Three Peaks Fell Race

[Howgill Tarrier]

As fellrunners are we too hard on ourselves?

Way before I'd started fellrunning exercise for me was walking from pub to pub with my mates whilst on our way to the match. This type of 'exercise', especially the older you get is simply not enough....things had to change.
I started getting into walking the fells and in no time started feeling healthier and fitter. A mate from work suggested we should attempt walking The Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge in under 12hrs. And that's exactly what we did, my Border Terrier Nellie also joined us. The three of us completed in just over 9hrs and me and my mate thought we'd conquered the world...high fives all round, even Nellie joined in. We rang up our wife's to let them know who 'fit' we were. That night we celebrated our achievement in the pubs of Horton and staggered back to the campsite a little bit hammered. I remember waking up during the night and throwing up outside my tent...Nellie was pleased, she ate it...l was too knackered to stop her.

I've ran the 3 peaks for the last 5yrs and my mate from work always asks me what time I've ran. He never fails to be impressed and often shakes his head in disbelief....similar to myself when I look at the times from some fellow runners.

So...as fellrunners, whatever time you've ran today it's impressive. You might not be pleased with your run, I wasn't pleased with mine, but 99% of the country wouldn't be able to do it.

Thanks to all concerned for another epic day out. Thought it was a lovely gesture by the race commentator in wishing Lindsey Brindle a speedy recovery following her extremely unfortunate accident whilst doing her last training run before the race.....Lindsey's a fell celebrity around our way in deepest Lancashire....top lass, get well soon.

Great post race write up Mr F and good to see your oh-so-rare face... Even though I pulled out pre-race I had a great day walking on PYG and spent over two hours at the finish cheering the finishers and imparting my vast (!) hoard of fellrunning lore to any one who would listen! The linguistics lecturer standing next to me now knows the verb 'fishwick': I fishwick, they fishwick... to fishwick. Is there a thread for jargon which no one outside fellrunning would understand?

[muddy two shoes]

I suspect that the farmer may have had 3 peaks recce-ers going up the race route prior to race day and this has annoyed him to the extent where he's decided to wire the pallets across the access point. Those pallets definitely have not been there in previous years on race day. It needs to be sorted for next year.

[Seymour Hills]

3 Peaks 5 albums of pics on http://woodentops.org.uk/index.php?t...photoyear=2016

[ba-ba]

I suspect that the farmer may have had 3 peaks recce-ers going up the race route prior to race day

Correct me if I'm wrong - I wasn't there yesterday so guessing where the issue was - but isn't that area labelled on the OS map as Open Access? So as long as you're not clambering walls you're OK?

Of course if this were to put future races at risk, put a request out and people will* stop using it to recce.


*propper fell runners

[ba-ba]

also, there's a brief summary of the race from the winner, Marc Lauenstein (former swiss international orienteer), here

[Ilkley Swimmer]

Does anyone yet know what the organisers say the explanation is for the pallet blockade?

[Stolly]

Correct me if I'm wrong - I wasn't there yesterday so guessing where the issue was - but isn't that area labelled on the OS map as Open Access? So as long as you're not clambering walls you're OK?

Of course if this were to put future races at risk, put a request out and people will* stop using it to recce.


*propper fell runners

Beyond the wall there, all of the land is open access. The problem is that that blockaded gap in the wall is the only obvious access point. When ever I run up Whernside (straight up rather than the looping walkers path) I either cross the river a bit further to the right (which entails straddling a knackered old wire fence) or taking the old walkers path where there's a proper stile, but that's much further down the river and got to by a different route entirely.

I think the farmer was just being purposely awkward to be honest. It's not like that area ever has livestock in; in years of going up there I think I've only ever seen cattle occasionally (but later in the year) or the odd tough old scratty sheep. But if it's his access point he can do what he likes. Perhaps a temporary ladder over it might have speeded things up a bit?

[rs2315]

Just had another thought,who was the last person to win the ppp in long trousers?

I had that old fashioned view they slowed you down.

Long pants for me next year!!

rs2315.

[that_fjell_guy]

Well you've all cheered me up no end!! I was somewhat disappointed to fail on improving my PB, dropping 5 minutes instead! (4.48). I kind of enjoyed the whole thing, got my standard issue cramp off Whernside and to a lesser degree, Ingleborough! I do kind of wonder if I need to focus on the race more, train more specifically and know the times I need to achieve on the tops and CP's to get the times I want i.e. 4,30 in the first instance!! The only notable differences for me was the queue before Whernside and exceptionally cold (numb!!) feet on the actual ascent. Hopefully the issue with queuing at Whernside will be sorted....step ladders a la Fellsman would do it!...as long as the farmer is happy. Can't wait for next year except I'll almost certainly be doing the Fellsman if the dates clash again!!

[Calluna]

I was another of the runners held up at the bottom of Whernside trying to cross over the pallet one at a time. Hats off to everyone there as no one decided to vault over any other part of the wall, they all showed remarkable constraint and a high degree of etiquette. To have climbed over and damaged the wall would have been an absolute PR disaster and would have given further vindication to the farmer for not allowing access up the fell to the summit on subsequent races.
However on a personal level this delay cost me dearly as I just missed the cut off at the Hill Inn.There were a lot of runners in the same boat as me who were absolutely dismayed that there was no leeway given on the cut off time for the que at the bottom of Whernside.
The female marshall at the Hill Inn check point ,whom appeared to be in control did her best to pacify some of the really upset runners in fact while I was there she had contacted the Race Director for guidance on the issue of the pile up at the bottom of Whernside, but the answer given was a final and unequivocal NO to the fact that the runners had not reached the checkpoint in the allocated time and subsequently were retired off the course
There has been a breakdown in communication somewhere between the farmer and the race organisers and this needs addressing for next years race