Pendle Way in a Day
Report by Claire Baker
On Saturday I completed the Pendle Way in a day. This is a 45 mile route with just under 8,000ft of ascent, starting and finishing in Barrowford. The organisers describe this as a gritty winter ultra over the trails and moorlands of the South Pennines. It’s fair to say that I didn’t give this route the respect it deserved before setting out but I learnt within the first 4 miles my mistake. The weather of continuous 40-50 mph winds and muddy conditions underfoot, unlike anything I’ve seen before, certainly made this route especially challenging. The organisers describe this as a fully way marked route however I’m unsure how they came to that conclusion. Fortunately for me I followed a gpx file so this wasn’t an issue but I rescued many other runners throughout the day who were definitely struggling with the navigation. The route offers 4 checkpoints, two of which are indoor and the other roadside but there were no marshals on the route and no self clips so the route was certainly open to interpretation by runners not following the gpx file.
At 35 miles runners start their long approach to Pendle Hill. I started my ascent just as dusk was approaching. The chosen race route doesn’t follow any defined paths and the wind, poor visibility and a useless head torch because of the fog made this quite scary. The race is low key so there are no trackers so I was also aware that nobody would know where I was. Fortunately the gpx file, despite leading me through heather and bracken predominately did finally take me to the summit. I had hoped that would be the worst over but by the time I came to start the descent heavy rain had set in making the stone slab steps particularly slippy. I was certainly relieved to get down in one piece, complete the final 7 miles and make it back to the finish in 10 hours 57 minutes and still be alive!
I later learnt that many runners had missed out Pendle Hill because they’d decided the conditions were too unsafe and I was surprised to see many at the finish changed and dry as I arrived in my dishevelled state. If I’d know what was to come I would certainly have made this call. I finished 5th lady and 34th overall but there is no distinction on the results from those that completed the full route and those that did not.
All that said I would definitely recommend the route for anyone wanting a challenging 45 miles but I’d maybe attempt it in summer with more daylight!