Tour of Pendle (21st Nov 2009)

I know this is a bit of a way off, but tentative discussions have indicated that TF, YJ and Matt are up for this one. However, TF and Matt have expressed a wish to hone their route choice with a recce.

Other wfdbwgua'ers have suggested 'away days' and I wonder whether it would be possible to combine the two with the added potential for our 2 fledgling navigators to test out their newly learned skills (no pressure girls!). Because of Cross Country and Haircut commitments the only Saturday I could make would be the 14th Nov. Handy as this is one week before the race.

The tricky bits as far as the race is concerned are
1) locating the turn off for the trod to check point 2
2) locating the turn off for the trod to check point 5
3) locating the best line for check point 9
3) Locating the best line for check point 11

The map of the race route is located here http://www.clayton-le-moors-harriers.co.uk/uploads/Archives/Tour/TOPendle_Map.pdf

I don't think we need to recce all of it, so my initial thoughts would be to do the following

1) Follow race route from start to turn off for trod to CP2, (build cairn),
2) Stay on main track and follow until turn off for CP5 (build cairn)
3) Follow race route to turn off for CP9 (build cairn)
4) Follow race route to finish

By my reckoning this gives us nearly 12m and most of the climbs except the one from CP3. Outside guess of 3.5hrs? My time for the full route last year was 4hr37mins, having got through the 2hr cut-off at CP4. I appreciate that some of you may be on tighter dealines and therefore a shorter route would be to go from the start to CP4, and then following race route to CP5 etc, thus effectively doing the 2nd half of the race. At a guess about 9m and do-able (is that a word?) in 2.5hrs? If we arranged to be in Barley for a start some time between 8.30 and 9.00am we could be done by lunchtime. I think car-sharing would be extremely sensible.

Any thoughts?

TF

ps On an important financial note pre-entry is £5 but on the day it's £10 - quite a mark-up. I personally will be pre-entering!!