Wuthering Hike seems to be the traditional start to the Vasque series calendar. It is a chance to blow off the cobwebs after the winter and to see how your running compares to your old rivals from previous years. This makes it a somewhat nerve wracking event. You really don't know what to expect of yourself: you don't know how you'll handle the running, the competition or the mental strain of these ultra races.

And so it was that on Saturday 15th March several hundred runners were lined up on the start line in the famous Pennine tourist town of Howarth. After a final pre-race talk from Brett, the race organiser, the Wuthering Hike started and the Vasque series 2008 was underway.

 

 

 

Matt Giles, Adam Breaks and Steve Birkinshaw set a cracking pace along the initial roads towards Top Withens (of Bronte fame). This forced a tactical decision from some of the runners: whether to try to stick with the leaders and run the risk of blowing up or to fight a more rearguard action. For myself, I decided on a rearguard action, hoping to make time up in the latter stages of the race.

The field thinned out a little on the way to Top Withins. By now we were on ancient stone Pennine tracks: walked by countless shepherds and Japanese tourists (who were not much in evidence on a grey March day). You leave Top Withins and get out onto the open moor, fighting against rutted peaty paths and then having to change gear onto fast reservoir tracks.

Widdop reservoir is a good place to judge your progress. You're over the first big hill and can visualise what is to come. For some the prospect of only being a third of the way round is a depressing thought, for some the thought of being nearly half way there lifts the spirits. I had the good fortune to be running with two great runners at this stage: Mark Hartell and Lizzy Hawker. These two really motivated me to keep going hard. Running with Lizzy was amazing: she seems to run so effortlessly over any terrain and can turn on the speed exactly when you least want it.

There is a very intricate section going into Todmorden. I was running with Lizzy along this section and we were helping each other navigate through the network of stone laid paths. We muffed up at one stage (despite me recce-ing this section) and ended up jumping off an 8 foot wall down onto a road below. In the grand scheme of things, this was not a monumental mess: there were some much more significant navigational errors made on this year's Wuthering Hike (one of the early leaders losing about an hour by getting lost at New Bridge!).

 

Stoodley Pike dominates the middle part of the race. It is visible for miles and is the obvious landmark to aim for. Although reaching Stoodley shows progress (it is the turning point for home), there is no insignificant effort required to reach it: it is uphill for a couple of miles to the summit. Once on top you are rewarded with a glorious gentle run down towards Hebden Bridge (on race day we had to avoid a herd of cows blocking the middle of the path: for me a short cut through the brambles seemed like the safest option).

A long gruelling hill up to Heptonstall follows Hebden Bridge. This is a sting in the tail and is especially hard to deal with as it comes at 26 miles: the marathon distance. This is always a psychologically hard time for me ("I've just run a marathon and I've got 10 miles to go. I'm allowed to feel knackered now") and I'm sure it is for others too. However the real sting in the tail follows Heptonstall and is the climb out from New Bridge. This climb goes on for a L O N G way and is at that annoying angle where you know you need to run it, but you know you will not be able to run it very fast and you know it'll hurt. And so it hurts, but eventually it is over. With a little more effort, you are over the final main climb and have crossed the Pennines once more and are running down towards Leashaw Reservoir.

The run towards Leashaw Reservoir would be fantastic for fresh legs, but is hard going when tired. You have to really concentrate here to get your footing right. There is invariably someone close behind you who you'd expended a lot of energy overtaking some miles before and you don't want to mess things up now. You are forced to run hard downhill. That person will chase you up the final road and you need to keep the faith and dig deep.

There was an amendment to the route this year, increasing the distance by a couple of miles. The new route took the runners over Penistone Hill. This was a fantastic place to run: heather moors, quarries and lots of paths. There were lots and lots of paths: a confusing number of paths. I'm sure there were many, many lines taken over that hill. I even had to stop and ask one of the local walkers where Howarth was: I was that confused. I ran down beautiful paths to the outskirts of Howarth, past a church and then after a final steep drop, I was back at the event centre: phew!

I'd done alright in my first race of the Vasque series 2008. I had always expected it to be an opportunity to gauge myself against the competition and to work out how I had to run in the coming season. It was an OK result for me (6th). I'd finished in the dry and had a nice dry event centre to wind down in. Those further down the field were not so lucky and had to put up some pretty unpleasant conditions: cold biting rain. No-one said it would be easy!

The outstanding results of the race were from Matt Giles and Lizzy Hawker. Matt Giles ran a stonking race, running with Adam Breaks and Steve Birkinshaw, putting his foot down in the last 5 miles to beat Adam Breaks by more than 2 minutes. This was a great result considering that this is Adam's home turf and that Adam had totally destroyed the field in 2007, winning by about 30 minutes. Lizzy Hawker was 7th overall and first lady by some 30 minutes. What makes her run even more amazing is that she ran in pain with a stress fracture (unknown to her at the time).