The Calderdale Hike is organised by St Pauls Pennine Calder Scout Group, and takes a route around the South Pennies. The long route at 37 miles is the first ‘medium’ race in the Vasque UK Ultra Running Championships 2008.
This was my first ‘ultra’ race so I was a bit unsure what to expect covering 37 miles in one go. Despite the snowy hills on our journey over, we set off in pleasant weather. We did need waterproofs on for a good part of the day – with some heavy rain/hail outbursts, but overall the weather brightened up throughout the day so finishing in the sun was pleasant – and we always had views of the route.
My team mate (Julian) had kindly marked up the check-points and the route on A4 copies of the map so that was a great start and A4 maps were very handy.
We set off as a colourful pack heading down the hill from Sowerby and then on to the canal. Fairly soon after the first checkpoint though, people were heading in all sorts of directions so the map came out and decisions had to be made. I was glad to be with team mate Mandy and we stayed together for half of the race which was great for me as I wasn’t at all sure what sort of pace to set off at. We jointly agreed on navigation and made good progress, although both annoyed at our unnecessary diversion we took on paths in the village of Oxenhope instead of just taking the roads. The checkpoints were nicely spaced out and friendly people at all providing a good supply of drinks and food.
It was good to head up onto the Haworth moor where there was some scattering of snow, but nice Pennine views. After some great home-made flapjack at checkpoint 8 (Widdop), I disappeared rather overconfidently up the hill – Mandy did yell to me that I had gone the wrong way – but I never heard her and merrily continued upward. At the top I realised the reservoirs didn’t really look the shape I expected – and I couldn’t actually see any other runners – served me right for speeding up. After this mistake I really tried very hard to make sure I was completely on top of navigating the rest of the day – so much so I think it is really the only thing I thought about for the second half of the race. It was quite wet and slow going across Heptonstall Moor, but passing a steady flow of walkers gave confidence I was still on track. Later on there are some more choices between roads for a few miles or back on the Calderdale way – as legs getting tired of the mud I was pleased that the road choice seemed to pay off and I made it to checkpoint 12 (New Bridge) for the last bakewell tart. Then back up to the last section of moorland and then views of the finish. I hardly stopped at the penultimate checkpoint – much to the concern of the ladies offering bananas – but by then I knew the end was close.
The last checkpoint confused me over the bridge by the canal – but once I had my final hole punched it was just a final run up the road. A friendly reception at the finish and after changing and drinking I was ready for my jacket potato and post-race discussion. I was very pleased to have finished in a reasonable time and to know my body held up OK to my first ultra.
The winning runner was Matt Giles who finished in 5 hours and 24 minutes. Steve Birkinshaw, Mark Hartell and Martin Beale all finished within 3 minutes on each other (5;50, 5:51,5:53) with Mark and Martin having a good on-course battle. The first lady was Clare Kenny in 7 hours and 17 minutes. The Scout group organised great support at all the checkpoints (so thanks to them) and an interesting route made this a really great day out.
Rachael Lawrance
