National Three Peaks 18th-19th June

I undertook the National Three Peaks Challenge with 12 colleagues and friends of friends, in aid of Francis House Children’s Hospice, a centre that provides care and activities for terminally ill children.

Undertaking the challenge was the idea of one of my colleagues, and we took it upon ourselves to organise a trip that involved two minibuses and support crew, enough food to feed a small army and overnight accommodation on the Friday evening, ready for an 8am assault on Ben Nevis the next day.

Ben Nevis

Investigation into this first peak mainly revealed a host of safety warnings of the danger of walking off the summit plateau and falling thousands of feet down the various gullies below. So we were very relieved to wake on the morning of the challenge to a clear, still day, with some cloud covering the top of the Ben. If anything the conditions were too good – the lack of a breeze in the valley bottom meant we’d soon all worked up a sweat as we made our way up. We made the summit 5 minutes inside our schedule, which was a great start and very encouraging.

The rest of the mountain passed without incident, however traffic and perhaps an optimistic estimation of the descent time by various online sources meant we finished Ben Nevis 25 minutes over schedule, in 5h25.

Sca Fell Pike

We arrived at Wasdale Head having elected to take the shorter, more direct approach to the summit of Sca Fell Pike and we could see that the cloud base was low – within an hour or so we were in the cloud and with night falling it was time to get the head torches out. 

It was vital to stay disciplined on the approach to the summit as it was by now very dark and foggy, and there were a number of other parties so this meant regular stops to re-group. We made the summit in good time having managed to claw back approximately 45 minutes that had been lost on the previous summit and the subsequent journey. The time to summit Scafell was 2h15 minutes – a great achievement.

We almost made a common mistake on the summit – heading off to the North for a few paces until we re-orientated ourselves to get on the path back down. We later met a team on Snowdon who had started at Borrowdale and instead of turning round at the top, had carried on down to Wasdale, 2 hours away from their support team and leaving their 24 hour challenge in tatters.

A review of our GPS track showed that we made a slight deviation on the way back down, but this was to be expected crossing the boulder field in thick fog at night. Our choice of Wasdale as a start point was vindicated as once we’d dropped below the cloud base we could see Wast Water shining in the moonlight below us.

Mount Snowdon

I didn’t have much choice in the matter of sleeping between Sca Fell Pike and Snowdon, we’d been awake all day and climbed two of the highest mountains in the UK.

We were all pretty strung out by this stage and so it was decided to form a breakaway group to ensure we made the Snowdon trig point inside 24 hours.

Suffice to say we go the job done and in the end we raised over £4,200 for our charity, blowing our original target of £3,000 well and truly out of the water.

wincle trout run 5.6m 1000'

this popular race takes place as part of the annual Wincle Village Fair just off the Buxton - Macclesfield road. sponsored by a local fishery, the USP of this race is that all finishers receive a trout for their efforts!

as a young man partial to a bit of fish, this event fairly sprang out from the pages of the FRA calendar like a leaping salmon. having not raced since late May's Leaden Boot, this seemed like a good event to get back into the swing of things again.

the start of the race took me a little by surprise! as i was still stood with the Optimistic clan in the corner of the field when it commenced - no whistle or gun, just the commotion associated with 300 people starting to move at speed over the car park field meant i had to fight through the throng of supporters, well wishers and family members to cross the start line. at least it meant i got off to a quick start!

we ran round the car park field and through the fairground, down a steep descent and across a meadow to a river crossing and our first ascent.

i've learnt quickly this year that a fell race is something you've got to want to run - you can't just turn up and bimble along hoping to finish. as such the first mile or so, and the first climb or two make you wish you'd not started, but the lungs and legs soon reach their optimum levels of performance, allowing you to get on with the business in hand, and if you are lucky enough not to be dodging tree roots, bogs, other runners AND are not faced with driving rain or sleet, enjoy some wonderful scenery.

after a conversation with George Scott earlier in the week - a local legend in his own right and still going strong in the MV60 category after over 30 years of fellrunning - i made a note to follow his advice and not only keep up with the runner in front of me but also the runners in front of him, and ensure they stayed within reach. the logic behing this is that whilst the next runner may be helping you to keep running along, if the next runners after him/her are pulling away then you are slipping back down the field and may even find yourself being overtaken.

whilst i'm not overly competitive, i do believe in applying yourself fully to the task in hand, so i try and squeeze every last drop out whilst i'm running (does that sound corny?!). i overtook a few runners in the woods a couple of miles into the race as a result of this.

the first couple of miles or so progressed gradually uphill through the woodland, before we emerged onto a trail that ran along the ridgeline and brought us our first sight of home, still a mile or so (and more than a couple of ups and downs) away.

i'd managed to keep up a decent pace up to this point, but I took this opportunity to take a quick breather and get my heart rate down to something like normal.

we then ran across some moorland before turning left to descent to a farm trail, over a stile and into Wincle itself before turning right by the fishery to start the last series of ascents back to the fairground. i knew we couldn't have been far away now so pushed uphill at a jog over the crest of the hill and began to hear the announcer from the fair cheering the runners home. i could see that we had a couple of climbs still to make up to the fenceline above, so i cracked on and was soon making the final turn into the fairground. mrs theoptimisticrunner's cheers spurred a final burst from my tired legs and i ran into the final strait as strongly as i could.

with about 50 yards to go i became aware of another runner on my shoulder, so i gave a final kick to see him off - which he matched - so i pushed again, giving everything i had (the uphill finish added to the difficulty!) and managed to ease in just ahead of him, narrowly avoiding running into the runner in front in my frantic efforts to see off the other man!

i must confess i had a quick lie down (collapse?!?!) after crossing the finish line, still clutching my Free Trout Voucher, but after a welcome drink of water i was right as rain again.

next stops: Edale Country Day (perhaps), Kettleshulme (perhaps) and the National Three Peaks Challenge on the 18th-19th June (definately).

If anyone is feeling generous, you can sponsor us here - we are walking for Francis House Children's Hospice, a facility that provides respite care for terminally ill children.

thanks

the optimistic runner