![]() ![]() I was definitely pulling out a lead on the pair behind me though, as they were well out of audible range at this point. I reckoned I was matching or slightly gaining on him on the climbs. He wasn’t as far ahead as I expected, probably within about 5 minutes or less. On the steeper climb past Laddow Rocks I could see Jim ahead. It would appear that I had succeeded in building up my climbing speed, as I wouldn’t expect to be able to create a gap on Pavel and Eugene this early in the race. I had identified that my climbing was a relative weakness after last year’s UTMB, and had put some effort into correcting this over winter. Much to my surprise I found that I was running away from Pavel and Eugen on the short climb up from the busy road crossing and starting to create a small gap. By the next road crossing a few minutes later we were all back together (although Jim was well out of sight at this point). Indeed I know seemed to be closing in on them without actually putting in a surge to try to do so. I was still quite close to the pair in front. On the descent down to Torside Reservoir Eugene surged away to catch up with Pavel, and I descended at ease, taking a pit stop along the way, allowing them to open up a gap again.Ĭrossing the road here I declined all offers of tea, coffee or water and headed out over the dam at the end of the reservoir. Pavel was flying faster on the descents, so opened up a gap coming off bleakly. We had built quite a gap, but everyone still seemed to be running comfortably.Īpproaching Bleaklow Hill Pavel stopped briefly (so Eugene did likewise), so I caught up to them. Even at this early stage it was looking likely that this would be a 4 way race. His injury had prevented him from being competitive at the front of the field however. I heard later that he was injured, but did come over to run the race anyway. I did wonder what had happened to Oliviera, who was the fastest runner on the race. ![]() I was happy to keep running within myself and set my own pace, whatever the others were up to. Pavel had Eugene for company as ever, and they slight increased the gap to me at the same time, but never growing to more than about 100 meters. However this configuration remained fairly static, and little had changed an hour or so later when we arrived to the first Mountain Rescue check at Snake Pass road.įrom here though Jim seemed to push the pace out a bit and started opening a gap slowly but surely. Jim and Pavel were more prominently to the front now. ![]() On the plateau of Kinder Scout I took a slightly different line at the start, and then changed my mind which left me 20 or 30 meters behind the other 3. As we hit the first steep climb of Jacobs ladder, there was some reconfiguring, with Jim tending to come to the fore a bit more, but we always came back together as a group quickly enough. The group of 4 stuck together for quite a while from there, with some minor alterations to the order along the way. Getting onto the trail-proper, where we would single out due to the nature of the track I found myself setting the pace in the front. Much to my surprise the run up through Edale took a very familiar form, with Pavel, Eugene and myself leading things out. That makes a bit of a difference for maximizing precious winter daylight. Usually something causes the race start to be delayed, but this year for once nothing got in the way, and we managed to set off on time. It couldn’t last, but it’s a good way to start. No precipitation, adequate visibility, and not too cold. The weather in the morning was benign by Spine standards. It was good to meet old friends, and make some new ones, at the race check-in and briefing, before heading up to the YHA hostel in Edale to relax, have dinner, make a last call to my wife Helen, and then head to bed to get as long a sleep as my racing pre-race mind would allow! In the end I was about 0.2kg under the limit. ![]() For the Spine, all the high-end gear goes in, along with sufficient spares. Ryanair and the race itself both have a 20kg baggage limit, which helps in imposing a certain amount of packing discipline. I have the routine down pretty well at this stage. None of this really affected my race strategy, which basically amounted to “run your own race”. I could foresee how either of them could be beaten, but reckoned it was unlikely that circumstances would align so that I could get in front of both of them… and that’s before accounting for the regular competition provided by all the other previous race winners. Approaching the race I was assuming that the addition of 2 speedster runners to the field made it unlikely I would be able to compete for the win. This year’s race was much more eventful than I had expected. ![]()
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