The Montane Spine Challenger route
If you are either thinking of taking on the Spine Challenger or have already signed up you will be well aware that this trail running course follows the Pennine Way from Edale in the Peak District all the way up to Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales.
You have to take every opportunity you can to recce the course in its entirety. The best time to do this would be autumn and early winter before the race. This will give you the best idea of what the conditions will most likely be like when the hooter goes and you spring off the start line in early January.
Conditions on race day coming up to Standedge.
The reasons for going to these lengths to recce the course are;
- Know The Conditions: Understand the conditions you will be running in. If you recce in autumn or early winter you will hopefully experience all the variations the weather systems could throw at you. The more rain, sleet, snow, and gales the better, as it will give you a great understanding of what to expect and how to handle it. Running in these conditions on the actual route will allow you to test what its like to run in your kit and work out what you need to fully prepare for a typical british winter. Doing a full recce like this allowed me to test out my layering system in weather that ranged from fairly mild temperatures through to freezing conditions. Running in these differing conditions combined with my race pace allowed me to work on the right tactics of controlling the two extremes of either sweating too much, or being too cold.
“If you recce in autumn or early winter you will hopefully experience all the variations the weather systems could throw at you”
- Underfoot Conditions: Running the course at this time of year will also provide you with invaluable intel into underfoot conditions. Along the entirety of the route the path conditions are incredibly varied. You have the slabs that link all the moors of the Peak District – slippy in the rain, treacherous in the ice, fast in the dry; there is the boggy peat path of the Devil’s Dyke just beyond Snake Pass; the rocky, boulder strewn path up beyond Standedge; the fast, flat maintenance track up beyond the White House pub; the Cam Road over Dodd Fell is just a boggy shitty mess in winter and it just goes on and on. Its best to know what to expect. Its not like you can do much about any of this but just knowing what is coming and therefore what to expect really helped me. You end up creating a bit of a mental check list of different spots along the route that you check off as you move along.
- Navigational Black Spots: Know the path and understand some of the navigation black spots. It sounds easy enough just following the Pennine Way, but believe me, when its tipping with rain, the clag is down, it’s the dead of night and your tired, navigational decisions become critical. Yes, the Pennine Way is way marked but there are some areas where it is just not obvious at all. Stoodley Pike Monument down into the Rochdale canal valley then back up the Hebden Bridge is one black spot. Ickonshaw Moor down into Lothersdale is another – I should know, I got horribly lost here. And finally, where the Pennine Way separates from the Cam Road just south of Ten End – so many runners got caught out here by just plodding along the Cam Road instead of bearing right down the path into Hawes, including me!
- Full Kit Test: Doing a recce of the course also will allow you to perform a full kit test. There is just no substitute for going out, preferably at night, in your full race kit while carrying your full pack. Test it all out, how it is packed, the way it sits on your back, making sure the things you need to hand are indeed within reach. The time spent stopping to get something out your pack isn’t really the issue; the issue is if you have to stop to get something out your pack in a driving blizzard. You’ll have to take your gloves off, fumble around, all the time getting cold and for why, just to get the peanut butter sarnie you should have had closer to hand??
“I managed to recce much of the course and for me it paid dividends. ”
I managed to recce much of the course and for me it paid dividends. What it gave me was a visual context when I then studied the maps back at home. You can visualise the contours, the features and major landmarks which all helps.
The only area I didn’t recce at all was Ickonshaw Moor over to Malham Tarn. What a major mistake! Probably the one area with most navigational blackspots and I didn’t recce it! Plus, to add to the misery of not really knowing where I was going, I was running through this area in the dead of night with the rain lashing down!!
