3rd August The Dovedale Dipper (R36)

Even before I had run a single step this promised to be the hardest race I had ever done. Not because of what lay ahead of me in terms of distance and terrain, although that was daunting enough, but because of all the mandaory kit I had to collect before hand.

This included an OS map of the area, a print off of the route both image and route description, a compass, a charged mobile phone, emergency numbers, photo ID, a waterproof jacket with hood, a survival blanket, at least 500ml of liquid and emergency food rations. Most of which I didn't have. And then throw into that was the fact that the 15 mile route was unmarshalled.

With the event being open to both runners and walkers, having two different distances on offer (15 and 26 miles) and offering early start times for the slower walkers / runners, my plan was a cunning one. 

And that was to set off half way through the early departure time slot and then hope that there would always be people either in sight who had set off before me or passing me from behind being quicker runners. Assumng off course I could actually run carring all the kit I was required to carry. I am convinced I took less when walking to Santiago.

The weather was dry and overcast but was still suitably warn as soon as I had stared moving, looking and moving like a snail with a bright flourescent yellow shell. Unfortnately the early start group was mainly walkers with only a dozen or so runners and within 200 yards I was at the front. Within 250 yards I was lost!

Thankfully for me, the next two runners Danny and Miranda from Stoke had a map of the route downloaded on the Strava app on their phone and so I stuck like glue to them because without them even with armed with a map, a print our of the route and a written description I would NEVER have found my way round. Apart from the three checkpoints there was literally nothing to tell runner which way to run.

As for the route it was beautiful and it was brutal with some hills that could only be descibed as 'buggers'. It was also exhausting especially the last few miles when I was literally running (?) on empty  only to discover that the expected 15 miles turned out to be 15.68 miles.

But that wasn't the reason that made me angry. Tune in tomorrow to find out what did.