Edale Skyline 2012

Cadged a lift with NLN and Ian. Weather forecast looked set for fair and didn't disappoint. The 2 Charter's got their array of camera's out and we should be able to see the Peak District looking it's finest on their respective blogs anytime soon. With my local (ahem) knowledge I was able to direct them to the best early morning spot so will be taking a minor degree of reflective glory. If the piccies don't turn out good, then nowt to do wiv me guv!

Back to brass tacks, the race. Well as you gather training has been a bit hit and miss the year but I've been getting round stuff but not as well as last year. I was therefore pleased to see the cut-off extended by 15mins this year. So plan was set off at a slightly less harassed pace as I had 30 mins to play with from last year and see if it would help to give stronger legs for the 2nd half.

Can't say it worked too well. 2min down at Ringing Roger (1st CP), 7 mins down at Win Hill (3rd CP) 12 mins at Lose Hill (4th CP) and 15 mins at Mam Nick.

The only thing that I could salvage from this was that I cleared the cut-off time from last year(2hrs30mins) by 1 min. Even on the tops it was warm and I downed 3 cups of water at Mam Nick, after that I had to make do with what I was carrying. Just enough as it turned out as I sucked the last slurp at the last checkpoint.

The 2nd half had taken what felt a very weary 2hrs 27mins, so much so that I played 'follow my leader' and ignored the racing lines, which I know but needs a lot of focus. So just managed to shade it under the 5 hr mark, at 4hrs 56mins 15 sec. Compare this with last years 2hr14 and 2hr11 (total 4hr25mins)and you can see I was 15 mins slower first half and 16mins slower second. Consistently slow then!

Full results can be viewed here http://www.dpfr.org.uk/results/2764. Ian's on page 7 and I'm on the last page. 30 DNF's, but not sure how many of those were for missing the cut-off, as at Lose Hill I was reliably informed by a little lad helping out that I was number 307, but then again so was the lady 2 places in front!

TF