From Ritchie Williamson…
Pendle Way in a Day is a winter ultra in east Lancashire which follows the full circular of the Pendle Way of approximately 45 miles (6,600ft) and covers the trails and moorland of the South Pennines. Starting and finishing from Barley Village Hall in Barley, Pendle. Having deferred my entry from last year due to a hamstring injury, I had used up all my hamstring excuses (and also hamstrings to injure, although it turns out you can just repeatedly injure the same one) and headed out to Barley early Saturday morning. There are a few flavours to this race, the 45-mile version and a 30-mile version, both can be entered as either a run or a walk. The 45-mile walkers start at 07:00 am, the 45-mile runners start at 08:00 am and the 30-mile walkers and runners start at 10:00 am. I took the 45-mile option.
The start of the route takes you through farmland and fields to the village of Barrowford and the Pendle Heritage Centre. The omens at this point were not good, the fields were soddened and spongy and while still runnable, it was hard going and on sloping ground slippy. Once through Barrowford the trail takes you along the riverside to Blacko through Weets Hill to get to Barnoldswick, after this there is a nice (approx. 2 mile) stretch along the Leeds Liverpool canal before heading through more fields, though the cemetery at the Church of St Mary le Ghyll up to and through Earby and the first CP (Earby YHA, 16v miles). The first 16 miles were the easiest/most runnable of the day, from this point on it was mostly mud, miles and miles of mud.
After CP1 the route takes you through Kelbrook to CP2 at Laneshawbridge (22.5 miles). From CP2 you follow a path along Wycoller Beck to join Ferndean Way and along the foothills of Boulsworth through Coldwell and onto CP3 at Southfield (30 miles). After some welcome toast and butter, it was more farmland and fields to Higham and plenty of tarmac (about 4 miles) to CP4 at Newchurch (37 miles). The last stretch takes you on a steady climb through some fields and moor land to Newchurch-in-Pendle before starting the ascent of Pendle Hill. It was on the path along-side Fell Wood as I headed down towards Ogden Clough that I thought my race was ran. Running to the edge of the path I hit a patch of mud and sank thigh deep into it. It took some effort to extract myself as there were no hand holds to try and pull myself out with. The only option being to lay backwards into yet more mud and try to get some purchase.
After a graceless extraction all that remained was the final ascent to Pendle trig and a relatively easy run back down to Barley. I had planned to run it quicker, but weak hams and conditions had other ideas. Plan B was to finish before needing to get the headtorch out, I achieved plan B (just). I arrived at the finish in 9hrs and 6 mins, finishing 19th overall (144 starters,129 finishers) and 2nd MV50.
Overhead conditions were not as bad as expected, mostly drizzle with the heavy rain only beginning as I entered Barley. Underfoot was worse than expected. I had been warned of the possibility of mud from fellow Harrier Martin Hartley who ran it the previous year. The organisers also promised mud. I wore mudclaws, and even in these it was hard to get good purchase places. There are also quite a few sections of tarmac, and more styles and gates per mile than most races. Simply put, if you were not on tarmac, you started to sink. The checkpoints are well stocked with the usual crisps/cakes/snacks, CP4 is inside and has some hot drink options, whisky and hotdogs, and there is a choice of hot meals at the finish in Barley Village Hall. Overall it was a great event, glad to have done it, glad to have finished it, glad to not go back.