem with head torches with fog is you just get the glare back in your face like you do in a car on full beam. I had read that mounting it on your chest makes it a lot easier to see in foggy conditions however I’d never tried to do this. I came up with a makeshift way of attaching it to my chest but this didn’t work. however, I figured that just inserting my head torch in the stretchy front pocket of my waist pack would give me sufficient light to see the way. This worked a treat and meant I could continue whilst not at running speed at a little around jogging pace .
The weather cleared up once I dropped into Horton but the descent from the steep face of Pen y Ghent was starting to play on my mind having never done this. I’ve done Pen y Ghent many times but the more traditional way of ascending the steep face. I had nothing to worry about other than the fact that the wind had materially picked up by the time I got to Pen y Ghent as my knowledge of it meant the descent wasn’t a problem. Onto Malam tarn for my last planed sleep. I slept at the Bird Hide for 2 1/2 hours which is available to everyone and is a common location for sleeping on the Spine race. I did start questioning whether this was enough sleep to get me to Edale but always knew there was opportunities to have a power nap along the way. At this point I still had 130km left to go. I was two hours down on my target but the benefit of being down meant that the Gargrave C0-OP was open which I used to top up my caffeine levels with a quadruple Americano and get some hot food. I also had a cachet in Gargrave.
Friday was a good day weatherwise and I continued to push as hard as I could because I knew I would be broadly on target to achieve a time just under the unsupported time however, there was still many kilometres to go and hills to ascend. The wind however started picking up around 7pm so I found myself having to walk into quite a strong headwind from Stoodley Pike - not what I needed.
My last cache was in Saddlworth near where I live. I arrived to the cache at about 4am so I reckoned I had about 12 hours to get to Edale to get under the unsupported time. Easily doable if you hadn’t already done 230ish miles and I wasn’t heading into a headwind. I set up a pacepro strategy on my garmin to keep me on track.
The wind continued and then the rain showers started. Spine Challenger South was set to start from Edale at 8am so I knew I would come across them all. However, I did want to make sure this was at a location which meant I could let them passed with ease but which didn’t ultimately slow my pace too much. Most passed me between the snake pass and Torside, it certainly was a spectacle seeing them all through. I came across one of my running buddies, David Coultard, who was in the race somewhere song Devil’s Dyke, we wished each other well. The Spine sprint started at 12pm and again I saw them all come through which again was amazing to see. Unfortunately, on getting out of the way for one runner I misjudged my footing and fell into a bog landing backwards. I was like a tortoise that had been flipped onto its back - the competitor offered to help get me out but I waved him on saying he was in a race and I wasn’t so he should just push on. Not exactly what I had planned for the end of leg one but nothing broken just my walking pole was bent and my pride a little dented.
In typical fashion, despite the fact my Garmin said it had 10% power on kinder plateau by the time I was near the end, it decided to die. I stopped to try and sort it out but had no charge left in any of my power banks, I almost cried. However, I then remembered I was tracking the run on various different devices and therefore this did not matter. I collected myself and ran the last 1km to the Nag Head to finish at 3:01 pm on Saturday. I’m pretty sure all the people around Edale thought there was a nutter on the loose as I was running in the oppose direction to everyone else and I wasn’t so he the only one kissing the wall at the Nag’s head at 15:02. I then ran down the road to the official timing gantry for the Spine race arriving there at 15:09. The Spine media team were coincidentally there so I had a camper pointed in my face whilst saying some incoherent words.
This gave me a total time (inc rest) of 102 hours 59mins 43 seconds (or 4 days 6 hours 59 mins and 43 seconds) which is less than the unsupported FKT of 4 days 7hours 58 mins set by Robin Price in 1991.
I then had a full kit check and registered for the Montane Spine Race which started at 8 am on Sunday. I had an absolute blast doing this supported by the amazing volunteer team.
My return leg took 5 days 4hrs 49mins 19s . Including my rest in Edale the double took a total time of 10 days 4hrs 46mins 19s - the return leg was supported so the double is classed as supported. I believe I beat the current supported record of 10days 5 hours 55 mins set by Robin Price in 1991 so I will submit verification for that separately.