Northern Traverse 2024
Northern Traverse 2024 (DNF)
Summary, in format shamelessly copied from John Kelly.
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The Event
The Northern Traverse race follows Wainwright's well known 300 km coast to coast route from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay. This year, 69 out of 107 starters reached the finish (64%). I didn't (but still managed to write about it).
Absolutely superb event. I love this kind of thing - it feels more like an adventure, playing to the skills I want to explore, rather than a pure running race (which I wouldn't be great at). There's variety to the route, long gaps between checkpoints (up to 55km), and we're left alone to be self sufficient in making our way. I've done a few Spine events, and this has a pretty similar ethos - if anything there's slightly less support, nobody checks we have a spork (or what size it is!), and there aren't so many visible race staff outside checkpoints.
I had an awesome time and learnt a fair bit despite the non-finish. Also met loads of inspirational people.
Patting myself on the back...
This was undeniably a decent achievement. I started the year unsure if I could run at all, due to an annoyingly persistent minor injury. Managed to balance recovery from that, strengthening muscles I didn't know existed, and getting in some running miles to arrive on the starting line ready to give 300km a go. I did two and a half marathon distances before stopping.
I made some good kit decisions, got on with things as I wanted to. I felt comfortable in situations that would have freaked me out even a couple of years ago. I dug myself out of at least one low point. Nearly 28 hours means it's the third longest duration of this sort of thing I've ever done, and 3300 m is a fair bit of elevation for a lowland Cheshire person, so that'll be why my legs are a bit sore right now!
Some things to be proud of there. Would have preferred to get to the end, but part of the deal about trying hard things is they don't always go to plan.
On the other hand...
I quit, less than half way through. To anyone reading this thinking I threw the towel in too early (i.e. myself), I hear you! For me, a part of the appeal of ultras like this is to pore over the experience and criticise myself, and prepare better for the next one, so maybe it's Type 2 negativity?
Preparation
Training wasn't perfect, I picked up a glute sprain three months before which limited the amount I could run. Silver lining was that it prompted me to see a physio, who advised me on some strengthening exercises which I'm sure did some good.
I'd had my eye on this race for a couple of years, and although I didn't do a single recce of the course, I did give it quite a bit of thought. Last year, when I did the Cheshire Circuit, part of the reason I went the opposite direction to my previous attempt was to get navigation practice on a long run with the NT in mind.
I'd planned to take the train up to St Bees, but due to rain strikes ended up hiring a car and offering lifts to others in the same predicament. So we had 5 of us, including the legendary Eoin Keith as well as Jonathan from Sweden, Glenn from Norway and Jukka from Finland, chatting about many aspects of ultra running for 3 hours, which was entertaining. I got a little bit of imposter syndrome as apparently by far the most of my depth of the group, but nothing to seriously dent my confidence.
On arrival, I handed in my drop bag as soon as possible to avoid any temptation to faff overnight. Met some more lovely people and went for an early night in hotel.
Weather in Northern England in April can be pretty much anything. This time we had a lot of waterlogged ground after a very wet start to the year, and a named Storm (Kathleen) about to hit on day one.
Start
Picked up the traditional pebble to carry from sea to sea
I headed to the start chatting to Eoin. For him, this is familiar territory, but for me it was a step into something way out of my comfort zone. I told him i wouldn't be surprised to see him in a podium position, but he brushed it off with characteristic modesty, saying he was slowing down with age. (When I broke it to him 4 miles from the finish that he would be coming in joint 5th his exact words were "fucking hell, really?! Pardon my French").
There was a bit of wind at the start, but we knew the real impact of Storm Kathleen would hit later when we were in the Lakes. Heading along the cliff top paths, which went on for ages, the main concern was staying upright in the mud and avoiding an ankle injury. Heading inland, I managed to pick up to a run more often wherever it was flat and reasonable ground conditions, and made decent progress. Lots of this section was on muddy fields, so not pushing too hard, but pleased to be running my own race, feeling confident.
Timing point: Ennerdale Bridge, 25km
Around Ennerdale (3.5 hours in) I started to catch up some of the Lakes Traverse competitors, who'd had an hour's head start on us. The rocky lakeside path was where things started to get really wet - the path generally coming over shoe height. After the end of the lake, there's an easy forest road, very runnable. Fine, and a nice change, but started to get a bit boring after a while. (Be careful what you wish for!).
Stepping out of the forest up to Black Sail hut and the first real hill, that's when Storm Kathleen really made itself felt. I popped into the toilet to put on waterproof trousers, safety goggles and some music and then out into it. I was alone, and enjoyed the exhilaration of being blasted by the wind. When the strong gusts hit, even at this low altitude, I was having to pause and dig my poles in the ground just to stay upright. The climb up Loft Beck towards Grey Knotts was intense, really steep and with the wind getting worse the higher we got.
At the top I reached a Lakes Traverse competitor (Simon) who'd sat down and I stopped to check he was okay. He was fine, just getting his poles out, but a minute later I found someone (not in the race) who was seriously struggling. She was repeatedly getting blown over and needed help to stand even. You could get cold very quickly in these conditions, so Simon and I helped her along, physically picking her up more than once and helping fasten her coat. This lost me a bit of time, but nothing in the long run, and of course the right thing to do.
The gusts had been forecast to be around 75 mph on summits, and I can believe that. The Winter Spine Sprint I did last year (featuring constant 55 mph winds for 6 hours) had given me a taste of this, and I drew on that experience.
We knew it would be calmer on the other side of the hill and once we were happy she was on her way to safety, I split up and pushed ahead of Simon again. Music back on, and able to run a bit on the descent despite some cramp.
Borrowdale Checkpoint, 46km
At this little checkpoint I had some pizza and a quick cup of tea. Simon appeared just as I was ready to leave, but he didn't want much more than a water top up so we decided to go together. We got on well, and both thought company could be good on the next three high hills.
The next ascent was again steep, and windy. We worked well as a partnership, he was good with the navigation. My role in the team seemed to be to help push the pace on the climbs in particular, plus it was just nice to chat. Unlike me, a self described "ultra runner", this other guy moving at the same speed over the same land at the same time was a proud "hiker/walker". Really interested to hear some of his recent achievements.
These hills were beautiful too, which probably made this my favourite section.
Grasmere timing point, 57km
Simon only had to get to Shap to finish his race, whereas I had a lot longer (I hoped), so I did a quick foot check at Grasmere while we got our head torches out. My feet looked fine, so just a change of socks. We got word that due to the extreme weather, the organisers had put in a diversion to stay at low level rather than go over Kidsty Pike, which meant that this (up to Grisedale Tarn) would be the last major hill of the Lake District. It was soon back in ankle deep water. A tough climb in the dark, with me leading the way again.
The way down was tricky underfoot with lots of rocky sections. To my mind, poles were essential on most of the route I saw, I don't know how anyone would manage without them.
Patterdale checkpoint, 69km
We got into Patterdale about 23:00. After some coffee and onion bhajis (wonderful combination) and probably a slightly overlong kit faff I was ready to go back out after 45 minutes. Simon very politely waited for me to be ready.
The basic gist of the normal route from here was something I had my head round - up another big hill (Kidsty Pike), a difficult descent, a lakeside path then a bit of farmland into Shap village. Thankfully the revised route avoided the hill, but it took us into the night on a route which made no sense to me.
I was letting Simon navigate - firstly because he was amazing at it (thank you!), and also because I wanted to preserve battery life on my navigation devices. My old phone had stopped working (hence no photos of route). I could at any stage have got out my good phone, or my handheld GPS if needed. In theory, letting Simon find the way made it easier for me to just follow, but the self inflicted disorientation was a bit stressful, and in truth I regret not turning on the GPS device.
Simon was absolutely storming along though. We got overtaken by so called runners, but soon after he'd be marching us past them. Nick Summers latched on to us as in his words "this guy [Simon] seems to know what he's doing" - indeed! The three of us trudged onwards through I don't even know what (Askham Fell apparently). In the middle of the night I usually hit a mental low, and I slightly wanted to stop (which would be a very bad idea). All I knew was I had to stick with these guys and not let them down by slowing.
It was still dark when we reached Shap at 05:30, a huge relief.
Shap checkpoint, 93 km
Simon's race (Lakes Traverse) ended here. I didn't spend enough time congratulating him (sorry), I went into problem solving mode. I had two problems: general exhaustion, and feet.
The exhaustion was easy to deal with. I ate, I drank tea, I lay on the floor for 15 minutes dozing (not sure if i went to sleep), I got up and I drank more tea. The dawn also helped. Sorted.
My feet would take longer - they looked quite macerated, and I had a couple of deroofed blisters (I've learnt not to be squeamish about such things). I decided not to put my shoes on until they looked like normal feet. If that took an hour or two I'd just wait for as long as it took. They weren't yet as bad as they'd ever been, but I feared they'd deteriorate quickly going back out into muddy puddles straight away. So I'd let them recover a bit now, let the medic check them over, then do the same at Kirkby Stephen and see where I was.
It felt like a positive plan, and I was in a decent mindset. I'd shifted my expectations, mentally reset and was up for giving this a go. I'm pretty pleased with how I got my head round that. From here, 93 km and 20 hours in, things would start to happen. A really clear example of how fortunes diverge is that Nick Summers, Nick Russell and I arrived at Shap within a minute of each other:
- Nick R would finish the race in 77 hours, validating my ambitious pre-race goals. I'd roughly targeted between 72 and 80 hours - Nick showed it was possible from where we were, even in these conditions.
- Nick S would finish in 99.5 hours, after some struggles with sleep deprivation, showing that solving problems and stubbornly plodding on would get the job done.
- I would quit the race 20 km later.
I was at Shap for 2.5 hours. The gale force winds were forecast to continue until around 14:00, so I couldn't afford to wait that out. I set out alone and for the first time since joining Simon, I was navigating myself again. Again being hit by the wind as the landscape was very exposed, but enjoying myself. Only 30 km to Kirkby Stephen, let's go!
I'd decided to walk to take care of my feet, fearful that I'd shear the skin off and be left in a right mess. As I stopped to consider a deep stream crossing, Simon Lewis caught me. His feet hadn't been great at the CP either. It wasn't long after that I started to feel my feet going wrong. It was so very wet, ankle deep again. It felt like the skin on my toes was starting to move around, the start of something wrong happening.
At the first road crossing, I took a sock off to have a look. Maceration had returned, with some cracks in the skin starting to open up - worse than when I got into Shap and I still had a few more hours of this before I could dry off. I sat down and got passed by a few people who tried to encourage me to carry on, but I realised I was done.
I reckoned I could get myself to Kirkby Stephen, there's a chance my feet would recover after another couple of hours, but then I'd be back onto the notoriously boggy Nine Standards section, which (a) is wet, (b) has no phone reception (c) sounds like an unpleasant place to be alone in the dark, is difficult to navigate and (d) could be a very cold place if I couldn't keep moving.
I thought through how it could pan out. I figured that the best case scenario was that I'd get over Nine Standards and off the hill, and into Richmond, but slowly and probably in pain. I couldn't realistically convince myself that I'd go much further. It wasn't worth the risk of something considerably worse happening. If I was going to stop, which now seemed inevitable, then now was the time to do it.
The End
Sitting in Orton church vestibule waiting for my lift.
I made the call and walked down the road to the nearest village to wait for a lift. One of the race staff picked me up and delivered me to Kirkby Stephen.
I had a holiday cottage booked in Hawsker for my wife and kids, so I spent the next three days recovering there, watching dots and popping out whenever a competitor went past. I had some lovely chats with many people from Juha in 4th place, all the way down to the incredible Norbert at the back of the field. Nice to stay in the Traverse "bubble" for a bit longer.
Reflections on DNF
I'm mainly happy with the decision. It is difficult, as someone who only does about one race a year, to deal with a DNF, but at the end of day I Did Nothing Fatal, and I got a lot out of the experience.
Just being amongst other ultra runners isn't something I do that often, and watching how others approach things, and deal with problems, was inspirational. I didn't do the best job myself, but I have a few ideas for how to do better next time. I'm glad I worked though one night at least, and dealt okay with the storm conditions.
Nobody who knows me will be surprised to see this next bit.
A screenshot of the whole entry list for Northern Traverse 2025, five minutes after entries opened.
Learning points / thoughts for next time
- Where to sleep is a bit of a conundrum - Patterdale is too early, Kirkby Stephen a waste of daylight, and Richmond too late. Still, just a problem to solve.
- Drop bag organisation. I need to improve a bit to be slicker.
- Some thicker soled shoes, possible "walking" shoes could be worthwhile.
- Walking more in the early stages rather than running might also be a sensible plan (although my brother, a proper runner, would despair at that).
- Think about socks, do I want to use waterproof ones at all?
- Training wise, I reckon I need to focus on getting in plenty of elevation. That would have been the plan this year too, but for injury.
- Stay off feet the day before. I ended up walking on a lot of tarmac in uncushioned trail shoes, including from Whitehaven to St Bees after dropping off hire car. Not a huge thing, but didn't help.
- Poles were essential. Definitely take a spare pair (as I did this time).
- Have a GPS device on constantly.
- Goggles were great in the strong winds.
Thank you!
My family for putting up with my obsession for this sort of thing, my dad for picking me up when I stopped, all the people I ran/ walked with, the whole race organisation and volunteers. Everyone was amazing, and I can't wait to come back.
A good fun day, hard and painful at times, but lots of good lessons learnt and experiences shared.
ReplyDeleteSupporting others in these styles of events is one of the best parts of them. I'm glad that I could make up for my slower pace and lack of recent fitness, with a bit of nav help.