I ran Wuthering Hike with my Three Peaks Yacht Race partner, Martin Indge, and we were well pleased to win the team event (6th runners across the line).
I think it was really good for us to run this as a team. It was Martin's first ultra and the first time we've run that sort of distance together (which is a sort of obvious statement, but there you go!). What seems to help when running as a team is to keep each other motivated. That is especially important on the Wuthering Hike as the first half of the race is invariably very fast and you tend to suffer from Hebden Bridge back to the finish. We kept going well on this latter stage by breaking the hills up into stages, agreeing to run set distances ("the bent tree", "the third lampost") and then having little walks to recover. Another aspect that seems to be really important is to make sure you're both eating and drinking well (Martin perked up particularly well after being fed some Shot Blox by Todmorden golf course).
One of the hardest aspects of the early portion of the race was the headwind. This was something in the region of 25mph from the west (and you're running west): Force 6 to us sailors. It was in some ways natural to gauge the wind on the Beaufort scale as there were white horses on the Widdop reservoir and more than the odd competitor will have been drenched by a wave coming over the top of the dam wall! The way we tried to get round the wind problem was to run in the lee of someone else. The best plan here is to run behind another competitor, but when Martin and I were on our own, we'd take turns at the front to keep the pressure off
Navigation went well. In fact the map never came out of the bag! It was my third time round the Wuthering Hike and I seem to have committed it to memory. I even got the section over Penistone Hill correct: go in what seems like the wrong direction round the left side and you take a sweeping arc back round to Howarth.
The start of our Three Peaks Yacht Race training seems to have gone well. Next stop the Welsh 3000ers (some time in April).
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Martin,
ReplyDeleteDo you have a link to a map for the OCT route. I'm thinking about having a recce whilst in the Lakes Easter week.
I don't think I'll ever be fit enough to do it but a friend (who I've partnered in the Hobble) is hinting at doing it and is obviously looking for a partner - she's better standard than me (FV50 runner up in English Champs two years ago).
It's almost certainly beyond me, but might be a useful part of my training schedule for my GR10 challenge, although somewhat over the top as my longest day planned is 18m with 5600ft of ascent (although I will be walking with 13 to 16Kg pack), i.e half distance/climb of the OCT.
Regards Gordon - gordonsgr10.blogspot.com