From Petra Bijsterveld…
Photo credit Jon Heaney
The Pendulum is a race in the Cheviots, starting and finishing at Langleeford in the Harthope Valley, south of Wooler. It was last held in 2017 and has been resurrected this year. Organised by Northern Fell Running and Cheviot Trail Events, and supported by the North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team (who supply all the marshals) it is a low key affair with a maximum of 150 entries (in fact only 114 ran). One of the main reasons to keep it small is to avoid overwhelming the valley (with a single track pot-holed road, a ford, and limited parking) with too many cars.
The race is 11 miles with 3900 feet of ascent and consists of two out and backs, the first one up to the summit of the Cheviot (815m). After touching the trig and receiving a wrist band from the MRT marshal as evidence you retrace your steps down to the start/finish in the valley and start the second climb, up Hedgehope Hill (714m), another trig to touch, a second wrist band to collect, and back down to the finish for your medal. The course was partially marked and follows fairly obvious trods through the ever present bogs so navigation was easy, there were also plenty of runners to follow. Though I had climbed both these hills on the Cheviot Goat you approach them from a different direction in the Pendulum so it was all new (and not covered in snow). Turned out the ascent up Hedgehope is much steeper this way!
We were treated to a lovely sunny day without a drop of rain, though there was a strong icy breeze. I had started out without my jacket thinking I would warm up on the climb (dress for the second mile and all that) but I found I was actually getting colder as time went on despite the effort of the ascent, so I briefly stopped to put my jacket on before we got to the plateau and the flagstones of the Cheviot. I even saw some ice in the puddles up there! The right decision as I kept it on for the rest of the race.
I knew when I entered this race that it doesn’t really play to my strengths. I am not fast, and not very agile on uneven terrain especially not on the descents. I need an ultra distance before I might start overtaking people, about 25 miles in or so. Still, through recceing and running the Cheviot Goat last year I have become quite enchanted with this area, and having met Graeme and Lee from Northern Fell Running on the Goat I was keen to return for this bit of Pendulum fun. And it was a fab morning out in the sunshine with amazing views from the tops, and relatively runnable terrain, even for me, apart from the ascents which are pretty steep and had to be walked. My 3 hours 19 minutes placed me as 88th (out of 114) and 18th out of 28 women, whilst the men’s winner (Courtney Ryan, Dark Peak Runners) made short work of it in 1:51 and the first woman (Lauren Boucher) 2:18. There were no age categories listed but I am pretty sure I saw no woman of my sort of vintage!