The Montane Spine Challenger 2019….

Present day:

So it’s 2019 and I found myself on the start line of the montane spine challenger race again. It’s come as no surprise though, as I had unfinished business with this race from last year- long story short, I overtrained prior to the event and sustained an injury mid race. I still finished the race though but was very unhappy with the way it went. I knew the day after when I got back home that I had to go back again next year and give it another go….one last time!

Feb 2018:

So half hearted training started a few weeks after the failed attempt. I’d lost my running mojo, everywhere hurt, I’d gained over a stone in weight binge eating and basically just let myself go. In the midst of this I coincidentally got in touch with a guy called Jim Mann who I’d recently met and made friends with on a nav4 adventure training weekend. I asked him how he was recovering from his injury he sustained in the spine race and we got chatting about how I got on and what I did wrong and cut a long story short he told me about a lady called Margarita Grigioriadi who could write out a training program for me.

I then started a new job, requiring me to work away from home an awful lot. Every week Monday to Thursday & come home Friday. I’d then travel back down south Sunday evening. I was pretty much living out of a duffle bag. My hotel was paid for and I had a £25 a day food allowance. I thought I was clever having a McDonald’s for breakfast, subways etc for lunch and then a mixed grill from wetherspoons plus anywhere between 1 and 8 pints a night depending on my mood or who I was working away with. I was still running but wasn’t getting anywhere . After a month or so of this I was pretty unhappy & realised I needed to get my act together. I remember having a little one to one with my friend Charlie sharpe one evening in my hotel room and I think it was this conversation we had that got me focused again and back on track.

March 2018:

I’m a new man. I’m on a diet. £25 daily food shops on fresh, clean food every day. Long gone are the McDonald’s brekkys and pints of beer. I’m sometimes cooking steaks on my jetboil out the hotel window at night as to not set the fire alarms off! Charlie and probably quite a few other people can back me up on this as I was making snapchats and Instagram story’s of my cheffing skills on a daily basis. Uncle bens microwave rice bags i was filling with boiling kettle water because my hotel room had no microwave. When I say hotel by the way- don’t envisage a room like a premier inn. It’s a lot worse. Imagine what you get for £30 a night. Contractor accommodation. I had a room, a bed, a toilet, shower and a kettle! Oh and a tv. I’d pour the boiling water in the rice before I went out on my training run and by the time I got back it had softened and was lukewarm. This would be accompanied with the said steak or a tin of mackerel. Im trying to give you an insight as to what my day to day life was like at the time. I locally sourced a gym too for my strength and conditioning work. A mans gotta do what a mans gotta do right? Monday to Thursday I lived a bit like a primitive man

April 2018:

So I’m on the straight and narrow & Iv made contact with margarita and told her about myself and gave her a list of races I wanted to do: The Lakes sky ultra, the glencoe skyline, the mourne skyline, the cheviot goat and finally the spine challenger. Plus a couple of fell races in between.

April-December 2018:

To summarise briefly: I finished all the races. Some better than others. The lakes sky ultra went relatively well. The glencoe skyline didn’t go to well. The mourne skyline I did ok (this was one of my favourite races too I absolutely loved it) I spent the weekend there hanging with Sophie Grant, who I made friends with at the lakes sky ultra. She gives me lots of inspiration and to be quite frank is just awesome !I did well at the cheviot goat, which was a B race used as a training run for the spine challenger testing out nutrition, kit choice, running with poles, hydration & energy systems. In all of the sky races I was plagued with cramp. I had little knowledge/experience about hydration . I went to a company called precision hydration for advice and began using there supplements and we resolved the cramping issues. The first time I used them in a race was on the mourne sky line. I think we got my hydration strategy about 80/90% right as I cramped pretty bad in the last 5k but that was remarkably better than the previous races. I missed a top 20 finish in Ireland because of the cramp. We tweaked it and at the cheviot goat I had no cramp at all finishing joint 6th overall with Tom Hollins (top bloke btw).

December 2018:

I’m not gonna lie, the result at the goat was a big confidence boost for me. But still I wasn’t sure how everything was going to go on at the challenger and how it was all going to come together combined. Also I forgot to mention earlier that I’d not entered the challenger yet because I felt like I’d jinx myself with an injury had I entered it so early on in the year, so coming out of the goat injury free I applied for a place. A few weeks went by where I thought I wasn’t going to get an entry because they had sold out and I was on a waiting list. I kept on prepping regardless and thankfully was sent an email on the 17th December. 2 days before that I picked up a worrying knee injury. I was in a right dilemma now?! I could still run very slowly pain free so I went with my heart and paid the entry fee and then went to see Kat at worsley physio clinic. Turns out it was an aggravated adductor tendon (probably from the cheviot goat ultras terrain) and I’d be fine. I received my penultimate training block and did 2 back to back recces of the Pennine way over 1 weekend covering from lothersdale to hardraw with kev Robinson who was racing the spine challenger MRT.

My Knee was settling down and I was now on taper, feeling pretty good. All I had to do was get through Xmas without getting drunk, over indulging on mince pies and celebrations! Since glencoe skyline in September and Xmas I had made some tweaks to my diet and went down from 16st to 13st 10lbs and I wanted to stay like that…..& so I did.

I spent my Xmas taper flitting between snowdonia national park, the Lake District and the local parts of the Pennine way near where I live. Even on rest days I spent my time just being in the mountains with my pack on. Slowly moving. Relaxing. The mountains are my happy place.

I spent New Year’s Eve in the Lake District with my Mum, brother, his partner and the dogs just chilling out. We climbed skiddaw and went for some nice tea after it.

Jan 2019:

So I went back to work for 6 days and got the train home from Darlington where I’d been working on a project since October. I got all my gear together over the next few days, double checked I had everything and on Friday the 11th Jan drove down to Edale for registration. Registration was over and done in 10 minutes and a few of us went to the cafe next to the train station for tea and cake until the 1st safety briefing was due at 3pm. When that was done I went straight home, re packed my race bag, double checked I had everything in my drop bag and then I went to bed quite early I think i was asleep for like 10pm.

I managed a full 7 hours sleep! I was amazed! I never get this much sleep the night before a race. I had all my clothes ready, lined up, injinji socks, dexshell waterproof socks, montane trail tights and gaiters, montane primino base layer, montane spine jacket, montane power stretch gloves and a montane goretex cap. Everything else was stowed in my race pack good to go along with my mountain king trail blaze poles. On my feet I’d decided to go with my inov8 xClaw 275s all the way.

Wane from team Oa picked me up at 6am and we was on our way to Edale. I was raring to go. I dropped my drop bag off, said hello to a few people and then hid away for 10 mins. Ate a chia charge bar and got my head together. Then we all walked down to the start and before you know it we are off. It was electric!! I started really slow, that was my plan (I only really seem to have one gear anyway), to just stay slow and run my own race & not get caught up in what anybody else was doing. It was a bit windy and drizzling, I was scared my cap might get blown off my head, but I needed the peak to protect my eyes from the elements. It was a case of hood up (I love hood time), head down and crack on! The front runners had really set a pace, a phenomenal one! By the time I was at the top of Jacobs ladder I could only see a few people. I had no idea what position I was in and to be honest I didn’t care, I just wanted a sub 30 hour finish which I was already starting to dismiss because of the wind. I chatted to Simon Bourne for a while on the way up to kinder but it was too windy to hear one another. Simon soon disappeared into the mist and I was alone. Just the way I like it. The wind had really picked up now we were on the plateau and I was taking my time so as to not trip- this is where I fell last year causing the minor injury which led to the bigger one. It’s ok to go slow I told myself – you have a long way to go yet! So I’d made it onto the nice slippy slabs leading to snake pass without falling and I let a few people past me too, as I was blocking there way slowing them down. I was drenched by this point it was pretty windy and pretty rainy, nothing like what was yet to come though!

I went straight past snake pass road mountain rescue as I had plenty of ph1000 left in my flask and I was eating shot blocks and chia charge for fun. I needed to rid of these 3000 calories before hebden – it’s all extra weight! I didn’t need 3000 cals to get me to hebden. The climb to bleak low head was fun, I quite enjoyed that bit – especially when you get to the top and you know that it’s a nice undulating run down to torside! The rain had eased off a bit and I was enjoying the views of crowden valley while dropping down into the next checkpoint down at the reservoirs. I passed a guy that had gone over on his ankle, he was okay but I could tell something wasn’t right by the way I had gained on him in the last kilometre, I asked if he was ok and he told me he’d crooked and was taking it easy. So at the mountain rescue checkpoint at torside I filled my bottle with some more ph1000 and was on my way again. Getting ready for the climb out of there up to black hill. Another one of my favourite bits of the trail- I love the single track along laddow rocks but I hate the transition to the slippy flags again just before you get to black hill. Every step you push, you slip, loosing momentum. I try my best to keep to the grass on the side if it’s not too long- sometimes it’s too long so your just as best on the slippy, slimy flags! Next destination I’m off to is wessenden head…. descending on more slippy horrible flags so I take my time trying to avoid them before reaching the little climb upto the road crossing where i again filled my bottle up. Wind had picked up again! So I had a bit of a power walk on the short tarmac stretch and ate another chia charge before hitting the descent past the reservoirs before taking a sharp left and a sharp climb up onto marsden moor. I had a little chat with carol and soon after bumped into Wane and Fiona who was laughing at me eating a turkey and stuffing wrap like I’d never been fed! Soon I was at brun clough. No checkpoint or water here this year so straight over the road and on up to and over dinnerstones. I could see 2 chaps now and was slowly gaining on them on the way upto white hill. I’d passed them before I was at the m62 crossing and now onto black stone edge. Local territory and looking forward to seeing my mum at the whitehouse. The wind and rain was back with us now and it was foggy going over black stone edge. 2 friends Duncan and Fiona surprised me at the trig, it was pretty horrible up there so I didn’t stop. I waved and said sorry I’m not stopping and I cracked onto the whitehouse where sure enough Mum was there waiting for me. I gave her a quick cuddle and filled my bottle up again refraining from eating anything as I still had more than enough chia charge and shot blocks in my front pockets. So I waved good bye to Mum and cracked on over my least favourite part of the course, the flattest bit going from the whitehouse over to stoodley pike. This section was horrrrrrible. The wind had really really picked up again now. It was raining …and hard! It was dead exposed . I power walked this whole section, it wasn’t efficient to run at all. I was getting blown left to right and the rain was driving in at me from all directions. Gonna be a rough night I thought! Then I realised I’d dropped a right clanger I’d not put my headtorch on at the whitehouse. So I found a wall and crouched down behind it while I changed my cap to my beanie hat and put my petzl myo headtorch on. I cracked on up to stoodley pike and the weather got worse. I couldn’t see a thing not even my feet with the wind, rain and fog bouncing off my headtorch. Somebody was gaining on me too I caught glimpse of another headtorch behind me. Suppose I’d better put a bit of effort in then I thought on the descent to Charlestown, seen as though I’d been reduced to an efficient walk from the whitehouse. So I shot off down the hill, going with gravity and was surprised by a crowd of people just before the road crossing at the bottom. It surprised me as there was nobody here last year. I was blinded by the lights and just waved and smiled. Now knowing I had the evil climb out of Charlestown, I slowed right down and made good use of the poles. I cracked on with the climb and crossed the badger fields before hitting the tarmac section enroute to the checkpoint at hebden hey. I passed Simon on my muddy slippy descent into the checkpoint. He was on his way out. I said hello and to keep up the good running. I’d decided on a quick, smooth transition at hebden. I politely asked the staff if I could be left to be for 5 mins while I did my transition. I’m a terrible multi tasker at times and really didn’t want to miss or forget something. I changed my base layer top and put a fresh spine jacket on. Changed torch battery’s and put my new rations in my pack whilst drinking a mountain fuel recovery drink. I didn’t have a meal. No time. Rations where the same except I put a couple of cold McDonald’s cheeseburgers in, some cold pizza, a jam/peanut butter and cheese wrap and some mountain fuel cola jellys. I also added my heavyweight emergency layer to my pack now with it being the night section (montane Icarus vest) and my vortex gloves. I was chatting now and in good spirits – I’d done what needed to be done and knew 2 of the staff in there, Tony brown and Kevin Mccann. I realised I’d lost a goretex mitt between the cp and the badger fields so I asked them to keep an eye out for anyone handing it in. I said my good byes and off I went.

Personally for me the next 30 odd mile stretch is the hardest part of the course. Mentally as well as physically as its the night section. Hebden cp to ponden, ponden to cowling , cowling to lothersdale and lothersdale to Thornton in craven and then to Gargrave. For others maybe different but for me the wet boggy terrain and the constant climbing and descending one after another, in the dark when your pack is at it’s heaviest and you’ve already covered 45 miles, it’s soul destroying! I knew that if all being well after I left hebden I wouldn’t have access to shops and cafes. Just the facilities being provided at lothersdale but I wasn’t too sure what would be there so I took it as though there would be nothing, just water. So I needed enough food to get me from hebden to the end! The wind was still with us but had died down compared to how it was between the whitehouse and stoodley pike and the rain was on and off. To be honest it was relatively good. I marched on from hebden allowing my double cheeseburger to settle a while which I ate near walshaw dean res. I was yomping the flats, marching the climbs and going with the flow on the descents. Some people cheered me on just after ponden but before the climb up to ickornshaw moor. They even said “is it howard” ha. I said who is it? Because I couldn’t see them with there headtorches. Turns out they live on the street and had been watching on the tracker. On I go after them telling me there’s another guy not long just passed. It must be Simon I thought? Without any increased effort I cracked on and within 30 mins I caught a glimpse of a headtorch I’m guessing 1km ahead. Don’t try to catch him I kept telling myself and I didn’t, I just did what I was doing. Slowly but surely I was gaining on him. I knew he had seen me now because I kept seeing his headtorch looking over his shoulder more frequently. Just after cowling I’d managed to catch him up and I was abit confused but excited as I saw more headtorches near him. “Alright Howard it’s John Parkin” says the mysterious headtorch. He had just come out to cheers us on, we chatted a minute and I asked Simon if he was ok because he’d stopped but he was fine. Just changing his torch battery’s under a street lamp. Off I trotted telling myself not to get carried away trying to get away from Simon. So I took it nice and easy to lothersdale, where I filled up my bottle with some more precision hydration ph1000 and pinched a mince pie. The rice pudding was tempting but I didn’t know how Id react with it as I’d not trained with that so I swerved it. Climbing up to pinhaw now and I was really feeling it- I kept telling myself that at least I’m nearly out of the section I find the hardest and it was a nice little cruise to gargrave and so it was! I treated myself to a peanut butter, jam and cheese wrap and a cola jelly with caffeine in when I hit Thornton in craven for my efforts. Plain sailing to malham now I kept telling myself (I’d only gone and forgot about the long horrible boggy climb out of gargrave, harrows hill) . When I hit gargrave I stopped in the bus shelter and changed my torch battery’s just in case they didn’t make it to malham Tarn?! Also a lad pulled up in a car just as I was on my way out the town centre, he was setting up a bit of a stall, I took some water and banana bread off him- nice surprise! So now I find myself trudging up Harrows hill. “Dummy” I’m thinking , how can you forget this bit! I usually enjoy the pootle along the river from airton, through Kirby malham and into malham but not today. It was at this point I thought right you’ve done the bit you hate, you didn’t come here to play games, you came to race and I was thinking that the sub 30 was back on. So I yomped on through to malham cove. The steps seemed to go on forever. They didn’t seem particularly hard, just long! Nearly at the tarn now so I began eating some of the extra food I’d accrued from hebden. More chia charge and shot blocks. Cup of tea I’m thinking at malham and a sit down for 5 mins depending on how far away the tail gaters where?

Boy was I glad to see John bamber at malham tarn. It’s always a pleasure seeing John. Even more so when he’s waving my lost goretex mitt at me. Thank you to whoever handed that in. The 2 lady’s made me a cup of tea whilst I sorted myself out again and sat down chatting for 5 and I took a look at the big tracking screen and there was no tailgaters so I was nice and relaxed. I enjoyed my cup of tea and my other McDonald’s double cheeseburger much to the amusement of John and the 2 lady’s! Probably astonished at my choice of nutrition!Buzzing with the fact I was reunited with my mitt off I went recharged. Putting a bit of effort in out of the tarn as I knew I’d be more or less power walking for the next few hours apart from the descents from fountains fell and pen y Ghent. The fog had come in and I couldn’t see again. I had a cola jelly and made it up and over fountains fell being hit with some ghastly wind at the top. I was bursting for a pee so after I’d crossed the stile on top of fountains fell I tried to shelter behind the wall and pee- I was facing the wrong way! I’ll leave it at that but I’m sure I felt some on my face ha! The wind was getting even worse! The speedy descent i envisaged down fountains fell didn’t happen. The wind was trying to blow me back up and I couldn’t see a thing with the fog, not even foot placement so I carefully made my way down, getting blown back and forth. Pen y Ghent next, woo hoo! My favourite bit! Anybody that knows me, knows I LOVE pen y Ghent! I made good ground on the tarmac section and was marching upto churn milk hole and all I could hear is this noise, like I can’t describe. Obviously it was the wind but wind like I’d never heard it before, it was howling eerily! I had another mountain fuel cola jelly before the climb. Excited but nervous I put my foot on the first step at the base of the mountain, with extreme caution and with each step I took the wind got noisier, harder and more severe. By the time I’d got to the top of the first steps the excited/nervous feeling had gone and was replaced with sheer nervousness and fear. She was scaring me was Penny, I was clinging on for dear life she was trying to blow me off the face of the mountain. I had to keep as low as possible and stick to all fours until I reached the middle bit where it flattens out and it died down a little bit. I let my guard down for a split second and she full blown blew me off my feet! I hit the deck hard cursing, I hurt my wrist. I can’t even turn back now I thought. So on red alert constantly now I managed to make it to the top where the slabs are only to be side swiped again!! All I can remember thinking is get the f##k off here and how are the smaller competitors going to manage this! I crawled to the trig and straight over the wall, now I was in the full force of it. Brutal but beautiful. I still couldnt see a thing it was that foggy. It was grim! I hit the guide ropes that led me to the steps and began my cautious descent as I still couldnt see where I was placing my feet. I was taking an absolute pasting off the elements! I didn’t know it at the time but I think I was secretly loving it! The lower I got the more it subsided but it was still bad , I was running again now but running for my life! I saw 2 headtorches in the distance. That will be a support crew assessing the conditions i assumed. But It wasn’t, it was my cousin Gemma and her friend. I bolted past them only realising who it was when she shouted my name and I shouted back “don’t go up there” ! Visibility was getting better and better and the wind subsiding as i was dropping into Horton. It was also becoming daylight. I finally hit the checkpoint near the cafe bumping into Matt and Ellie from summit fever media. I was then hit with a kit check. Sleeping bag & bivvy, gps device and goggles. I reluctantly took my pack off and got them out -understanding it was for safety reasons. As over the cam high road there’s a tracker black spot. In the midst of this I’m telling them how bad it is going over PYG while they made me a cup of tea & I got my next meal out…my cold half a pizza folded in half to make a pizza pie I called it and they all started laughing and told me its called a calzone ha! Bottle filled with ph1000 again I’m bagged up and off running again out of Horton in ribblesdale. I was feeling good. Really good! Just as I was pulling off the tarmac Duncan and Fiona had turned up to surprise me but had arrived to late! “Keep going” they shouted! Your in 3rd! All you’ve got left is 14 miles to smash out I told myself as I death marched out of Horton upto birkwith moor. It’s broad daylight now and I’m feeling much happier. Not looking forward to being on the top of the cam high road again though, knowing what I now know about the wind. As I passed Ling gill I popped another cola jelly. Big climb ahead to the Cam high road! Halfway up the wind started again and I realised I’d dropped another clanger. While I was being kit checked I should have put my featherlight vest on. I was freezing . I was alternating between running and hiking in the wind even though this was inefficient, just to stay warm. I crammed another chia charge in me as eating helps elevate body temperature. I was making assessments along the cam high road looking for shelter to maybe put another layer on but I couldn’t bear to stop and afford to drop another degree, I was freezing! I was again being thrown side to side but managed to stay on my feet this time round and before you know it I’m taking the right turn off towards rottenstone hill. All I could think of is getting out of this freezing cold wind and was hoping I’d be sheltered from it dropping down into Gayle. I was full on running again now so I’d warmed up nice and was also sheltered all the way down into hawes. Loving the wet muddy slippy descent , I felt like I was descending in a fell race going about 6 min per mile pace when in reality I was probably doing about 9 or 10 haha! I’d give it some going down into hawes so by the time I was on the streets in the town centre I was walking again. I alternated between jogging and power walking along the tarmac. I could see hardraw bunkhouse now in the distance and I was probably grinning from ear to ear! So much different emotions going on compared to last years dismal finish! I was on 26hrs 57mins or something like that as I came off the tarmac and back onto the little grass and slab trails through the fields to hardraw. “C”mon lad sub 27″ I thought. Jogging now, I could see people’s heads popping up over the wall from at the bunkhouse in the distance. Don’t you dare start walking now I told myself haha! As I came through the last gate there was a little crowd of people clapping and cheering me on the last few yards. I couldn’t help but break into a smile. I touched the wall threw my poles on the floor and stopped my garmin before I did anything else. I was absolutely knackered but absolutely buzzing at the same time, it was awesome! I was given my medal and did a little interview at the end, I was quite nervous with all the people there watching as you don’t get to plan what to say or know what your going to get asked but I think I did ok. My belongings where scooped up for me and I was ushered into the showers to get warm and dry before being waited on hand & foot in the bunkhouse. I had a little massage off the physios. My neck and shoulders were more sore than my legs. I then managed 2 portions of cottage pie it was the best cottage pie I’ve ever had in my life. After that I was awarded with my 3rd place trophy. I was totally over the moon. I’d of never of thought I could achieve anything like this when I 1st heard about the spine race and thought of entering the challenger. After the race i said I’m not interested in doing the challenger again or the full spine race anytime soon. But it’s been 5 days and erm, who knows. I might change my mind.

V- Blog. Spine challenger Recce . Gargrave to Horton. Pen y Ghent section