Saturday 16th October

Report by Abi Tully

I was terrified of this race in the build-up, a fact I did not hide from family and friends (Sorry!). My fear derived from the length of the event (20 miles) and the hills (2,400 ft of ascent), and it wasn’t helped by Covid-postponements leaving me far too much time to think about it.

The run was much better than I had imagined. The conditions on the day were perfect, cool, dry and still. There was tea and coffee available at the start and there were plenty of apparently   ‘luxury’ portaloos meaning that there was no queuing for the toilet. Although whilst there was nothing wrong with the portaloos I didn’t spot any features that would qualify them for their self-proclaimed luxury status.

The race was mainly road and trail apart from a bit of skipping over rocks up at Stanage Edge and down at Padley Gorge. There was fuel and water at feed stations along the way, including one with a selection of cake on offer. I chose the largest slice of the largest cake on the table, a slab of tray bake topped with pink icing and sprinkles.  Eating it whilst running was not easy, and I did wonder as I nearly inhaled sponge crumbs if the cake was really meant for the walkers. On the run up to Stanage Edge I spotted a few birds of prey gliding and hovering overhead, and I wished I had Strider, and my go-to ornithology expert, Nicole Nield with me so she could tell me what birds they were.  Not much further on I did see a Strider as I heard shouts of ‘Go Abi’ and noticed Corinne Howse and her  family up on the rocks.

There was a lot of incline, but the whole event was eerily idyllic. At one point on a sweeping uphill stretch of road a rather well-spoken cyclist pulled up alongside me and informed me that I was keeping a good pace for the hill. Just when I thought I was running through some utopia I spotted some cows on the approach to Padley Gorge who looked most displeased that a race was passing through where they were grazing.  They appeared to have left some obstacles for runners to dodge.

The prize I actually deserved, was one for ‘The Most Needless Complaining Before a Race’, what I actually received was a calendar of Peak District Photography for third in the FV40 category, which was a lovely surprise.  The best result of the day, however, was that when I got home all the kids were at swimming and I got to sit down for 30 minutes in perfect peace.

9 Striders ran.  The Winner of the race was Jose Garcia M40 (Sheffield Triathlon Club) in a time of 2:27:01.  The winning female was Raquel Garcia-Cabrera FSen (also of Sheffield Triathlon Club) in a time of 2:47:31 and was 11th overall.