From Andrew Merrick…
I considered race retirement after UTMB last year, but had finally concluded I should complete the big 6 set in Tokyo, and therefore, if I was in some kind of running shape, I should treat myself to a few more ultras this year.
I had never done the Fellsman before and given how local it is and its reputation, it seemed like it had to be done. In a strange way, in the lead up to the race, I was looking forward to it more than Tokyo, despite my preparation (post Japan) being a week’s ski touring and a few recces, the longest being a 5 hour outing from Buckden.
It was simplest to register on Friday evening, at the race end, in Threshfield, so I took a big bag of kit (5 tops, two bottoms, foil poncho, bivvy bag, first aid kit, and more emergency (not to be touched) food than I ate on the entire journey…. etc etc) all of which was carefully reviewed by the willing and cheerful band of volunteers that awaited us at Threshfield school. Parking a couple of miles away and being shuttled to the school was a bit of a pain but worked reasonably well, and registering the night before gave me a later bus the next morning plus knowledge that I could do the journey in 30 mins.
So a 5am alarm call on Saturday morning got me to the car park and onto the 6:15 bus on time, for what was about an hour’s bus ride to Ingleton arriving in plenty of time for the 8:30 start. This gave an opportunity for some pre-race faffing and time to catch-up with Brian Melia, having sat with Dick on the bus.
The race starts with visits to Ingleborough and Whernside, getting them both out the way before the 3 peakers come through. It was lovely to see Jane and Jean at Hill Inn who had very kindly set out early on their 3 peak supporting outing, by which time Dick and I had become slightly separated, although I saw both him and Brian on the out and back loop to the top of Whernside. I hadn’t felt the need to recce these peaks so the next section off Whernside and down to the road crossing at Kingsdale (CP4) was new to me. Not untypical of the route, it was pathless and boggy in places so concentration required at all times.
The race has 25 Checkpoints along the way – quite a lot for a 60 mile race (!) all staffed by very cheerful volunteers who were chatty even if they were at the top of a blustery hill and just there to stamp the iconic circular race tally and make sure you were checking in with the watch you were given at the start.
I was now into an area I had recced and I welcomed the familiarity if not the steepness of the climb up to Gragareth including, once the ridge had been reached, another out and back section at the top (I really had had enough of out and backs in Tokyo) to reach the peak before a relatively long wall side jog along the ridge to Great Coum and the still largely pathless drop down to the outskirts of Dent (CP8).
At this point (almost 20 miles in) after attending to the tally and the watch, our presence was requested at a kit check area where substantially all our kit was reviewed, which meant a reasonably complete unpacking of my bag and a material faffing opportunity. I took the opportunity of the re-pack to find a chair and grab a pot of baked beans as well as bottle refill, so I felt in reasonably good shape as I headed up and out to Blea (it seems to have lost its “k” over the years) other than worrying whether I had done a good enough job of repacking my bag/hadn’t left anything behind/something might now drop out. I had my excuses ready in case there was another kit check but concluded, as a heavy shower descended, that one check was likely to be it.
On the way up through more (or moor) bog I caught up and attached myself to a gang of four on this climb who clearly knew each other and looked like they knew where they were going…. I found out that this was the 5th time* for one of them on the way down to CP10 at Stonehouse (still not yet halfway), who told me that this was his favourite CP with pasta and coffee…. I went for both and happily saw Dick arrive as I was forcing both down (did I mention mug and spork on the kit list?).
[*I did reflect that I have done two ultras on multiple occasions]
We made a largely unspoken plan to travel on together from there and it was lovely to have both the company and the additional (and more experienced) navigational skills (on the bus we had reached the same view as to how we were going to tackle the nav on the route to the new CP 17 for which we didn’t have the GPX safety net)
I knew once we had dealt with the interestingly named Great Knoutberry Hill (which was largely on path as I recall – although did have the longest out and back section of the race – I am still not a fan of them) we’d then be heading up to Dodd Fell. For me this meant that not only would we be over half way but we would also be into the area I had largely recce’d with the only gap being between Cray and Great Whernside. Familiarity is always helpful. On the way up to Dodd Fell we were into the low cloud and mist which meant slightly challenging navigation on any pathless sections, but we had a reasonable length of track before the final ascent. From here it was a relatively short hop to Fleet Moss, with us doing a collectively good job of the corner cutting to arrive across the road from the CP15 marquee and a cup of tea.
We were both in good enough shape to run/jog down the road until we met the Dales way with a mile along the road alongside the Wharfe (it was nice to be back in Wharfedale) before crossing over for our next tally appointment in Deepdale. At this point we remained hopeful of arriving at Yockenthwaite and our one piece of tricky nav in daylight so we continued in march mode, arriving in time to be able to see the compass if not any helpful landmark. At this point we collected a couple of other runners who were clearly more confident in our navigation than their own. Dick has a very impressive ability to walk on the line of a bearing, across a sloping tussock strewn hillside, allowing me to stay behind him, compass in hand, to mark his homework. His homework had also included remembering the escarpment and the wall between which we were aiming. We were pretty much dead on when we saw the red flashing light marking the gate and our next CP. From there in the increasing gloom, we knew that nav was pretty straightforward to the final new CP, once we had remembered to go through the gate handily also marked with a red flashing light.
It was only a mile to the next CP which we just about managed to do without our headtorches. It was also pretty chilly at this point so a useful place to put hat buff gloves and torch on before the down hill track to Cray. For some reason I tried to put the buff on last …….
At the next CP, we both went for the soup option, whilst we were checked on by one of the support crew whose role seemed to be to ensure we were warm and sane enough to continue. (50% appeared to be the pass mark for this test).
15 miles to go, it’s now properly dark and misty and this is the march it out part of the race. Knowing we only had two hills to go helped, even if there were some steep sections up both Buckden Pike and, having dropped down via 2 CPs 6 miles, with some careful cross moor navigation, finally up again to Great Whernside.
The final 8 miles in from there remained hard work until we finally hit the road and our penultimate CP. Our quads weren’t too keen on a jog down into Grassington and Threshfield so a final march got us back to the cheerful reception at school sometime before 3am. Dick made the wise option to get the shuttle straight away back to the car park and his van after we had handed in our watches, our more serious trackers and our tallies. I went for the jacket potato and cheese option, washed down with the traditional end of ultra Saltaire Blonde, before then having to wait some time for the shuttle back to my car.
As I got into bed about 5am after a drive home and shower, my alarm clock reminded me I had been up 24 hours.
A challenging route with significant concentration on both navigation and foot placement, coming with a greater sense of achievement than a wander round Tokyo, I was very grateful for Dick’s cheerful company. 18 hours for 60 miles hopefully gives some sense of the underfoot conditions! A fantastic very caring and professional organisation team who cheerfully manned all 25 check points and couldn’t do enough to make sure it was a positive experience for all of us.
Sadly, I found out a week or so before the race, that an ex colleague of mine, who embodied the cheerful professional spirit of the Fellsman gang, had passed away earlier this month. It was evident that Kate will be sadly missed by the team and I am sure it was not just me who she provided inspiration to.