From Matthew Kennedy…

If the marriage of UTMB and Ironman brought new levels of hype to the world of trail running – ‘Meet your extraordinary!’ – the message never reached the tiny but well-established canal running community in Britain, whose races began in the 1990s and whose website still proudly suggests, ‘Set your expectation to low, and then halve it!’

Perhaps it was that sense of humour which got me to the start line – on a random pavement in Liverpool at 6am – but it quickly became clear that the 130 miles* to Leeds were no joke. Although there were only 1,100 feet of climbing, that almost felt like a disadvantage, with just the occasional bridge or lock to break up the relentless flat running (almost five marathons back-to-back).

Fortunately, we were to get lucky with the weather. The ‘heat spike’ of a few weeks ago would have been a disaster, and although Storm Lilian had deposited a fair amount of debris on the towpath (which did apparently lead to one runner taking an unexpected dip), conditions were cool and calm all the way, with the exception of half an hour of heavy rain later on.

Then, as a canal running newbie, I had opted for a 25-minute run / 5-minute walk strategy I found on the Internet. Although it felt unnatural at first, it brought some structure to the race, breaking it into manageable blocks that gave me a regular chance to refuel and rest my legs a little. So it was that Liverpool gave way to green fields and villages until we reached Wigan, then this pattern of alternating town and country repeated itself through Chorley, Blackburn, Accrington (halfway), Burnley, Nelson and Barnoldswick, until I reached Skipton at around midnight and 100 miles in.

Shortly afterwards, my secret weapon emerged out of the darkness in the form of ‘buddy runner’ Ritchie Williamson, coming the opposite way along the towpath from Silsden. By this point I was moving pretty slowly, maybe weaving around occasionally, and certainly lacking the spare energy to make conversation, so I can’t thank Ritchie enough for offering to pull an all-nighter and run a marathon to accompany me on the home stretch.

Although it was a great feeling to reach Leeds not long after 5:15am, then enjoy the sunrise with a mug of tea, the pounding of the towpath left both of us thinking we might stick to the hills in the future. That said, we were chatting to volunteers and other finishers who had all run multiple different canals, so never say never I suppose…

(* Aficionados will know that the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is only 127 1/4 miles long – a fact hammered home by each and every white mile post on the towpath – but we did a little bonus distance at the start, plus two quite lengthy detours where the canal passes through tunnels.)

Results

(1 Vin Baker 22h40)

3 Matthew Kennedy 23h18

93 starters, 52 finishers