Wuthering Hike

My first race of the year saw me in Yorkshire for the Wuthering Hike - a 32 mile yomp through the Yorkshire Dales including a reported 4,000 foot of ascent.

I drove down on Friday afternoon and arrived in Howarth at about 5:00pm. After checking in to my B&B (excellent place - highly recommended) I set off to stretch my legs and see if I could find the start of the next days race. As I turned out, I didn't need to stretch my legs very far as the start was 100 yards over the road! I found a nearby pub and had some dinner and a pint of excellent Hound Dog before returning to my B&B to get my stuff ready and have an early night.

The next morning, over 200 runners gathered at the start for an 8:00am kick off and pretty much on time we set off up the steep cobbled street of Howarth and out into the country. As soon as we got out of the shelter of the houses, the wind hit us and for the next 10 miles it would be head on as we climbed up to Top Withens and then out to the far end of the loop before turning South.

My biggest concern for this race was the navigation and so I was determined to try and keep within sight of other runners. As it turned out this contributed to my downfall as the early pace of 8:30mins/mile into the head wind I knew was too fast but I stuck with it feeling pretty good. My aim was to try and get under 6 hours and I naively thought I might push 5:45 but as the race wore on I realized that this was not going to be my day. By 18 miles I was feeling tired and despite a quick refuel of beans, I started to struggle. My foot, which had been giving me problems for the last few weeks, was aching slightly but not really giving me too much bother, I just didn't seem to have the energy in my legs that I had hoped for.

At about 20 miles or so, the first of two climbs appeared which wasn't too bad as it gave my legs a change of muscle use and allowed the field to group slightly. Shortly after this, the main climb of the day loomed ahead and I plodded up Stodley Pike despite the winds best efforts to blow me off the summit.

It was the descent off here that I started to get cramp in both calfs and in my right hamstring. At one point I slipped and fell in a particularly boggy section but anyone watching would have thought I was on springs. As soon as I landed my hamstring went into severe cramp and I lept to my feet in desperation trying to stretch it out.

As I made my way across the fields, the field was now well spread out and I had lost sight of the those immediately in front. Another runner joined me (Mark) at this point and the two of us set off through the woods heading for what we thought was the next checkpoint. As we arrived at the main road we realised that we had missed a turn off some way back up the path which meant we were now about a mile further along the road than we should have been. At this point I was pretty worn out and the thought of having added another 2 miles onto our route was not the kind of moral boost I was looking for. Anyway, we managed to get ourselves back on track and chatted away as we plodded through the next few miles.

About 5 miles from home, we joined up with Shirley Colquhoun and the three of us slowly made our way towards the finish. My time was a very disppointing 6 hours 45 mins and I came in 170th out of 241. The race was won by Jezz Bragg in an amazing 4:13.

My initial reaction was one of disppointment, I was much slower than I had hoped, my cramp gave me problems, my navigation was very poor and the whole race felt much tougher than I felt it should. However, on reflection I still completed a 32 (actually 34) mile race, my foot feels OK and I can walk up and down stairs today with only minor discomfort!

I think I am in danger of setting my sights too high and forgetting that actually, there are not a lot of people out there who can do what we do. I did enjoy the race; more so now, in hindsight now that the mind has had a chance to filter out the bad bits. What it has made me realise is that there is no substitute for long days and long miles and with the Highland Fling only a few weeks away I'd better get my shoes on and get out there.