Lady Anne Way, 29 January
Report by Matt Holt
The Lady Anne Way is a 100-mile race from Skipton to Penrith, with lots of off road mud to enjoy along the way.
The event started at 6 am on Saturday morning, and having recced quite a lot of it, knew what to expect. We started, at Skipton Castle, by running in the opposite direction to the official route, so maybe that recce wasn’t worth doing after all?? But after a mile tilt so, we soon joined the official route and were well on way.
A bit weird starting a race using a headtorch, but it was January at 6am, so what do you expect? A vehicle checkpoint at 7 miles allowed for water top up, and chance to lose the headtorches. Then onwards to Grassington. As we got higher, the wind really started to pick up, but wasn’t too much of a concern, and we reached Grassington at 15 miles without any problems.
The next section to Kettlewell saw the wind at gale force, the higher the ground and more exposed we got, the more just standing up became the main priority. I’ve never been out in such windy conditions, and even trying to run downhill was impossible, the wind just pushed you around and walking was a real effort.
After another 7 miles of these conditions, we finally reached Kettlewell at 22 miles, and I expected to walk into the village Hall and find bodies piled up and organisers cancelling the race, but no, everyone was fine. It was just me. I felt exhausted and to be honest, my head and heart had gone. All the other runners in the hall looked exactly as they should, a bit battered but ready to refuel and raring to get going again. I on the other hand was not, and I definitely gave up too easily.
Having done 40 ultra races and had 40 finishes up to October 2021, I’ve now had 2 DNFs in the last 3 ultras. Not the kind of preparation I had planned for the Northern Traverse in 9 weeks’ time. You do start to wonder if you just can’t do it anymore.
Anyway, some good news. While waiting for Jill to collect me, Colm O’Cofaigh came into the checkpoint, and after a coffee and some vegetable stew, he headed back out. I really admired Colm, and the others, for carrying on. As I type, Colm is on his way to Kirby Thore, fingers crossed for him. Needless to say my congratulations go to him on another epic adventure, for battling on through the night, whatever the eventual outcome.
Note: Colm completed the run in 34 hours and 10 minutes.