High Peak Marathon - A Pot Noodle's Account



Photo by Willy Kitchen

High Peak Marathon 2013

Mark Pearce

Once more we found ourselves at Edale village hall on the first Friday night in March. Myself, Brent Lindsay, Steve Burgess and Amanda Heading had entered as team Pot Noodle. It was a good team combination, we have all run together in similar events before, know our strengths and weaknesses and work well as a team, which is essential in these undertakings.

Pre-race  discussion was around what time we were aiming for. Sub 11 hours was floated, but seemed a tall order as our previous best was 11:37. Unattainable or not, the seed had been planted, and that's the way these things work.

At 23:27 Richard Bradbury set us off on our travels and we were off. The first couple of hours is a bit soul destroying with three big climbs up Lose Hill, Win Hill and then a slog up the road to Stanage Edge. At this stage it’s also easy to get the pace too fast and risk blowing up later. Across from High Neb the ground was quite soft and muddy, temperature hovering around freezing and clear visibility.

At the Moscar checkpoint we had a very quick stop to fill up with water and fill the baby cup with tea to drink on the run down to Cut Throat Bridge. In the rush to clear the checkpoint I had left my water bottle behind, so I was consigned to drinking stream water for the rest of the race.

Once up on Derwent Edge, most of the big climbs were done and I was finally settling in to the race, the ground was now solid and the temperature was dropping. Looking backwards showed us leading a huge precession of torches which was quite surreal but quite annoying – we’d come out for a quite overnight run, not a trip to the local bus station.

From Lost Lad the field spaced out more, and one team’s desire for solitude had taken them all the way across Bradfield Moor, miles off course. On the climb out of Abbey Brook, up towards Cut Gate, I grabbed some water. It tastes better than it looks. Eating was now getting difficult, forcing small bits of food down whilst feeling like throwing up takes a bit of will power.

The run over Outer Edge and Howden Moor was straightforward, although at one point we came across a runner who seemed to be stumbling around with no rucksack which was very concerning as he was potentially in real danger. Fortunately his team had realised they had a problem and were heading back for him.

By now we were slogging along like walking dead, early hours are always tough, but from experience you learn that it passes with the arrival of daybreak. Usually anyway. Eating was now a waste of time as my body was insisting it was asleep and shutting down non-essential functions, so all the energy for the next few hours comes from fat burning. Luckily I carry enough body fat to keep going for about 132 hours and 45 minutes.

Heading from Swain's head we had a couple of teams following our line (and had been for a while) so we turned our torches off and ran on night vision which was tricky until our eyes adjusted. By Bleaklow Stones there were signs of daybreak and we crossed Bleaklow via the secret route as it got light. Sunrise was beautiful and as expected, I started to feel better.

At the Snake Pass summit checkpoint it was time for food, so on the advice of my sports nutritionist I downed a pork pie with a sachet of HP sauce stolen from Manchester Velodrome, a bag of cheddars and some warm orange squash.

Just past 7am and a beautiful day, we trotted across to Mill Hill, each of us making sure we were all eating again. Looking after each other is a key factor in the success of these events as we all have ups and downs at different times. The two miles of stone flags is a real slog which makes the steep climb on to the Kinder plateau seem welcome.

Kinder edge was tricky, running into low sun with tired legs, fighting cramp, but before long we were at Brown Knoll with the finish in sight. We all stuffed gels down for the last few miles and rolled on to the checkpoint at Lord's seat. From this point it’s pretty much down hill to the finish, but very hard to get much speed out of tired legs.

Heading to Hollins Cross, Amanda suddenly stepped up the pace, it took me a while to work out why, she had just checked her watch and realised that we were still on for sub 11 hours. When er reached Hollins Cross she announced that we had 15 minutes to finish so we gave it everything down the steep descent and on to the road, finishing in 10:56. It's surprising what's left in the tank when the needle is on empty. After dibbing in at the finish we then collapsed among the dustbins outside the village hall.