SPINE CHALLENGER 13th January 2018

Exactly one month before I was born the Pennine Way was opened to become the first and most well known national trail in Britain. It had long been an ambition of mine to walk it and in 2005 on
our 40th birthdays I achieved it. Carrying full camping equipment it took me 13 days to walk its 268 miles during a heat wave. A sprained ankle made the last 100 miles a bit of an ordeal but I have great memories of this adventure and have intended to do it again one day.  At the time I wondered how long it  would be before there was a Pennine Way race so it came as no surprise to me when in late 2011 I came across The Spine Race. What did surprise me was that it would take place in the depths of winter. With 16 hours of darkness, guaranteed boggy underfoot conditions and any combination of ice, snow, hail, rain and wind, this race would be a challenge to the the mind as well as the body. I briefly pondered entering but it didn't take me long to realise that with only three months to prepare the seven day time limit was well beyond what I was capable of.

     Over the following years I, like many others, enjoyed following the competitors progress via the live trackers online and then reading their race reports afterwards. Finally in 2017 I got my act together and decided to enter the following years 108 mile Spine Challenger Race from Edale to Hardraw in the Yorkshire Dales. With a time limit of 60 hours and one indoor checkpoint at 46 miles where food and a bed would be available careful pacing and navigation would be essential.  With all the compulsory kit that needed to be carried this for me was going to be more about walking than running. In the end I only ran some of the steeper downhills but the walking still had to be at a good pace to keep within the cut offs.

   Despite 10 months elapsing between entering and the race itself I didn't get round to thinking about  it until the end of September but then most days I gave some thought to kit selection, studying the route and trying to do some training.  I only managed to reccy about 40 miles of the route, Edale to Snake Pass (which I was familiar with anyway) and  from the Hebden Bridge checkpoint to Gargrave which included a bivvy  on Ickornshaw Moor. Going into the race I felt confident about navigating the route but less so about my physical endurance. This would not only be my first race over 100 miles but my first continuous race over 50 miles

  I drove upto Edale on the Friday afternoon for registration and the race briefing. Registration went smoother than I thought as I only had to produce 3 items for the kit check whereas some had to tip out everything. Race briefing was mainly about safety on the trail and additions to the list of changes to the route. Right on cue I developed a hacking cough and thought I had the onset of  a cold or flu. I then decided to have an early night and try and get some sleep.

   " Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth "  -  Mike Tyson

   After a sleepless night a cold, grey dawn greeted me as I made  my way with around 100 other competitors to the start line. I placed myself at the back to avoid being flattened by the traditional sprint start. 8AM and we were off on our way towards the first climb of the day up Jacob's Ladder. My plan, as far as it went, was to take the first 10 miles to Snake Pass very steady as I usually set of too fast and pay for it later. I found myself near the back plodding alongside James who told me his plan was to walk the whole way and finish in 58 hours ( he went on to reach Hardraw in 57h 56' ! ).

     Low cloud hung about the Kinder plateau but navigation was easy. Crossing the Kinder river a gust of wind nearly blew me over but I was soon out of the cloud and heading along the slabs to Snake pass.  The paved sections were not as icy and slippy  as they had been on both my recces and even the bog did not seem too bad.  Snake Pass was reached in 3h 15' exactly on schedule .

  On the way upto  Bleaklow Head I was rejoined by James and we stuck together for most of the way to Wessenden Head.  At the race briefing we were told to stay east of the Pennine Way on top of Bleaklow to  avoid an eroded boggy section, so we were a bit confused when diversion arrows sent us west off the path and deposited us in a boggy, trackless area that was very hard going. Back on the PW we were soon heading down Torside Clough and into the roadside checkpoint where a welcome cup of tea and a short rest were taken.

  On the long trek upto Black Hill I was starting to overheat and had to stop to take a layer off. This took longer than expected - front bag off,  rucksack off, map case off, jacket off, midlayer off and then all back on again.  This was to be the first and last time I took my rucksack off outside the  checkpoints.

  By the time I reached the Wessenden reservoirs it was getting dark  and on the steep climb up onto the moor I stopped to put my headtorch on. Just before the M62 crossing the famous burger van on the A672 came into view like an oasis in the desert. Several competitors were gathered around eating bacon butties, sausage rolls and other delights. Unfortunately by now I was finding it difficult to eat anything without feeling sick so I just had a cup of tea. Eating and drinking enough has always been my downfall in ultra events and I have never found the answer to it.

       The rocky terrain along Blackstone Edge was a nice change from all that moorland and the view down across the lights of Littleborough and Rochdale was like looking at a spectacular starfield. Using the GPS I managed to stay on the correct bearing across to the "Roman Road" and down into the checkpoint at the White House Pub car park. Here tea and some snacks were available and I decided to stop for 10 minutes and rehydrate a dried pasta meal.

 Back on my own again I started heading up the track to the Warland Reservoir carrying my pasta carbonara and eating on the go. My stomach began to churn and everything I had eaten in the last couple of hours ended up on the path. I wasn't too bothered as this all part of the ultra experience to me and I felt better afterwards. Just before Warland Reservoir the track was closed  and a diversion was in place on a muddy path around its eastern edge. As I  followed this path  it started to head up over a moor with no reservoir in sight. just as I was beginning to think I was on the wrong path  it dawned on me that I could not see the reservoir because it had been drained.

     I am not sure I took the most direct line upto Stoodley Pike Monument but eventually it loomed out of the mist. I once spent a sleepless night wild camping near this imposing building; there is something a bit gloomy and disconcerting about its architecture. It reminds of the entrance into the Morlocks underground world in The Time Machine or perhaps Dracula's Tomb.  This didn't stop me having five minutes rest sat on its base before heading down through Callis Woods to Charlestown. I was now on familiar ground from my recce and after a steep climb I was soon heading down the infamous gnarly path  to the checkpoint. On the way down I passed another competitor inching down on sore feet and met a couple of more sprightly groups heading back out. I arrived  at the checkpoint at 1:40 in the morning and was guided round the back to where boots were to be removed  and cleaned in a large bucket of water.

   I tried to be organised and efficient at the checkpoint but still ended up faffing around. After a shower I visited the medics to have some tender areas on my feet taped up and then went in search of some food. After retrieving my sleeping bag I got my head down for a couple of hours even though  there was too much going on to sleep. Another cup of tea and I eventually headed back out at 6:30 an hour later than planned. On the way back up the road to rejoin the PW I was surprised to meet a number of competitors still heading into the checkpoint. They would have to have quick turnaround to beat the cutoff.

   Approaching Gorple Reservoir a pale dawn gradually lit up the landscape. This day was to prove quite a contrast to the last 24 hours as I  only saw one other competitor before nightfall. Gone were the roadside checkpoints and at times I almost forgot I was in a race. In myself  I felt fine though I wasn't going to break into a run anytime soon. The weather continued to be benign and the underfoot conditions not as bad as I had expected. The wind had dropped and was still mostly behind me. The weather was to deteriate dramatically overnight but overall the conditions were very favourable for competitors to finish this race and record fast times.

   Plodding alongside Walshaw Dean Reservoir a local runner passed me and wished me luck with the race. He proved to be the first of many who knew about the Spine and gave me encouragement.

  The first of  the days diversions off the PW was a rather long road loop to Ickornshaw. The reason for most of these diversions was not given but I guess 200 plus runners spread over 2 nights with powerfull headtorches do cause disturbance to both farmers and their livestock.

 About lunchtime as I descended into Lothersdale I could see the promised "outside catering" set up beside The Hare and Hounds. As I approached the mouthwatering smell of frying sausages and onions welcomed me. A wildboar sausage cob with onions was ordered and I  ate this in the pub along with drinking two cups of tea. The locals in the pub  were interested in the race and were following it online. I felt much better after the food and tea and headed out over Pinhaw Beacon towards Thornton in Craven through mainly farmland. This afternoon and evening was to be the best part of my race performance wise and I made good progress towards the canal at East Marton. Perhaps wild boar sausage is the answer to my food problems in ultras!.

   Entering Gargrave at about 17:30 I passed another challenger walking very slowly with foot problems. Fortunately there was medic at an improvised checkpoint in a bus shelter who patched him up. After wandering around the CO-OP for ten minutes I went to the chip shop  and  returned to the bus shelter to eat my fish and chips with the others.   I started to feel cold for the first time and decided  to get moving again. After topping up with water I  headed off into the night.

  Leaving the road  I started to cross the first of many large fields. It was very dark and there wasn't much ambient light to see the way ahead by so I navigated using my GPS. To my right two headtorch lights appeared  and we converged near a stile across a wall. They turned  out to belong to Lisa and Ben who had left Gargrave as I had arrived some time ago ago and must of  gone off route. They went ahead whilst I changed my GPS batteries so I was back on my own again. I became a bit confused at one point where the PW ran parallel to a minor road. A finger post seemed to point down the road but my GPS seemed to indicate continuing along into the field ahead. What I missed in the dark was a track inbetween so for a minute  I lost my bearings before working it out .  Back on what I thought was the correct  path alongside a wall I tried to pick the pace up. The path became faint as it entered some woodland and I ended up scrambling along the edge of a slope and tripping over tree roots. After struggling on for ten minutes I happened to look over the wall to see a clear well trodden path on the other side which I should of been on.

  Another road diversion took me through Airton rejoining the PW after crossing the River Aire. Ahead I could see two headtorches which turned out to belong to Lisa and Ben again and together we made our way into Malham and headed straight for the Buck Inn.  I had a cup of tea and a pint of orange and with hindsight I should of  ordered some food as well.  It was now half past nine and  we discussed the race so far. In our minds having reached Malham on schedule and  in reasonable condition we felt we stood a good chance of reaching the finish before the cut off at 20:00 the following evening. As we headed up the track towards Malham Cove the first drops of rain began to fall and the cloud and mist enveloped us. Climbing up the steps beside the cove we could see some headtorch lights suspended in the darkness above us to the right on the cove edge. Reaching the top  we decided to follow a bearing which would  allow us to miss the worst of the limestone pavement and hopefully lead us to the gate into the Watlowes dry valley. This worked a treat and we soon reached the road crossing before Malham Tarn .  The wind was picking up now and we could hear the waves beating the tarn shore to our left.  We had to navigate to the checkpoint using GPS as  in the poor visibility we could not find a clear path but eventually the forest track appeared and then the lights of the checkpoint.

   Arrows pointed us around the back of the field centre an into a small room in an annex.  Sarah and John welcomed us in to join  four other competitors already occupying the available  chairs. There was just about enough room to take our packs off and make a cup of tea and decide what to do next. I had originally intended to bivvy out here for a couple of hours if only because having lugged  my sleeping bag etc. all this way I felt I ought to use it. Ben was all for pressing on arguing that bivvying outside in the now pouring rain wasn't going to give us much rest anyway. Lisa and I  were still a bit undecided but once we got outside put our hoods up and got going we didn't want to stop. With hindsight this was the right decision so thanks to Ben for realising this at the time. We went a little off track crossing a farm but were soon ploughing up the side of what I assumed to be Fountains Fell. All I could see was the path in front going upwards everything else was cloud and rain. Ben and Lisa led the way up here and I just concentrated on keeping up with them as they were fast walkers ( or maybe I was slow.....).  Patches of ice and snow  started to appear as we neared the top and the wind and rain increased. In a strange kind of way I was enjoying  the testing conditions as I would of felt cheated  completing the Spine without any rain, wind or ice.  We eventually started to descend and each of us fell over several times as we slithered in the mud an ice.  At the bottom we sheltered behind a wall for a few minutes before battling up a minor road into the wind eventually reaching a race safety team van just before the turn off to the Pen-y-ghent path. We had heard at Malham that due to ice we were drop down into Horton from the Brackenclose gate and not go over the top of Pen-y-ghent. I was a bit disappointed about this but  I am sure it was the right decision.

   Before the race start I had wondered how far I would get before being caught by the leaders of the full Spine Race which set off 24 hours later and I thought that maybe it would be somewhere along the Cam track on the way into Hawes. At Malham Tarn we were informed that Jim Mann was already at Airton and  going strong so it was no surprise to me that whilst I was sliding my way down towards Horton I glanced behind to see  a fast moving headtorch light closing in. He called out to me and asked if it was slippy where I was but before I could answer he had gone by and disappeared into the dark. Well all I can say is hats off to him, I know I am slow but a 24 hour head start and less than two days into the race.........!!!

   At the bottom of the hill I had my first real bad patch. Lisa and Ben had gone on ahead  and I was now struggling just to keep moving. I saw some street lights in front and hoped it was Horton but it turned out to be a minor road and a few houses. After what seemed an age I eventually shuffled into Horton and through the door of the Pen-y-ghent café. This café stays open all night over the race weekend and the owners and staff do a good job of looking after spine racers.  I ate some bean stew and drank several cups of coffee and began to feel better. I decided to change my socks and found I had a large blister on the side of my right heel which seemed of been caused by  raised edge of my  shoe insole. I decided to perform surgery on the  offending insole - finding a use for the mandatory knife in my kit.

  We stayed at the café for around an hour though it may of been more and left at around 8 AM. The next stop would hopefully be the finish. The rest had done me good and I left Horton much faster than I had arrived. Ben and Lisa set a good pace and led the way whilst I just concentrated on keeping up with them. With all the rain the streams were in spate and one coming of Birkwith Moor crossed our path. It may of been lack of sleep but I assumed the torrent was running down the hillside along our onward path so we decided to trek up its side and try and cross higher up. In fact the path just crossed the stream and carried on the other side. We had quite an "eventful" adventure on our off piste route and got a bit disorientated but after studying the map we found our way back to the path. Next up was the infamous never ending Cam Road and the run in ( walk in ) to the finish. On we marched seemingly climbing for miles on end. Ben thought we had been going up for so long that we must at the height of Everest Base Camp. At one point last years Spine winner Tom Hollins came past and we kept him in sight for quite a while. His strategy seemed to be to walk for five minutes then run/jog five minutes and I wondered if he kept this up all the way to Kirk Yetholm.

 As the track started to descend I began to struggle to keep up with Lisa and Ben and eventually the elastic broke. Our final detour took us down a track made up of ankle turning large stones and this slowed Lisa down a bit. She stayed just ahead of me though and ended up opening and closing all the  gates for me, which I began to feel a bit guilty about. Hawes finally came into view and rejoining Ben we walked through its streets and on towards Hardraw.  This last stretch looked short on the map but seemed to take us a long time going mostly uphill. As we approached the finish someone mentioned we should run in but we decided that walking in together was the right thing to do. And so at twenty past two in the afternoon 54 hours and 20 minutes after leaving Edale we crossed the finish line. There were handshakes and hugs all round and even a few tears. Photographs were taken and we eventually made our way into the finish HQ.

Made it!

                                              

           POST RACE THOUGHTS

   A minibus took me back to Edale and as we arrived snow was falling. I had planned to sleep in the car till morning but the prospect of  deepening snow made me drive straight home, arriving there at 2AM. When I woke I felt fine but as the day progressed I began to feel very tired and this lasted for a couple of days. Injury wise I had one black toenail as well as the large blister on my heel but otherwise nothing worse than stiff legs.

  Looking back on the race I think it went as well as I could of hoped for.  I only made a few minor navigational errors and kept to my schedule fairly well.  I had planned to stay on my own and run my own race and. not try and  keep up with others. However meeting up with Lisa and Ben after Gargrave was a stroke of luck and without their company I would of been much closer to the 60 hour cut off.  Before the race I had felt run down and never felt good during it, especially the first day. It was pretty much a 54 hour test of mind over matter but as always with these long days in the hills this was where I wanted to be. Completing "Britains second most brutal race" was a tremendous
experience and has left me with some great memories of the people I met, the ever changing scenery,  navigating across the dark moors. the bogs, the unexpected cups of tea, the amazing volunteers and Jim Mann flying past me down Pen-y-Ghent.

   So do I want to enter the full Spine Race?  I think I could of carried on after Hardraw in the Challenger and may of got as far as Tan Hill before timing out or grinding to a halt. I certainly intend to return and walk the pennine way again but The Spine I am not sure  - but maybe one day.....

 So what have I learned from this race if I was to tackle The Spine in the future?  I would not do any running in training for the race but I would condition myself to walk long distances fast. In the Challenger I was surprised by how fast some people could walk. James, who I walked with at the start, trained for the race by doing 12 hour power walks with full kit along a canal tow path. It might not seem logical but I now think this form of training is as relevant to the Spine as long days in the mountains or hill repeats.  Food wise I would not carry as much sweet stuff as I did in The Challenger. Sausages, pies, pasties and bacon sarnies seems to be what my body is asking for in these long distance events - and endless cups of tea.

Recovering with a knackered Andreas right

   KIT  

  I wont list all my kit because most of it including sleeping bag, bivvy bag, stove and down jacket stayed unused. But here are some items which worked well and a few things I would change if I was doing the race again.

  BERGHAUS EXTREM WATERPROOF.     A Gore-Tex Pro jacket  with a great hood and fit that cost a fair bit but did its job very well. Wore it from start to finish and it kept me dry during the heavy rain. A few other competitors I met wearing lighter weight racing jackets were complaining of being cold and wet so I would certainly recommend something more substantial.

  SALOMON MID GTX BOOT     Same Contagrip sole as the Speedcross but with more ankle support and a waterproof lining.. I wouldn't want to run far in them but for fast walking on rough, wet terrain they were fine. I used Superfeet Trail insoles and these were great despite  the blister.

SEALSKINZ KNEE LENGTH WATERPROOF SOCKS   I wore these with  Coolmax liner socks. Like many people I am unsure of the merits of waterproof socks. In my experience they are great when new but do not last long. I  combined these with full length gaiters and OMM waterproof over trousers - overkill perhaps but my feet stayed dry throughout the race.

 OMM CLASSIC 32 LTR RUCKSACK   Old faithful. Lightweight and has never let me down over many years of use and abuse.

 GARMIN GPSMAP 64    I had not used a gps unit before and had to buy this for the race. I used  1:25 000 OS mapping with it and followed the PW marked on the map rather than a GPX file. I ended up using this far more than my paper maps especially at night and I cant fault its accuracy. Would of been nice to have a bit larger screen though.

 FRONT PACK   I used a OMM 3 ltr bum bag and improvised some straps to use it in front. Worked fine but something bigger would of been better - you really don't want to be taking your back pack of at all in this race

 BASELAYERS ETC.   From Aldi and Decathlon. Worked fine.

 GLASSES   I now need to wear glasses to see fine detail on maps and they're a pain in the ----. Might need to try contact lenses.