Tour of Pendle 16.8m/4850ft

The intrepid trio were off again, however this time we had a substitute – ‘Matt’ in place of EtU. Having watched two weather forecasts before I left home I did begin to wonder whether the BBC would be better off just sticking to News and Sport. It looked a ‘compass’ sort of day glancing out of my window. 20miles further north, the conditions began to match the forecast.

Something new for me was a collection of little tags to hand in at each check-point. You can tell I’m a novice – I counted them all and checked all the numbers. Well would you believe it! I had 12 ‘131’ and 2 ‘130’. Imagine the confusion that could have created. Mind you I’d have liked a couple of spares just in case any dropped off. Lots of ‘tug’ tests later and I was reasonably convinced I wasn’t going to lose any on the way round.

The race organiser managed to engender a communal spirit when told we had to stick to path next to the wall after CP1. Groan all round. Issues to do with erosion have begun to affect Pendle Hill, I’m guessing he’s trying to ensure the race lasts another 25 years. When recceing this bit, I’d only got so far when ‘I don’t think so’ struck, and headed off onto the moor to locate a better route. I knew it wouldn’t be YJ’s favourite section of the course. So it was to be, I passed him a bit further on as he was carefully negotiating a few more bits of ‘sticky-up’ rocks. ‘Matt’ had long disappeared into the distance by this time. My worry was how much sticking to wall on this section was going to affect my time at the cut-off point. As I climbed over the stile onto Spence Moor I had 15mins to cross the top and get down ‘geronimo’. I managed to keep my bum clear of most of it and 7mins later I handed my tag in at the bottom.

Have a look at these http://picasaweb.google.com/David.Massey.Pilgrim/TourOfPendle2009#
and give them marks out of ten for style & artistic merit – Matt 262-268, TF 284-292 & YJ 300-304

The rest was a picnic! I munched my way through Jelly Beans, Nuts, Fruit, Cake and Chocolate – saved that for last climb. Aside from a little bit of clag on the first climb it was a lovely clear day all the way round, perfect for my first attempt. My drop off for CP 9 needs a bit of work, but overall really pleased with my efforts.

YJ was there to cheer me in at the finish, as he’d done with Matt some 20mins earlier. For YJ, it was to turn out to be a disappointing Tour of Pendle as he’d had to call it a day at the half-way point. A long wait to see us both home, much appreciated YJ. Matt managed 4hrs16mins and I did 4hrs 37mins. There were two runners tied for first place. Time was 2hrs 20-something – the stickers were too high up the wall for me to be able to read them properly, so didn’t get their names/club.

At time of going to press I can report that I can manage to come down the stairs facing forward, unlike three weeks ago! Think I'll avoid the hard stuff from now on.

TF