Last year Martin enjoyed the pain and suffering so much, he went back for more....

After last year’s failure to complete the Fellsman, I was quite apprehensive this time so my main aim was to set off quite steadily. On an event like this, a steady start is always supported by a bit of chat with all the other runners you’ve got to know over the years. But very quickly, the chatting stops and the focus shifts to climbing Ingleborough. On the summit it was very windy (as it would be on every top this year) but there were excellent views and reasonable weather. I never feel too confident descending down the very rocky path from the top of Ingleborough and therefore normally drop back a little at this stage. For the next few hours, it’s up and down mountains with little change until about 20 miles into the race, when Dent is reached. This is where things normally start to get more interesting. Competitors that start too quickly will normally start to show signs of wear and tear at this stage. This year I ended up within a group of 7 runners, and off and on each of us tried to get away from the others, but in the end we always met up again (and eventually got grouped together for the night section, several hours later).

After Dent it’s a long, steady climb before the first proper section across moorland onto Blea Moor. After this checkpoint I hoped to get ahead, when I noticed a couple of guys from the group following too far along a fence line. Knowing the more direct line, I made it to the next check point at Stonehouse ahead of them, but only just. This checkpoint offers hot pasta for re-fuelling and the stop here normally takes a little longer, long enough this year for the weather to turn and heavy rainfall to start. I accepted the challenge first and was back heading for the climb onto Great Knoutberry. This is an out and back climb, providing an opportunity to judge how far others are ahead of you. This year it was more of a check to see if others were freezing equally. Half way up the climb, rain turned into sleet and together with the strong wind it went very cold, I started to shiver quite badly. Back down at the next checkpoint at Redshaw, I had to stop and change to put on some dry clothing as a base layer, and to try to warm up a bit. I was trying to get some hot tea with sugar, but did not manage to keep any sugar on a spoon. As the weather forecast was for an improvement in the afternoon, I decided to get out again and try to warm up whilst on the move. By this time, the other guys had passed me at the check point and I needed to catch them up again. Battling my way over the rough ground to Fleet Moss and beyond I managed to catch them up where the sun came out, my shivers stopped and all turned out quite well.

Soon enough we dropped down into Cray, with only Buckden Pike and Great Whernside ahead of us. At this point, movement was mostly reduced to a brisk walk, with the occasional shuffle. Still we moved on steadily, got grouped for the night at Park Rash and made it to the top of Great Whernside before nightfall. Only half way down from Great Whernside it became necessary to turn on the head torch, although even the 2nd last checkpoint at Cappleston Gate could be seen from some distance. From there on navigation gets fairly easy, as the path into Yarnburry is marked by flashing beacons. Once at Yarnburry, night grouping is lifted and it’s a 2 Mile road section to the finish, mostly downhill. Unfortunately, I am not too much of a 5 minute / mile road runner; and therefore finished towards the back end of our group.

Still I was happy to have finished this time and glad that it was over for another year. My time was 14hours 4 minutes, 24 minutes faster than at my last successful attempt.

regards

Martin Dietrich

Map courtesy of Fellsman website

Photo shows Martin competing in the 2007 event (taken by by Ian Hill)

(C)2009 Martin Dietrich