Tour of Pendle seems like a bit of a marmite race - either folk think the route is a stroke of genius or a convoluted mess. I've decided I fall into the former category. Basically the route consists of various climbs and descents around Pendle Hill in Lancashire, with the first half of the race really nice, bit of bog but mostly nice going - up to the summit trig, down to Nick of Pendle (where I learned to ski about 10 years ago now...) and then a climb up over Spence Moor. So far, so BM. You descend a hill known as Geronimo to the clough, where there's a 2 hour cutoff to make. Past the cutoff, you jog up the clough, back over towards the Nick of Pendle and then the fun of three increasingly steep climbs and descents along the hill, before a final 3 mile or so descent to Barley.
A good number of us from the club recced the course about a month before the race, making the cutoff in 1hr 55, and the whole route in 4hrs 20ish. So I knew I should be able to get around. One of us said he'd done the route 5 times, so knew it well enough - so my nav wasn't needed (well, a bit, when he took us the wrong way). It was during this recce that some misinformation was spread around the club about my ability to eat pork pies and jelly babies and I'd like to set the record straight. I had decided to eat a pork pie on the first of the three big climbs, which would force me to take things steady. It was a cracking pork pie too, from the butchers on North Lane in Headingley. All was going well, I was flagging a wee bit but holding my own sufficiently behind the faster runners. The bottom of the second climb was where things went slightly south. Having descended to the checkpoint, you immediately cross the beck and climb up the hill again. I was suffering on the climb and at the top my pal Josh from the club, who had dragged me round our leg of the fell relays a few weeks earlier, offered me a jelly baby, still in his bag from the relays. I normally like munching on jelly babies, and often do without problem, but my body had decided that this damp, slimy thing was too much, so having not even swallowed it, I made some weird retching sound and rejected it. I'm blaming the manky jelly baby, not the pork pie. So there. Big End (the final climb, up to the trig) was awful, but it went. Then an excellent descent back to the clough and down to Barley, learning what to aim for and not hit the wrong path.
So with a successful recce done, I was feeling reasonable going towards the race. Entry is old school - a cheque and paper entry form in the post, so having ordered a chequebook from the bank I filled in the form, ummed and aahed whether or not this was a good idea and sent it off. My running has got a wee bit better in the past couple of months following on from my winter lockdown lack of fitness, and having raced the past couple of weekends (getting some stick on the start line for wearing very shiny new mudclaws to Wadsworth Half Trog - well, it was either wear them new for the Half Trog, or Pendle) I felt that, as long as nothing horrific happened, I'd get round. Friday night came, I'd packed all possible layer combinations, had a pretty restless sleep and Saturday morning arrived. I had the usual thought on the drive over of if I'd packed my shoes, or two left shoes etc - I had packed a matching pair of shoes so all was well. We registered and picked up our t shirts, no beer this year (a Moorhouse's logo on the race number, but not the t shirt) and did some faffing and nattering. Will from the club was returning from injury so we made a mini pact to try and stick together, and aim for somewhere in 3:30 - 4hrs. Dave had 3:15 in mind, and Mike wanted somewhere around 3:30 - having done 3:27 in 2019 "when he was fitter". We lined up on the lane outside the start, moved out the way for a Tesla who chose the wrong time to go out and had a headcount. Kieran apologised for the lateness, assured the steadier runners that they'd still get through the CP4 cutoff as long as they were under 2 hours from the start of the race and we set off. From mine and Will's mid-pack position, we didn't even hear 'go'. Will set a good pace going up the lane past the reservoir and as we hit the fell, we passed Dave running alongside fell running celebrity Nicky Spinks - Dave wished us a good race, and I said I'd see him soon.
We took the first climb steady - as there was a long way to go and on the excellent descent from the summit down to Nick of Pendle, Will pulled ahead and I let him - I wasn't burning out here - and Dave came storming past, telling us to enjoy the descent. It's great. The climb up over Spence Moor was a steady affair, followed by Geronimo. What a descent. The ground falls away in front of you and gets increasingly steep down into the clough. It's a brilliant sight and probably my favourite bit of the race route, even though I am a poor descender. Another fairly steady affair and I was passed by a few runners, who I later caught on the climb out of the clough. A check of the watch - 1 hr 20. Excellent. The race started proper now, and on the descent over Pendleton Moor I overtook Dave, and he overtook me, reminding me to eat something. I was enjoying this bit, a passing supporter said "hope you're still smiling on Big End" - yeah I replied unconfidentally! When I hit the first of the big three climbs, the jelly babies came out. No rejection today. I offered one to a lad I passed, who looked like he wasn't enjoying himself: I hope he knew what was coming. The final three climbs are a sufferfest, but they go. I saw Will ahead of me on the second climb, but there was no way I was going to catch him on the climb. I passed Dave again at some point, maybe on the first climb. I just kept telling myself how many climbs were left. I was passed by someone walking up backwards up Big End who said he'd been cramping. Crawling worked for me, and I eventually made it to the trig. It seemed the tactic of saving some energy for the final grassy descent and mile of tarmac worked - and I passed quite a few folk in front of me, without getting overtaken myself. The finish arrived, 3hr 8. Sorted. I had got round and had a belter. And I'd beaten Nicky Spinks. Everyone else from the club had a good run too, which was excellent. A post race sausage barm (and it was a barm) and a brew in the village hall sorted me right out.
What a race, I got round in a respectable length of time, and my first completion of an AL. Maybe I can go sub 3?