Once again I was out with Gaynor Keane my friend and clubmate attempting the 24 Bob Graham Round in July this year. I had suggested this run as it's good not just for the miles in the legs, but also the mental building block of going through ups and downs over a number of hours. We last attempted this race in 2012, but were scuppered by Gaynor having stomach issues more or less from two hours in. Quite how she finished, running on empty as she did I will never know, but a time of 6 ours was clearly well within our compass this year.
An ungodly start time of 8am meant an even earlier get up time and traveling with another club mate Monica we arrived in the literary Yorkshire town at just after 7 to massive queues waiting to register. Cool but dry conditions greeted the 500 or so runners who headed up these famous cobbled streets and out onto the moors frequented by Heathcliffe and Cathy.
A fast start is a must with an unfortunate log-jamming placed stile at around the 4 mile mark. We were off and running, all feeling good and picking up as many places as we lost in the early parry's. The route consists of a mixture of good paths and tracks with a smattering of slippy paving stones and a good bit of road thrown in, a good running course....Oh and about 4500' of ascent for good measure.
First few checkpoints down and all going well, keeping up with past Mixed Team winners Kate and Craig as we head to the highest point of the course Stoodley Pike. In a bid to encourage Gaynor, I let her run ahead to set her own pace, but within a few moments disaster struck as a misplace foot twisted resulting in full length sprawl cutting knees hand and the obvious shake up of confidence and belief, we were only just around half-way with still a lot of miles and hills ahead of us. We took it steady for the next few miles and a number of other runners slowly came by as we looked to consolidate our position. By the YHA at Mankinholes we were both ready for the fuel input and walked the next half mile with drink and biscuits along London Road and up the steady climb to Stoodley.
As the top was reached, I remarked how well she was looking considering our last attempt, it must have been this that set off the memory of that grim day and within five minutes G was off looking for a place to ablute...poor girl. Not only was her ankle causing her much pain on the descents, but now her stomach was up to it's old tricks. We now entered a period of running on our own, neither catching or losing places, a positive sign things were stabalising. As we hit Hebden Bridge and the long climb to Heptonstall we actually started to gain on those ahead who had gone off way to quickly...and it's still a along way home from there ;-(
A good descent through to Midgehole and a steady jog/walk over Hardcastle Craggs had us catching even more stragglers and cramp victims as we headed the final checkpoint at Lane Head. Yet more tea and donuts on offer galvanising us for the penultimate climb over Sun Hill. We were moving well again here and managed to run all the way up to Pennistone Country Park, catching up yet more runners. Our final descent was a great one, knowing the route, we could navigate those tricky 'in-town' shortcuts that kept us ahead of possy of chasers.
We stopped the clock at the community centre in 5.37, a really great time considering the obvious discomfort Gaynor was suffering. I think a time of 5.25 would have been more realistic, but happy all the same. A great effort all round and the training plan move onto Edale next weekend
Results
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