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| Phen-Y-Gent in the background. Photo thanks to Daniel Connolly |
Due to pesky things like uni assignments and exams, this
“race” report will be a bit shorter than normal and nowhere near as long as the
last one.
The reason why I’ve titled it as an ‘adventure’ rather than
a ‘race’ is to accurately reflect my mindset going into 3 Peaks. I didn’t think of it as a race per se, more like an opportunity to be in a beautiful part of
the country and to potentially be a fell-race finisher. This race is also the
unofficial beginning of the fellrunning season and also one of the biggest
races of the year in terms of participation, there were close to 900 people at
the start line and I wanted to be a part of the atmosphere! It's also got a lot of history, with this year being its 64th running of the event.
3 Peaks’ slogan is - ‘The Marathon with Mountains’ and
people often describe it as 3 fell races with a cross-country race in
between. What that pretty much means is, the 3 climbs are tough but everything
else in between is kind of flat (in terms of elevation), so very much runnable,
like a cross-country race.
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| The race has about 1600m +/- over its 37km |
When the shotgun goes off to signify the beginning of the
race, I start out conservatively. The first km is along a road and then the
race turns onto a dirt trail, that slopes gently upwards but is littered with
rocks, which meant I took it easy to avoid hurting my ankle. From 3km to 6km is
the climb up to the first peak, Phen-y-gent. Being so early on in the race and
not being that steep meant I was able to run up all of it, and it was a good
feeling being able to pass a couple people along the way, but what goes up must
come down. And I took the down part super easy, even if it was just mostly
grass. I got a bit annoyed when I was passed over and over, but I just told
myself, ‘it’s not a race’, which took the sting out a bit. The part between
8-20km was flat and the trail was smooth, but knowing there was still two
climbs to go, I took it easy, taking in the views of beautiful green rolling
country side (and all the little lambs that dotted it) and enjoying the sunshine
(which felt amazing!)
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| Smooth trails for less chances of rolling an ankle, yass! Photo thanks to David Belshaw |
The only thing of note to happen was losing my shoe in
some mud around the 13km point, so I pushed the pace a bit harder for the two
km’s after that to make back that bit of time lost putting my shoe back on. At 20km
the 2nd fell race began, crossing a creek and onto a super boggy
‘trail’.
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| Crossed a creek and about to go up and up and up. Photo thanks to Estelle Willis |
Actually, to call it a trail is bit of an exaggeration, more like a
faint line in the grass/bog/marsh that everyone follows, which also happens to
be the shortest way to the top of Whernside, the second peak. This for me was
also the hardest point during the entire race, I wasn’t tired aerobically
during the climb but due to my ankle I haven’t done any strength training in
the gym for the last 6 weeks, so my legs were super tired by the time I reached
the top (I mean can you blame me though, the gradient was over 40% according to
Strava for parts of the climb, I had to use both my hands and feet to get to
the top)
Once at the top though, as I wasn’t feeling puffed, I was
able to break back into a run, that is until we started going down. For context
the 24th km drops 258m, the 25th drops 107m, so it was
steep and so very, very rocky. I hadn’t been over this course before the race
(I live 3 hours drive away) and if I had known this descent was a part of the
race, I probably would’ve had second thoughts about toeing the start line. For
someone with an injured ankle, it was brutal, but I almost made it. The 26th
km was when it started flattening out and just when I saw the trail starting to
get less rocky, pain shot up my left leg and I knew that I rolled my ankle,
again. I couldn’t believe that I was able to get down the hardest, steepest
part only to roll it just when it was getting easier. I then hobbled to the
side of the trail, sat down, drank about half a litre of my sports drink and
hoped after a couple minutes the pain would subside a little bit. Which it
thankfully did! I then relied on my past experience of spraining my ankle
during the Blackall 50km last year, and walked when it hurt too much to run, and
run when it didn’t hurt too much to walk. This mainly meant that I walked 90%
of the last 10km of the race. Something that helped was the last climb up to
the top of the 3rd peak, Ingleborough, 30km into the race and for
whatever reason, my ankle didn’t hurt as badly climbing up compared to walking
on the flat or going downhill, so I made up a bit of time there. Unfortunately,
the last 8km back down to the finish line, where a decent amount of time could be
made up, was the rockiest of the entire course, which meant I had to take it
carefully and slowly, which frustrated me to no end.
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| This is a photo of a person running along some part of the last 8km's of the course. See what I mean? It's rocky. Also, oww! |
The only thing I was
grateful for was that the pain was bearable. In the end though, I made it!
37.8km in an agonisingly slow 4:49:50, but after two failed attempts (at the
Manx Mountain Marathon and Coledale Horseshoe) I can finally call myself a
fellrunner! Thanks to all the marshals (there were over a hundred which is incredible 😮), the spectators (who gave amazing encouragement and some lollies) and the event organisers, it was an amazing day out! For those of you who are reading this and are trail runners, but looking to do a fell race, I highly recommend this one. Great atmosphere, beautiful scenery, navigation skills aren't required as you're able to follow the person in front of you and less than half the course is actually 'off-trail' meaning it's the perfect intro!
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| A very happy finisher. Photo thanks to Daniel Connolly |
Coming to the end of April, I can definitely say that this
isn’t how I imagined this year would be going. In my mind I would put in two
solid performances at the Manx Marathon and at 3 Peaks, giving me a bit of
confidence and some key areas to work on leading into my first A race of the
year, the Buff Epic in Spain, which is in 8 weeks’ time. But it is how it is,
and I’m super grateful that over the past few weeks I’ve been able to travel to
some amazingly beautiful places and been able to meet some super cool people, all
because of my running!
The TRN
