In my first PPP (mid 90s) I lost 80 places on the descent from Ingleborough, going from 50odd to 130odd to finish in 3.55. This was because my previous longest run had been two and a half hours and because in spite of drinking what I thought was a lot of water on the way round, I got massively dehydrated and had to beg water from spectators going through Sulber Nick.

In my experience the only hard and fast rule about the schedule is that if you try to pick up a lot of time over one section you'll lose it on another.

In my third PPP I decided to run the PYG to RH section several minutes quicker than th previous year. I managed to do this with no problems, but lost time on the climbs of WH and Ing and my finishing time was hardly any different.

The only time I have ever had a quick run in from Ingleborough was in a year when I was racing against a clubmate all the way from the top and after passing and repassing each other we finished just one second apart at the finish.