Pavel was flying faster on the descents, so opened up a gap coming off bleakly. We had built quite a gap, but everyone still seemed to be running comfortably.Īpproaching Bleaklow Hill Pavel stopped briefly (so Eugene did likewise), so I caught up to them. Even at this early stage it was looking likely that this would be a 4 way race. His injury had prevented him from being competitive at the front of the field however. I heard later that he was injured, but did come over to run the race anyway. I did wonder what had happened to Oliviera, who was the fastest runner on the race. I was happy to keep running within myself and set my own pace, whatever the others were up to. Pavel had Eugene for company as ever, and they slight increased the gap to me at the same time, but never growing to more than about 100 meters. However this configuration remained fairly static, and little had changed an hour or so later when we arrived to the first Mountain Rescue check at Snake Pass road.įrom here though Jim seemed to push the pace out a bit and started opening a gap slowly but surely. Jim and Pavel were more prominently to the front now. On the plateau of Kinder Scout I took a slightly different line at the start, and then changed my mind which left me 20 or 30 meters behind the other 3. ![]() As we hit the first steep climb of Jacobs ladder, there was some reconfiguring, with Jim tending to come to the fore a bit more, but we always came back together as a group quickly enough. ![]() The group of 4 stuck together for quite a while from there, with some minor alterations to the order along the way. Getting onto the trail-proper, where we would single out due to the nature of the track I found myself setting the pace in the front. Much to my surprise the run up through Edale took a very familiar form, with Pavel, Eugene and myself leading things out. That makes a bit of a difference for maximizing precious winter daylight. Usually something causes the race start to be delayed, but this year for once nothing got in the way, and we managed to set off on time. It couldn’t last, but it’s a good way to start. No precipitation, adequate visibility, and not too cold. The weather in the morning was benign by Spine standards. It was good to meet old friends, and make some new ones, at the race check-in and briefing, before heading up to the YHA hostel in Edale to relax, have dinner, make a last call to my wife Helen, and then head to bed to get as long a sleep as my racing pre-race mind would allow! In the end I was about 0.2kg under the limit. For the Spine, all the high-end gear goes in, along with sufficient spares. Ryanair and the race itself both have a 20kg baggage limit, which helps in imposing a certain amount of packing discipline. I have the routine down pretty well at this stage. None of this really affected my race strategy, which basically amounted to “run your own race”. I could foresee how either of them could be beaten, but reckoned it was unlikely that circumstances would align so that I could get in front of both of them… and that’s before accounting for the regular competition provided by all the other previous race winners. Approaching the race I was assuming that the addition of 2 speedster runners to the field made it unlikely I would be able to compete for the win. I’m sure we’ll be back and we’ll recommend the experience to our friends.This year’s race was much more eventful than I had expected. ![]() Pinto Thai and Pancho Villa were very good.Įric and Mary were also very attentive and even remembered little comments we made, like how I really like coffee but my wife can’t stand the smell right now. We had dinner in Culpeper both nights as well, which is about 20 minutes away. We also did some hiking in the Shenandoah National Park. We did not have time to explore the 80 acres of property but we did enjoy Skyline drive Saturday and Sunday, which was about an hour away. We watched the sun go down both nights from the Adirondack chairs, which are shown in many of the Inn’s pictures. We borrowed one of the crossword puzzle books and my wife spent part of an afternoon just relaxing and filling them out. The sheets were unbelievably comfortable and the breakfasts were delicious. It was a particularly hot weekend and the AC in our cottage (Robinson room) worked very well. We were greeted warmly by Eric and Mary and were given a tour of the building and the cottage we’d be staying in. These will be memories we’ll cherish for sure. We had such a wonderful time at the Inn at Meander Plantation.
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