The Hope Moors & Tors Challenge is a 20 Mile fell race starting in the village of Hope and taking in Cave Dale, Mam Tor, Hollins Cross, Edale, Grindsbrook Clough, Jaggers Clough and Lose Hill. All in all, tough terrain!
Quick results below
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Position Time
45 out of 95 4:16:03
Split times (Course route)
1 - 39:41 2 - 50:45 3 - 1:04:03 4 - 1:15:12 5 - 1:51:12 6 - 2:41:34 7 - 3:07:30 8 - 3:34:33 9 - 3:51:03 10 - 4:16:03
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On the morning of this race I nearly had to pull out of it due to the horrendous rain that was lashing down as I set off from Stockport. The road under the bridge near Furness Vale was flooded quite deeply and I had to turn back. Before taking an alternative route to the start I rang the organiser, the conversation went something like this:
Me: Hi, I'm struggling to reach you due to the flooded roads from the heavy rain, I'm just wondering if the race is even still on?
Yorkshire man: *said with confusion* err, yes of course its still on.
Me: What are the road conditions like where you are?
Yorkshire man: I've had reports that its a little wet on the roads, but nothing major.
Me: OK thanks, I'll try and get through (privately thinking Yorkshire man must think I'm a right wimp now)
Thankfully when I got there it turned out that whilst it was raining in Hope, it was nowhere near as bad as I had experienced getting there. The course is a figure of 8 shape centred on Hollins Cross and starting and finishing in the South East corner (Hope)
For this event we used dibbers to check in at each checkpoint. After checking in at the start we all lined up. The course had a cut off of getting to Edale in 1.5 hours, which I thought was particularly tough time limit and was a little concerned about breaking, so there'd be no daudling in the first section! The whistle went and we were off. The first couple of miles were a little bunched up, and stiles don't work to well in grouped race conditions, thankfully they were also quiet flat. I knew the climb up Cave Dale would be an early test from my experience on the Bullock Smithy, what I didn't expect was to meet my fellow Bullock Smithy Cave Dale companion Bernard on it! What a coincidence! We had a quick laugh as we climbed and then I pushed on.
After the tough climb I came across the first checkpoint and dibbed in. After a flat section which provided a welcome respite, I came to the next checkpoint at the foot of Mam Tor. The climb up Mam Tor was tough, and I pushed a little to hard I think looking back. The field was starting to thin out now, and I ran down to Hollins Cross making use of the downhill to up the pace. After dibbing in at the centre of the figure 8, I headed North West. The path was a little confusing, and I pushed harder to keep up with two guys in the distance as to lose them would mean wasting time reading the map. I reached Edale and dibbed in. It had taken me 1 hour 15 minute, but the cut off had cost my energy levels dearly. I gobbled some biscuits down and jogged off in a more casual fashion feeling more relaxed now that there were no more cutoffs.
My happy feelings quickly evaporated though as I came upon Grindsbrook Clough for the first time in my life. On the map its marked as a main footpath... the reality is that it starts of as a nice easy trail, then starts to climb and gets more uneven, then starts to go over large rocks and climb fairly sharply, and finally the foot path disappears and is replaced by a slope of boulders and rocks that you have to climb up on all fours! Throw in a swollen stream from the rain and you get the idea of how tough this section was! I was glad to get to the top and dib in at the checkpoint!
The course then turned East along the Kinder plateau as we ran along the cliff face. This was tough going to with the odd smooth large boulder. It looked a little like Mordor from Lord of the Rings due to the peat soil and the rocks which where a dark colour. This was the longest section, and it felt like it lasted forever. My body was definitely on a downward spiral by now due to the terrain, and I slowed down to preserve what reserves I had, as there was still a tough climb to come!
Dibbing in near Jaggers Clough I was glad that the route continued downhill. The stream in Jaggers Clough was a mess with the stepping stones under a couple of inches of water from the stream. I was running really low on water by this point though as the Sun was now out and there'd been no water at the last two checkpoints due to their remoteness. I made the cardinal mistake of following another runner towards the turn off near Clough farm, but the chap in front picked the wrong route, and I like a lemming followed and so added about a mile onto the course! Running up the driveway to the Youth Hostel whilst everyone else was running down was pretty embarressing I tell you! Thankfully there was loads of water and biscuits at the checkpoint so I stocked up for the last big push.
Leaving the Youth Hostel we headed towards Hollins Cross and began the difficult climb. It was pretty sheer, definitely no running up the hill! After getting to the top and dibbing in, I noticed Mike from the Bullock Smithy was with me and I had a brief conversation between the big gasps for air! It didn't get any easier as we headed towards Lose Hill. Another tough climb and disappointing to see Mike and his companion blatently cheat on this section as the checkpoint has one stile before the top of Lose Hill, and they took a shortcut after it instead of following the directions to the very top of Lose Hill.
Finally though I was on the home straight, though by now I was running on fumes, and struggling to get a pace faster then a zomie ambling in some 1950's B movie. I was glad when I eventually found myself on the main road going through Hope with the finish line in sight. Dibbing in at the finish was a huge relief, as it had been a tough 20 miles, and my pace to begin with had been too quick and I doubt I could have carried on much longer.
Overall this is an excellent race taking in some spectactular scenary. I really enjoyed it and was pleased with my performance. The tomato soup at the end was particularly refreshing! :) A big thanks to the organisers!
Cheers
Andy
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