Ingleborough Challenge marathon 2019

This was a new event for Melanie and I, I cannot recall how we came across it. I was holding out a slight hope that it might circumnavigate Ingleborough rather than go up it but that was not to be. We have been up Ingleborough on a marathon before - the Settle Saunter (which has since been re-routed to be less than a marathon). We enjoyed that one so I wasn't too disappointed that we were going to the summit. My hope for circumnavigation was to do with having done two marathons in the last two weeks, the second one being particularly hilly, I was wondering what state would my legs be in for more climbing. As it turned out climbing wasn't going to be too much of a problem.....

The event started at Clapham and was being organised by the Cave Rescue Organisation. They had a good system for checking that everybody who checked in to get their number actually started the event. They had marshalls and/or signs at most tricky navigation spots.

The race starts uphill and goes through a couple of tunnels that we had encountered at the Settle Saunter.

After this it just continues mostly upwards all the way to the summit of Ingleborough, about six miles into the route. Thanks to Melanie for some of these photos

The summit is the hill to the left of centre on this photo

We made it to the summit in about 90 minutes which we were very happy with.

There had been one bit where you would not want have wanted to go off the path to the right, there was a big drop. I haven't got the best head for heights but it wasn't too bad on the way up. We had to double back down that way and I took it nice and easy.

It then got a bit easier, we had now separated from the way we had come up and were heading in the direction of Chapel-le-Dale

but this was a false dawn as we came to a section which was extremely steep. I could have managed this fine going up, but down I found very, very challenging going down. I was quite scared. The poles helped a bit but sometimes got in the way. Melanie estimated we did about a mile and half in an hour and this was nothing to do with her. These photographs do not convey the steepness !

Finally it flattened out and I caught up with Melanie who would have had time to eat a two course meal in the time she had to wait for me. We started to speed up a bit, we were the last of the marathon runners at this point although we had passed a couple of marathon walkers (who had set off an hour ahead of us)

Ingleborough and 'that descent' behind Melanie

Checkpoints were just water stations on this event and at the next one we left behind the crowds who were doing the three peaks. Gradually we started to overtake other runners.

We had not expected to see this Ribblehead Viaduct so this was a nice surprise.

The route was now across fields, moors, under railway lines, across bridges, along the Pennine Bridleway and the Pennine Way. Undulating but nothing challenging

We came down the Pennine Way into Horton in Ribbledale, over the railway line and up again

Then a lovely gentle descent on a path with bluebells

A few more climbs (and a couple of minor navigation errors as we now getting tired) before we made it back to the tunnels and into Clapham - back in about 6hr 45min and we were happy with that. This was followed by tea and cake in the Cave Rescue building 😀

Hardmoors Wainstones marathon 2019

That was a tough one - just under 28 miles and just over 4500 ft of ascent on a warm day. Jon and Shirley had altered the route to include Osmotherley, but kept the very tough hill at the start from Chop Gate, Carlton Bank, the three sisters and the climb out of Clay Bank. The one bit of good news was we missed out Blowarth Crossing 😀

Race registration was in the lovely Chop Gate Village Hall. I was running this one with Dawn and Kath and parking was in the field next door. Jon's sense of humour was displayed on some of his signs...

The start leads to a stile within about 100 meters and you are not allowed to climb the gate. It took us about 7 minutes to get over the stile and on to the big climb

We had all taken poles and I found them useful

The views are amazing and it was a clear warm day. Out first mile took us over 28 minutes...

 It got easier running after that along tracks - here you can just see Roseberry Topping in the distance

We soon went down into Scugdale and on to the Cleveland Way towards Osmotherley. However, we turned off it soon to head towards Square Corner on a loop. Must to our surprise we saw Mark, the lead runner (from my club), running towards us. It turned out that the first seven runners had gone round the loop in the wrong direction.

Jon had more of his signs on the approach to Square Corner...

Back onto the Cleveland Way in the opposite direction towards Osmotherley

We made use of the public toilets in Osmotherley, walked up the hills to the radio mast

and down over Scarth Moor

and back onto the section we had done in the other direction

and back to the Scugdale checkpoint where Jon had put another sign up. Now technically this was correct, we had covered about 17 miles which meant about 11 miles to go. But the hills in the the next 8 miles or so were just never ending - Carlton Bank, the three sisters and the climb out of Clay Bank

the view on the way up Carlton Bank with Roseberry in the distance

Carlton Bank, this was followed by a steep descent to Lordstones where there was an extra water station - thanks Jon and Shirley !

The view from Cringle Moor, the first sister and the next two in the distance

Kath and I climbing up to the third sister, Wainstones with the second sister, Cold Moor, behind us

The view from the top of Wainstones

My hamstrings were starting to ache badly on the climbs  now and on the one out of Clay Bank I was starting to struggle.

We ran along the escarpment to the east of Chop Gate and reached a section I had never done before. It contained a hill, which I hadn't expected. Just a small one compared to what we had done, but my hamstrings were now getting very painful. Luckily it was all downhill to the finish after this and we were pleased to get back in 7hr 54min.

It was a warm day, but the extra water station was great. The marshalls and volunteers in the hall did a great job and as usual Jon and Shirley had put lots of work to make it an enjoyable but tough day out. And special thanks to Dawn and Kath for their company 😀