Way back in February or so when I first asked my good friend Nicky to run with me at the 50 mile Dusk til Dawn event the world was a different place. I had just turned 50 and had a great winter training behind me. This event was to be a bit a cummulation of a year of runs to celebrate 50 years.
Roll on to the TR24 event in July and a serious knee injury laid me up for two months, making training hit and miss to say the least. To be honest, any normal minded person would have admitted defeat and asked for a refund! Alas a great training weekend including the Langdale Horseshoe and the Oldham Half marathon gave me a glimmer of hope, even though the knee still remained a pain.
Pulling out was not really an option and a further two longish runs just the week before sealed the decision, I was running.
The days itself (that should really be night) was a really mixed bag of emotions and physical fortitude. We were joined by Nicky's friend Dave, mountain rescue member and previous finisher last year. Dave is an excellent navigator and his skills were tested a few times over the 14+ hours we were on the hills.
The route itself is a circular route from Hope in Derbyshire and takes in large chunks of the Limestone Way as is circles Buxton.
After the usual pre-race faffing of sorted what kit to wear, carry or dump as a drop bag, we assembled outside the race venue for a quick team selfie and we were off at the appointed time of 6.52pm.
As the title suggests, the race starts as it goes dark with the aim to finish before sunlight, or risk being snaffled up the Grim Sweeper.
The race starts with a run along the road into nearby Castleton before ascending Lose Hill, before coming right back down to Castleton forming a 5 mile loop.
Early jostling was soon forgot as we ran in 'clear air' for the next 10 miles or so, catching some who had obviously gone off too fast being caught by the odd well paced runner.
All was going well til around the 13m point, we were going well and had been running just 2 hours 30 minutes. Then the first sign of trouble that was to plague me for the rest of the race. The troublesome knee was beginning to twinge with another 37 miles and over 10 hours still to go, thoughts turned dark and the thought of dropping out flashed momentarily through my thoughts.
By Millers Dale, I had no other option than to reach for the pink pills (ibruprofen) the next hour or so as the pill began to work in the mood lifted and despite a navigational faux pas, we hit the food checkpoint at Earl Stendale (21m) in good form with Nicky announced as first lady!
We spent too long in the warmth of the school and as we got going again, we soon had to done cags as the mist and light drizzle swept in. We were now on our way to the Cat & Fiddle pub, high up above Buxton,but the general going underfoot was poor, rutted tracks and hard stony paths made running tough and meant that a number of headlights closed on us. The Cat and Fiddle (28m) was to be our meeting point for Matt, Nicky's lovely husband. It was great to see him for some much welcomed support.
The pub served hot tea and Hot Dog sausages. The body is a fickle thing when running and the heat of the room and state of nausea meant Dave could not get his Hot Dog down, not to be undefeated to carried it for the next hour or so, nibbling on it while washing it down with water.
From the pub to Shining Tor is around 1.5mi, and is the scene of an ultra that runs 55 times to the Summit and back! Talk about unimaginative! Why would you?
We were trotting along quite well again and once summited we puled out some time between us and the chasing headlights. At the village of Taxal we were greed again by Matt, offering tea and support.
The next few miles proved to be the toughest so far, big climbs one after another on the road which seemed to go on forever. By checkpoint 9 (38.5m) below Cracken Edge, a numbers of runners had swept by us, but we were still going well ourselves. The pull up Cracken Edge went on longer than you would like, but before the summit we got a good line off towards Chinley and opened up space again on the lights.
Another long pull up Mount Famine was hurting us all and even when we hit the top and had the chance to run, it was mainly walking as the paths remained hard to get good footing.
The long track up to Rushup Edge went on and on an even though we 'Joggled' we were overtaken by a few. Once on top of the Edge, the end was in sight (well not quite) both Nicky's and my torch where pretty much useless, though it did give us the excuse not to run!. The dark brooding lump of Mam Tor loomed through the mist, we are nearly home! Still time for one last meet up with Matt at the road crossing before the Tor and a welcome swap of headtorch.
Mam Tor was conquered and we were on the home straight, just 2.5m from the finish and mostly downhill! We retraced our steps to Hollins Cross an hit the lane taking back towards Castleton we had come up some 13 hours before.
We hit the road and picked up the pace as we raced for the finish in Hope,once again someone had extended to road as it went on longer than it should.
We ran into the Leisure Centre and stopped the clock at a very respectable 13 hours 20 mins.
Medals awarded we showered and made the most of the full breakfast (well Nicky and I did, Dave was still feeling queasey)
An excellent event, fantastic company and well worth looking at if you after a challenge next year.
