Aborted Wuthering Run

Decided to go for it this morning. Up and out by 5.30 and running from Hawarth at 6am. The temperature on the car thermometer read -5C in Haworth and I reckon it dipped another 4 or 5 C by the time I reached Top Withens, up on the moor. There was loads of snow and ice and running was tricky, but ok. I was enjoying the run and being out in such clear conditions, but the big problem was navigation in the snow. I'm not the world's best navigator and the snow made things really tricky. This made for slow going and by Widdup reservoir I decided to call it a day. I just couldn;t remember or work out which track to take from Widdup and I was getting very cold and making very slow progress. Not too disheartened as I had had a 20m run by the time I got back to Haworth in difficult conditions and felt like I'd had a good work out.

Things I learned:

• Must insulate the pipe from my platypus as it was completely frozen!
• I'm not brilliant at navigating, especially in the snow!
• Pretzels don't enjoy being frozen!

Positives:

• I enjoyed a good 20m fell run.
• A helly and my OMM waterproof were perfectly adequate for temps down to -10c.
• Felt strong and full of energy throughout.

I also made a friend. He followed for ages!

Wuthering Hike

Today I had the pleasure of joining a large gaggle of folk on the Wuthering Hike. The Wuthering Hike is 32 miles traversing gritstone moors around Haworth, Todmorden
and Hebden Bridge. It is a challenging run, mainly due to the terrain but also due to a few navigational difficulties!

I also had the great pleasure of meeting 4 fellow WHWRers at the race (photos below). It's great to be able to put a face to the names and it will be nice to see some friendly faces in June.

I felt quite strong throughout the race, although there are some long ascents which I had to walk up. Not too bothered about this though as there'll be plenty of walking on the WHWR. Managed to find the correct way into Hebden Bridge this time down the little footpath and over the bridge.

I finished the race in 5:45ish. Did it last year in 5:20, but it is 2 miles longer this year due to a change of start/finish.

Positives

• Felt strong all the way round.


• Problem knee not too obvious (although few niggles)


• Met some great WHWRers


• Recovered really well tonight without too much stiffness


• 'Fueling' system seemed to work ok -drank lots of carb stuff prior to race and didn't feel energy lack.

Negatives

• Not happy with trail shoes - bashed toenails and bit of blistering


• Slight groin niggle, think just poorly warmed up

Here is the start of the race in Haworth:

Here is the route of the race:

And the elevation:



Here are the WHW lot:

Marco, Debs and Brian:

Andy Cole enjoying a well-deserved bowl of chilli at the end:

Here I am at 20 miles looking worse than I felt!:

All in all a great day's running.