My former nemesis, now team mate, rolled in to pick me up at 9am and we drove out to Church Stretton, Shropshire to test our meddle in the Stretton Skyline fell race. Roughly 4500 vertical feet over 19 miles, 5 major climbs with major descents. I'd never been out to this part of the country despite it being an hour away. We drove through the standard rolling farmland I wish was mountains then after about 40 minutes the topography began to morph into huge hills some topped with ragged crags until we arrived in Church Stretton.
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| Church Stretton, image from Wikipedia |
The town is situated between the Long Mynd or long mountain and the Caer Caradoc a huge set of hills. The race course was essentially a loop around town going up and down a portion of these hills. A beautiful sunny day greeted us and we started in a parking lot and then headed uphill following a gnarly rocky trail along a creek that brought back memories of hiking the granite paths of the Sierra Nevada.
A few small water crossings and a short section of class 4 rock scrambling brought us to the ridge line and giant hills covered in purple heather (I think). It was a very surreal landscape, and I got the same feeling much like the first time you go to South Eastern Utah.
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| race start location, image from Wikipedia |
Below is the "race map" which I have posted before. To the left of the photo the Long Mynd with Pole Bank summit, to the right the Caer Caradoc with the Ragleth, Caer Caradoc, and Lawley summits. The fifth and most brutal and deceiving climb finished at Motts Rd. Junction which then was a bomber downhill descent to the finish. All of the summits you went up one side and down the other, other than Lawley summit which was an out and back.
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| course profile from MapMyRun, the vertical isn't correct |
So I've done long races, been out for a day and done much more vertical feet than this race, ran gnarly trails, etc. However what set this race apart from others is that there were no course markings or people telling you where to go (other than a few dangerous road crossings and some minor signage to the finish and over private property). Unless you had run the course or had a real map you would have no idea of where to go. In the past leaders have gotten off course and lost 5 miles! So other than the print out from the race website I had nothing so I had to keep within sight of someone who knew the course. The only course requirement was you had to go through 8 checkpoints. (There had been a gear requirement but they did away with it due to good weather). Otherwise the fastest route you could find is the best! Pretty cool idea. Over some sections people were all over the place; careening down hills, scrambling up hills, following different trails. At one point we were following a more or less trail on a ridge line and the two guys behind us bombed straight down the hill into the woods! We came out ahead but still it could have been faster.
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| pain cave descent photo credit: http://www.fellrunningpictures.co.uk/strettonskyline2012.html |
Other than the hills we ran through a series of fields, people's yards, hopping fences, going through gates, chasing sheep, as well as a few short sections of road. The final climb was the worst, a lower angled slog not steep enough to walk and just steep enough to make running painful and it lasted for a little over 2.5 miles.
Most of the climbs it was quickest to walk straight up them, your heart rate or legs still don't get a rest however! I try to ski walk everything in order to use different muscles but it ends up being faster than normal walking so I'd start to pull away from people, the same people who I needed to follow in order to find the finish line! I always hated all the ski walking we'd do in dryland training for Nordic ski practice especially coming fresh off of cross country running season but it is a life saver for this stuff!
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| photo credit: http://www.fellrunningpictures.co.uk/strettonskyline2012.html |
The final descent into the finish was fun but the very last mile or so killed my quads. I was passed on the final climb but then once I hit the downhill I smoked down the trail and reeled the guy back in. The trail was really rocky, loose, and had some stream crossings on it but was fun and I forgot about the pain since I was concentrating on my footing and having so much fun. Total out of control running the entire way dodging hikers and horses! I caught up to the guy and then we hit the road we started on. This time of the day it was full of tourists and there was some crazy dance going on in the street which we zig-zagged through laughing! Once we were clear of the "animated cones" the downhill pavement took it's tole on me and the guy in fourth pulled away again. I suffered it in the final bit to finish 5th. Not too bad for my first fell race!
One other difference compared to US races (besides no markings) was how it was an open course. We had to cross dangerous major road sections at our own risk, there were horse back riders, walkers, backpackers, etc. everywhere. All of these people were super tolerant of runners blazing by. It seems to me in the US most people would be pissed off about this. Just an observation that I thought was pretty cool.
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