The Cheshire Circuit

The Cheshire Circuit First Known Time

I completed The Cheshire Circuit route, going clockwise and including the optional ascent of Old Pale, in 24 hours 59 minutes. To the best of my knowledge, and that of the route organisers, this is the only known completion.

Strava link here

verified on Fastest Known Time site

My only deviations from the route were minor re-routing around farms to avoid cattle, and some navigational mistakes - mainly overnight around fields and going up Old Pale. I was tired and not thinking straight. All these deviations added time and distance, and none offered me any advantage.

I did it "supported" - with people giving me drinks and food and swapping clothes here and there. I didn't have anyone running with me as a pacer. The latter stages overlapped with a race, where I caught up with a few people so I got the benefit of a bit of company which was nice.

The idea

When I got into running a few years ago, completing the Sandstone Trail in one go was pretty much my ultimate goal. I'd done it as a series of day walks, but realising that it would be possible in one was an exciting prospect. I did that first in 2019, and a couple of times since.

As I got into longer distances and the idea of self-supported challenges, the thought of turning the route into a circuit occurred to me. Someone else obviously had the same idea, and not only thought up a route, but went out and put up hundreds of signs. These started to appear in Winter 2021, and without knowing the route yet I pretty much resolved there and then that I'd go for the FKT.

First attempt, 2022

The route was published in January 2022, and I waited a couple of months for the nights to shorten and went for it in March.

It had all been going so well until about 90km in, when my feet were getting very sore. Nine months earlier, on the Summer Spine Challenger, a medic had looked at my feet, and said, "I've never seen that before. Let me take a picture, I want to ask a colleague"... (never a very encouraging sign)..."well there's no blisters, but I'm concerned it looks like the skin is just breaking down, it's separating from your feet". This is the sort of thing that only happens with really long distances, particularly with wet feet.

Now, on my first TCC, I'd ended up in exactly the same situation, the skin was intact but delaminating from my feet, it was going dark and I had 50km to go in pain, with my dad driving round in the middle of the night to check on me. I struggled on a bit, but called it at the first road crossing after Nantwich.

As soon as my feet were fully healed, 10 days later I did the remaining portion.

Planning the second go

For my 2nd go, there were basically 5 decisions to make:

1. Direction. I decided clockwise, partly just to do the opposite to my first attempt so it would seem new.
2. Starting point - with it being a circuit I could choose anywhere. I went for the Commonside road crossing in Alvanley, just because it's closest to home.
3. Solo or team effort. My usual running partner in such things was out of action (I'm sure she'll be back soon..) and I didn't know anyone else daft enough, so no choice there.
4. Style - un-supported, self-supported or supported. I considered all three, but in the end chose supported.
5. Starting time. I chose afternoon, so that I wouldn't face the psychological drag of doing the latter stages in the dark.

Apart from that I consciously decided to resist planning much, I didn't want to overthink it like I do for some of these things.

A week before, I hit upon an idea to coincide with the Sandstone trail race, and got permission from the organisers to use their drinks stops. It fitted with all the other decisions I'd already made, and would make everything so much easier and more enjoyable. I just had to tweak my timings and try to get to the race start at about the right time.

Leg 1. Alvanley to Winsford

I started at 16:30 as planned and all was good. I'd basically had 2 weeks off running since the Yorkshire 3 Peaks race - I'd decided that training too much would risk injury and it was better to focus on rest between the two events. Now I was running comfortably though, over some terrain which is super-familiar.

On Frodsham marshes I met a bird-watcher who asked what I was doing. I explained that I was trying to complete a long distance footpath. "So where are you going down there then?". He'd caught me right at the end of the out and back section to the Manchester ship canal. He watched on slightly bemused as I ran past him then turned round 30 meters later. As if I was in any doubt that this project was a bit silly.

Along the lower stretches of the Weaver in the sunlight was particularly pleasant. I picked up my first food and drink stash from behind a wall in Frodsham. I'm always a bit wary of cattle, and was a bit alarmed to see an entire herd of bullocks running towards my end of a field. Realised that there was a fence between us, and they weren't coming for me. On the narrow path I was on, there were two cows I'd have to squeeze between. The bullocks were quite excited, and trying to poke their heads onto my side of the hedge. All this seemed to excite some maternal instinct in the cows (who were a different breed), and they started lactating. So there's this whole group of about 50 bullocks with their head through a fence, suckling on these strange cows, who seemed to tolerate the silly boys. Bizarre scene that I shuffled through cautiously! I do like seeing these random things in the countryside.

In Northwich I met Anna and Katie, two of the team who are going to do the route next month. They'd come out to meet me, a total stranger, and offer support and some water. Lovely of them to do so, great little boost in my lonely journey. I also got my second food stash.

Yeah it's an Easter egg, a gift from my boss.

Northwich to Winsford was a nice stretch - a lot of it is a wide path, so I put some music on and just went into autopilot.

I met my dad at Winsford, where he gave me a freshly made cup of tea and some hot pizza. Perfect! Picked up a coat for the night, and off again without too much faffing. It was just about fully dark.

Leg 2 - Winsford to Audlem

Head torch on, and onwards. Immediately made a navigational mistake! Caught it and picked up the right path, but an early sign of how the night would unfold.

I've ran through a whole night on six occasions, so it wasn't new to me, I just had to keep going. In the dark, navigation was tricky. I would usually prefer to use my phone as the best way to check, but even though I had a powerbank, it wouldn't charge (no idea why), so I had to turn my phone off to be able to use it in the morning. 

That technological failing, combined with my tiredness, added up to a few errors. My reserve navigation device was a Garmin handheld (GPS 64s). It's fine, and great in all weather which is why it was compulsory kit for the Winter Spine events. It's not as user friendly as a phone though, and it's a bit hard to move the map around.

At one point, around 1am, I turned left about 20m too early. That one error put me in the wrong field, and it took about 10 minutes to sort myself out, including a struggle though waist height nettles whilst wearing shorts. I figured the pain would keep me awake anyway (a John Kelly trick), but it's still itchy a day later!

There'd be more of that sort of thing. Each field was a mini-adventure. Can I find the exit correctly? (sometimes) Will I walk into a cow? (no, didn't do that) Will the grass be knee high? (usually yes!).

Leg 3 - Audlem to Whitchurch

It was just about dawn at Audlem. Obviously it's not a surprise that the world has turned round again, but it felt like rather a magical experience. Maybe I was just tired.

Martyn, the route founder, calls this section "The Link", and it takes you from the canal at Audlem to the Sandstone Trail start in a park in Whitchurch. He's made good creative use of existing rights of way, but it seems like nobody walks these routes, even the ones that would take you to pretty picnic sites in woods and riversides. They are all overgrown at this time of year and there's no footfall to flatten grass. Tall grass is hard going I found.

I don't want to be one of those walkers/runners who complains unreasonably about farmers doing their jobs when they generously permit people to walk across their land, but inevitably when these footpaths are used so little, it's not a top priority to accommodate walkers. There are electric fences across the rights of way and so on, stiles are in disrepair. I'm sure that if/when more people start using the paths, there'd be a way to get along. If that's one of the aims of The Cheshire Circuit being established, then it's all to the good.

The Link looks easy on paper, from the distance and elevation profile. It really isn't. All the while I was trying to pace myself to get to Whitchurch for the race start at 08:30. Despite a few navigation mistakes, which kept happening, I was about on schedule.

I didn't want to overdo anything at this stage. I was alternating running and walking to try and preserve my legs. The Sandstone trail is, to me, the most enjoyable section, so I didn't want to wreck my legs now trudging through this horrible long grass (it was starting to grate by this point!) and be unable to run any of the SST.

Leg 4 - Whitchurch to Alvanley

The race was due to start at 08:30. I was very much looking forward to the prospect of being amongst hundreds of runners, even though i knew my legs wouldn't enable me to keep up very well. I would also have been able meet more of the mid-summer 100 team.

Would I make it? I pulled into the park at 08:39, the race had started late, but they were gone 5 minutes ago. One less exploration of a random field and I'd have made it. A little disappointing but no drama.

My dad was there again so I got another cup of tea and a hot meal before setting off in pursuit. I started catching the walkers at the tail end of the field, and had a few nice chats. I wasn't running anywhere near my pace on the route in last year's race of course, but then I'd done 90km before the start. I feel like I was doing a decent job of mixing up walking and running, moving forward okay.

Since I'd caught the back of the pack, it meant the race aid stations would be open, which was a real blessing. More than the water and snacks, it was having little conversations from the volunteers which helped.

By race checkpoint 2 at Bickerton my feet were rather sore, so I took off my shoes and socks (for the first time) and sat on the grass for 15 minutes. It wasn't my best point, but there was no real damage to my feet, and with some painkillers, I was on my way.

The hills around Peckforton were fun, I was really able to push on a bit. Legs felt great both up and down hills, and the drugs had numbed the foot pain. Pretty much flew in and out of race checkpoint 3. Made some steady progress from here on, overtaking walkers here and there. Generally kept pace with them on the uphills then pushed on the downs.

I had to deviate from the race at Gresty's Waste - where the race took a diversion from the SST/ TCC to avoid a busy road crossing, I stuck to the official route. I also wanted to do the (optional) ascent of Old Pale - I'd come this far, so it would be a shame not to.

Straightforward from there on, touched the gate to finish in 24 hours 59 minutes 17 seconds. My wife and kids met me, and took me home and that was that.

My time has been registered on the Fastest Known Time site. I hope someone beats it soon. If you do, add your time, and let's see how low it can go.

Top tips

• Take care of your feet
• Keep a very close eye on navigation, particularly between Nantwich and Whitchurch where the route doesn't flow so obviously.
• "The Link" is harder than you think
• I'd rather have had poles for the hilly sections. I meant to, but forgot to pick them up.
• Having done both directions, I don't think it makes any difference to time or difficulty, so do what works out for you.
• With a bit of planning, self-supported could work well. There are a few towns with pubs/shops/cafes. Short off-trail diversions around Northwich would get you to a McDonald's or Domino's if you need late night junk food.

Thank you

Thanks to everyone who supported me and to my family for putting up with me abandoning them for most of the weekend to do this silly thing.

Thanks to Martyn who invented the route. There's a website at www.thecheshirecircuit.org/ and a free and nicely annotated book of maps is available.

My dad for coming out and waiting in car parks for hours to give me food and drink. The Sandstone Trail Challenge organisers from Helsby Running Club - Lesley and David, thank you for letting me use the aid stations. The volunteers for the race and everyone I met and chatted to on the route.

The Mid Summer 100 Crew for meeting me - they're going for a team effort in June, and for a very worthy cause.