Tuesday 15 March 2016

4 Inns this weekend


With the 4Inns coming up this weekend I thought it'd be a good opportunity to air an account I wrote after my 2012 race, my PB year ... for inspiration.


Things can still work out when you get older!





4 INNS - FIRST AND LA(TE)ST ULTRA

I didn’t get into running via the usual channels. I was one of those strange ones at school who actually enjoyed XC and since it was the only thing in which I showed any sporting talent I was usually picked to run for the school. I was mainly towards the middle but not the end of the field, and I enjoyed getting muddy.

In the gap between Scouts and Ventures, when I was about 16, I used to help out at Drum Hill Scout Campsite. There I met a group of like minded individuals and learned to walk gradually longer and longer distances. We did the Pennine Way and a few other long distance walks and any spare time was spent climbing, caving, cycling and anything else adventurous that we could think of. But not running, not on tarmac anyway – that wasn’t adventurous.


It was whilst at Drum Hill that I 1st heard of the 4 Inns. As a group, we had I suppose, the arrogance of youth and also the invincibility of youth too. It was as a put-down to that arrogance that the ‘old hands’ told us tall tales of epics across the moors on the 4 Inns and moreover that we oughtn’t concern ourselves about such things as it was a race for men, not boys like us. It was with that invincibility and arrogance of youth that we saw the challenge and we decided to show the ‘old men’ a thing or two. In truth I guess they were much younger than I am now!


There was of course no such thing as an Ultra in those days. Even the FRA’s runs tended to be much shorter so if you wanted to go further than marathon distance (and few did) then it was generally a ‘Challenge walk’ organised by the Scouts, the 4 Inns was one such walk. It is bizarre that now there seem to be the choice of a dozen or so ‘hardest runs in the world’ every weekend.


Starting up in the 50’s, the 4 Inns was notorious for a couple of Scouts having died on it in the early 60’s from exposure. The race wasn’t cancelled after that tragedy (though I believe it came close) but things like kit and checkpoints were tightened up.


The 4 Inns was a race for teams of 4 in the region of 40miles (though back in those GPSless days it was considered to be much nearer 50 miles) over some of the darkest of the Dark Peaks moors from Holmbridge to Buxton. As well as a challenge physically and mentally, it was a challenge of navigational skills too.


We got dispensation in 1976 to run an under age team. Both Rob and I were 17 but Paul was only 16. However, since Mark was 18 and considered an adult, we were allowed to run. Long days in the back of Robs Dads old Humber were spent getting us to practice sessions and kit was honed too. In those days required kit included woollen shirts, moleskin breeches and boots with a ‘nailed or commando’ type sole. You also needed to carry a stove, fuel (but strangely no matches). Energy food was Kendal Mint cake, marzipan and pressed dates. How times have changed.


I guess we ought to have been apprehensive but I can’t recall being so. Whether that was as a result of being blissfully unaware of the enormity of the challenge or through innocent invincibility makes no difference now but we did it – and in style too. The ‘old hands’ at Drum Hill had choked on their pint mugs of tea and passed scornful comment when they knew we had entered (no-one was allowed to drink out of Normans mug by the way. No-one I knew had ever met Norman and he never put in an appearance at Drum Hill in all the years I worked there, but that was his mug and had to be kept in case he turned up). Their best time of 13-14hrs or so was considered unbeatable and we would soon get our come-uppance. They were convinced we’d be out before Edale, bedraggled and blistered and sobbing for Mum.


Well, we showed them. It is difficult to remember much about the race now some 36yrs on, but it all seemed to flow. We each had our patches, as is the way of running in a team, but we were surprisingly well matched for novices and managed to finish 4th overall out of a total of 100 or so teams and in a time of 11.03. Disappointingly we were only however 2nd Novice team since 20th Harrogate (a team of experienced fell runners) decided to enter that year for the 1st time and came 2nd overall. Back at Drum Hill, having blown the old lags time out of the water we were treated with new respect and had come of age. I had also found a new sport and a fresh talent.


It in fact took me some years to beat that 11.03 time (4th member syndrome mainly) but by 1993 and by 34yrs old I had reduced the time to 9.22.


Fast forward to 2012 and my 25th 4 Inns (23 prior finishes and one DNF). I had run the 50th 4 Inns a couple of years back after a break of a few years and had the bug again. In 2011 I ran the race with Wayne and Andy as a last minute replacement and with not a lot of training managed a time against all odds of 9.27 – only 5minutes off my PB … but I had suffered … badly.


A thought was germinating after that race though. Over the years for one reason or another I have felt that I have not achieved my full potential on the 4 Inns. Most of my other PB’s were a distant memory now but this one was niggling at me. With a bit more training might I not be able to beat it, even now in the ‘twilight’ of my Ultra running years?


So here we were, the same team and the omens were looking good. A long hot and dry spell in March was helping to dry the moors out nicely, but would have been too hot to run in. Saturday morning however looked to be perfect – dull and overcast, with little wind and a high enough cloud level to see the tops forecast good, cool running and perfect weather for successful navigation over the moors.


It’s not often that one of my runs goes to plan, but this one did. I wasn’t sure how my legs might be affected by the TP100 only 4wks before and that was my main worry. As it happened my knees creaked from the off, up the road to the 1st inn, the Isle of Skye (long past pulling pints, this one though). We quickly settled into a chatty pace, pretty much the same as 2011. We started with a White Peak team which put us under some pressure and they did pass us on the 1st off road bit. We were to leapfrog each other for most of the day.


 


Black Hill was fine. I felt quite good overtaking some of the walking teams on the rise to the plateau and  I didn’t feel stretched like I had in 2011.


Crowden CP was a brief Perpetuem refill stop only and the pace to Torside was reasonable. Torside itself was a long, long drag as usual, yo-yoing with White Peak again, but we saw them off just before the end of the path. We took what seemed to be a fairly indirect route over Bleaklows ‘sloping’ plateau and dropped just below the plane. The plane is one of Bleaklows sights, the wreck of a B29 Superfortress that hit the edge in 1948, it is a good aid to navigation, being spread over a pretty large area.


Then another fairly indirect route to the Pennine Way and I worried that we might have lost a bit of time. As it was we stayed in front of White Peak and we were up on our 2011 time. This was where, in 2011 I had struggled quite badly and the difference, and extra training was clearly telling. I was still suffering a bit though. I took my 1st (& only) Ibuprofen of the day for my knees and stuffed some caramel shortcake down too. The pain in my knees was getting a little intrusive but it was something I was able to cope with.


The run down the Snake felt great in the Hokas, no pain at all. Next was the ascent onto the Kinderscout plateau via Seal Stones – always a stern test. This year wasn’t a lot different and was as painful as usual. I felt I was struggling a bit here but caught up the other two over the plateau. But the next bit is now the worst bit for me and my knees really felt the strain going down Golden Clough just as they always do these days. I used to be able to run down here … ouch, even the thought of that now is enough to make my knees throb.


The rest of the route to Edale CP was fine (& 9mins faster than in 2011) and we helped ourselves by not stopping too long. I set off before the others trying to get a corned beef sandwich down as I went on.


We ran a lot of the Chapel Gate path and then nearly all the way into Chapel. White Peak were coming in as we left the CP but our time over this section was a whopping 11mins faster than last year.




We were perhaps a little longer in the Chapel CP than we ought to have been. I aborted a WRVS cup of tea when it looked like taking hours (it was a sort of ‘just sit yourself down young man and I’ll put the kettle on’ type of CP) and we walked a lot of the next section to the railway. In hindsight we probably lost a few minutes here. Nonetheless we weren’t too bad, though Andy (having done precious little training since his bike accident) was feeling the pace a little.


It was here that I first looked in more detail at our prospects. We had got through Edale in 5hrs leaving us 4hrs for a sub 9hr time. I had thought in my pre-race calculations that that sub 9hrs looked decidedly optimistic but it would depend on how we were up to the Cat, since we had struggled here in 2011.


 


At Whitehall CP I knew we could do the last bit in 2hrs and although it looked like our time might be about 9.05, a PB was very definitely on. I told the others – this would be the defining section.


We started off not too convincingly and not too fast for the 1st bit to the road. But we were all pretty relaxed about it and ran ok along the dam. Shooters Clough was tough, a real bitch of a whaleback and almost never-ending. But with little wind it was almost warm, something unheard of up at the Cat and Fiddle (the 4th Inn), one of the most exposed places in the country. I have known white-outs here on raceday before, but today was much, much kinder.


I knew that we could do the last section in 40mins, so began a countdown. We had to get to the Cat in 8.20 and if we did we stood a chance. It looked close. For once however the top of the whaleback seemed to come earlier than it usually does. As we topped the rise the Cat still looked a way off but we had time in hand and made it about 7-8m up on a 9hr ETA and 7mins up on last year. That in itself had given us the possibility of a sub 9hr time and for the 1st time I was looking at not only a PB but a sub 9hr time too. We barely stopped at the Cat to hand in our tickets and trogged off down the road. White Peak were well behind us now.


The run downhill felt good but on the Roman Road, Wayne started slowing. Not now, I thought since he had been the strongest throughout. ‘30mins’ I shouted back. Wayne knocked back a few Jelly Babies and by the time we had crested the ridge and started down the other side he had caught us up. ‘20mins’. We ran down to the road ok and amazingly I felt good – not at all like I had felt this time last year. Andy was struggling a bit now. He had a blister that was making itself felt but pushed on through it well and we got to the finish CP in 8.54, with time to spare!!


Wow, 19years since my 9.22 PB and I had beaten it – and by close to ½hr too. It hadn’t felt hard. I had enjoyed the run and it had felt memorable for being able to carry on at a pace we could have a friendly chat. No one had struggled too much and our strongest sections had been the hardest ones, over the moors and up the hills. A strong race throughout and to say I was chuffed to beat 9hrs too is a massive understatement. I had never realistically seen that on the cards and whilst I’d hoped for it, it really was hope rather than expectation.


The 4 Inns has always meant a lot to me and has to be one of my favourite races. I have always thought that I could do better, but one thing or another has always meant I’ve never felt I have reached my potential. To do so now is a great boost to my confidence. It is admittedly the type of route I enjoy, where I can mix my running and walking but it does feel good to have got under 9hrs at last. Its taken 36yrs since I 1st ran it in 1976 for everything to fall into line, so maybe its time to retire … on a high … Ha!