The Challenge is organised by the Quakers Running Club in Darlington and they did a fantastic job. The checkpoints were well organised and apart from the basics, jelly babies, peanuts, jaffa cakes and crisps, one checkpoint had rice pudding and fruit and hot drinks, another had the largest slices of watermelon I have seen and another one had yummy chocolate brownies !
It is a handicapped event where slower runners set off earlier in small batches. I was up at 3.00 am and collected Kath at 4.00 and Sara at 5.00 and we got to the start at 5.30 for a start time of 5.50. After a thorough kit check from Sandra from the Quakers we started with five other runners.
Kath had been worried about a knee injury and Sara had not had much time to train so we expected to use all of the ten and half hours that we had predicted. We started gently from the car park to the north of Cod Beck reservoir and we were soon on the very familiar Cleveland Way. We went over Carlton Bank
and down to the first checkpoint at Lordstones.
We contoured round the three sisters and arrived in Clay Bank.
We climbed out of there
and into the cloud surrounding Round Hill. Up till then the weather had been warm but with thick cloud overhead, perfect for running. Once in the cloud, we lost the fantastic views as visibility was down to 30 meters. On the way down from Round Hill to Blowarth Crossing, Kath's knee suddenly went. We stopped and she put extra tape on her knee and it seemed to help. We made our way to the Lion Inn and as we got closer the rain started and got pretty heavy.
After having lots of food, we went out of the lovely dry tent and out into the heavy rain and up the road. Luckily the verge was very wide because some of the cars were going too fast and some didn't even have lights on, which was madness in the limited visibility.
We then went into what is known as the boggy section that I had recced about a month ago. It had got wetter since then. Despite the recce, I still managed to lead us and another runner off course. I realised pretty quickly because of the route being on my watch, but we had to cross some boggy bits to get back on track. Both Kath and Sara fell over into boggy bits whilst getting back on track. Luckily because the temperature was so warm, there were no consequences to these falls. I wasn't the only one who made a mistake in this section, some reckoned they had added 5 miles to their distance by going off route here.
Progress in this section was slow but at least the rain had stopped by about half way through and we reached the Hamer checkpoint and the lovely brownies.
The next section was said to be rocky and muddy but maybe not quite as muddy at the boggy section. There were fewer bogs, but there was plenty of mud and rocks and again we were walking most of this section. The cloud finally lifted and we got some of the lovely views of the moors. Lots of runners were overtaking and almost everybody was saying 'hi' or 'well done', it was a very friendly atmosphere.
We reached the Stape Road and the checkpoint and went down to the stepping stones.
A climb up to Simon Howe and down to the railway line and just got across before a train went by.
More food at Ellerbeck and then the long boggy climb up Lila Cross.
The next section was new to me and seemed to last much longer than I expected. Finally we came to the ravine before Jugger Howe and Kath found it tough going down so steeply. Once we left the Jugger Howe checkpoint we started the final climb up to the radio mast outside of Ravenscar.
It was a bit of relief to finish, we had been on our feet for over twelve hours. The finish was as well organised as the rest of the event and it was great to see so many friendly Quaker club members at the end.
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