Hard Core Running
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Hard Core Running
Guest Mon Mar 11, 2013 6:29 am
As some of you know after the great Burnswalk race I travelled up to Moffat to meet up with Andy F so we could run the Old Moffat Chase hill race route. This was once a Scottish Championship race. The course should have been 17 miles in length and 5000 ft of climbing.
As we left Andy house and started to climb up on to the hills the higher we went the worse the weather became, the wind was so strong it was blowing us up hill at times, but when it was in our face it was a slog to keep going. We then climbed into the cloud base and the visibility was now severally limited, On the fences there was horizontal icicles formed by the wind and low temperatures, it was also found on the grass under our feet , if we were not running on snow you could hear the ice icicles crunching under our foot falls.
Ice on the grass.
Ice on the fence.
At one point I stopped to get an extra base layer out of my rucksack only to find the ice had formed on the chest strap clip and I was struggling to get it undone. Once I took my sack off it was encased in ice, Andy’s was also.
Eventually we made the summit of Hartfell, remember we had run from the centre of Moffat via Gallow hill, Hind Hill, Greygill head, and Swatte fell not straight up from the Hall as per the Hartfell Horseshoe race. Here we shielded behind the stone wall around the trig point from the driving wind. It was time to make some big decisions, bin it and go down to the hall and jog back to Moffat on the road? Run back the way we had come to Moffat? Or press on in the snow ice low visibility and gale force wind to saddle yoke as per the original chase route? What did we do? We decided to press on to Saddle Yoke but take the long route, there was logic in this madness as this would allow us to navigate by the fence line rather than run on a compass bearing, best be safe than sorry and get lost up there.
Andy sheltering behind the wall on the top of Hartfell.
I had two pairs of gloves on and a pair of ski mittens over then but still I couldn’t feel my fingers, Andy was the same way. Although latter when climbing hard the pain when the hot blood ran back into the fingers was worse than the numbest of the cold.
We followed the fence line ploughing through ice and over peat hags before leaving it to climb up to Saddle Yoke. Into the cloud we went with just the thought of get higher and higher, we hit Saddle Yoke spot on and found ourselves exactly were we wanted to be, I think we were both a little relieved. We followed the ice covered path to Lower Saddle Yoke, still droppingdown we now headed for the infamous Black Hope burn. Once we dropped out of the cloud we stopped to take in the view and gets some food and gels down. Black Hope Burn has what seems an almost vertical decent followed by an ascent up the other side which just as steep. By now I was getting very tried but felt we were on the home leg now. We dropped down to the burn with both of us taking a few little falls, over the burn then the big climb up the other side. I was struggling now, Andy was climbing very well, the race in the morning had knocked the edge off my legs.
Black Hope burn can be seen in the bottom, cloud still covers the peaks the on the other side, a big drop and big up await us.
The fatigue can be seen on my face, along with ice on my jacket.
Once we had climbed up the steepest bit we now had another decision to make, we were on the edge of day light and I was very tried, the race route should have took us up to Nether Coomb Craig but we decided to head for Auldton Fell instead. We made it to Auldton fell by following the tree line, a longer route than the direct route but easier under foot. Then another descent down to Mossgrain burn in the last of the light, with the light almost gone we started to Climb up to Greygill Head for the second time that day but this time from south east side rather than the opposite side we came up earlier. I climbed heavy legged as Andy flew up, pushing though the heath was particular tiring for me, by the time I reached the cairn it was dark. Putting on my head torch after pinching a gel from Andy I found that my head torch wiring had snapped. We came down Graygill Head with just Andy’s head Torch for light, good job it is a good one. Hind hill climbed slowly then we ran back over the field though the woods and arrived back at Andy’s house. 6 hours 40 minutes after we left that afternoon.
We are not exactly sure how far we had gone as the battery on my GPS went flat hours before and Andy had stopped his inadvertently on a couple of times taking off or adding layers of clothing but best we can work out from the GPS traces we have and the map we covered over 19 miles and climbed around 6000 ft. No wonder we were tried.
ATB
Kev
As we left Andy house and started to climb up on to the hills the higher we went the worse the weather became, the wind was so strong it was blowing us up hill at times, but when it was in our face it was a slog to keep going. We then climbed into the cloud base and the visibility was now severally limited, On the fences there was horizontal icicles formed by the wind and low temperatures, it was also found on the grass under our feet , if we were not running on snow you could hear the ice icicles crunching under our foot falls.
Ice on the grass.
Ice on the fence.
At one point I stopped to get an extra base layer out of my rucksack only to find the ice had formed on the chest strap clip and I was struggling to get it undone. Once I took my sack off it was encased in ice, Andy’s was also.
Eventually we made the summit of Hartfell, remember we had run from the centre of Moffat via Gallow hill, Hind Hill, Greygill head, and Swatte fell not straight up from the Hall as per the Hartfell Horseshoe race. Here we shielded behind the stone wall around the trig point from the driving wind. It was time to make some big decisions, bin it and go down to the hall and jog back to Moffat on the road? Run back the way we had come to Moffat? Or press on in the snow ice low visibility and gale force wind to saddle yoke as per the original chase route? What did we do? We decided to press on to Saddle Yoke but take the long route, there was logic in this madness as this would allow us to navigate by the fence line rather than run on a compass bearing, best be safe than sorry and get lost up there.
Andy sheltering behind the wall on the top of Hartfell.
I had two pairs of gloves on and a pair of ski mittens over then but still I couldn’t feel my fingers, Andy was the same way. Although latter when climbing hard the pain when the hot blood ran back into the fingers was worse than the numbest of the cold.
We followed the fence line ploughing through ice and over peat hags before leaving it to climb up to Saddle Yoke. Into the cloud we went with just the thought of get higher and higher, we hit Saddle Yoke spot on and found ourselves exactly were we wanted to be, I think we were both a little relieved. We followed the ice covered path to Lower Saddle Yoke, still droppingdown we now headed for the infamous Black Hope burn. Once we dropped out of the cloud we stopped to take in the view and gets some food and gels down. Black Hope Burn has what seems an almost vertical decent followed by an ascent up the other side which just as steep. By now I was getting very tried but felt we were on the home leg now. We dropped down to the burn with both of us taking a few little falls, over the burn then the big climb up the other side. I was struggling now, Andy was climbing very well, the race in the morning had knocked the edge off my legs.
Black Hope burn can be seen in the bottom, cloud still covers the peaks the on the other side, a big drop and big up await us.
The fatigue can be seen on my face, along with ice on my jacket.
Once we had climbed up the steepest bit we now had another decision to make, we were on the edge of day light and I was very tried, the race route should have took us up to Nether Coomb Craig but we decided to head for Auldton Fell instead. We made it to Auldton fell by following the tree line, a longer route than the direct route but easier under foot. Then another descent down to Mossgrain burn in the last of the light, with the light almost gone we started to Climb up to Greygill Head for the second time that day but this time from south east side rather than the opposite side we came up earlier. I climbed heavy legged as Andy flew up, pushing though the heath was particular tiring for me, by the time I reached the cairn it was dark. Putting on my head torch after pinching a gel from Andy I found that my head torch wiring had snapped. We came down Graygill Head with just Andy’s head Torch for light, good job it is a good one. Hind hill climbed slowly then we ran back over the field though the woods and arrived back at Andy’s house. 6 hours 40 minutes after we left that afternoon.
We are not exactly sure how far we had gone as the battery on my GPS went flat hours before and Andy had stopped his inadvertently on a couple of times taking off or adding layers of clothing but best we can work out from the GPS traces we have and the map we covered over 19 miles and climbed around 6000 ft. No wonder we were tried.
ATB
Kev
Guest- Guest
Re: Hard Core Running
Guest Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:44 am
Your adventures was a good read Kev and hard core is the right description for it.
You guys will waltz round the BG
You guys will waltz round the BG
Guest- Guest
Re: Hard Core Running
Guest Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:13 pm
andrew wrote:
You guys will waltz round the BG
I wish I had the same confidence in me as you do.
It is a sobering thought that distance and time we did was a little over a ¼ of what is required to complete the BG, and we didn’t even do a ¼ of the total climbing we will do on the day.
ATB
<p>Kev
Guest- Guest
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