Yesterday saw 4 Belper Harriers head (a long way) north to tick off the High Cup Nick Fell Race but why the hell would we drive to nearly Penrith for a 9 mile race?? …
Good question – but actually this is an area in the North Pennines that none of us had really explored properly. High Cup Nick commands a stunning vista and is often in the “Best Views of Britain” galleries and you can see from photo 1 below (taken from the internet) just how beautiful it can be in nice light. It’s just about visible as anyone who’s travelled from Scotch Corner to Penrith on the A66 might know – near Appleby on the right hand / north side. It’s also an early season race so it’s always good to get a decent line in the sand and importantly it also starts the season off as we want to go on – there’s lots of enthusiasm and energy in the club with regards to these “classic” fell races which many of us now want to start chipping away at.
Matty volunteered to drive the 2.5h north which was actually super easy and quiet even including a sit down coffee stop at Scotch Corner. As soon as we arrived at Dufton it became clear that the organisers were serious – the parking field was carpeted with Hessian and iron rods (it’s the field they use for the Dufton show!) and the village hall was lined with rolls of plastic sticky sheeting which would just be peeled back at the end of the day to reveal a floor like new.
Once registered all 4 of us went in separate directions to do our warm ups and stretches before meeting up on the start line for the all important team photo (above!). There was a classic fell race atmosphere before the start with around 400 of us from all backgrounds and abilities on the village green all with a shared love of the mountains and running through them. I’m constantly amazed when I turn up to classic races like this that actually we’re even allowed to race through such tricky terrain in a world where health and safety not only dominates, but stifles. I’m personally so passionate about the Fell Runners Association as they aim to keep us running through these wild places but with minimum fuss and that really does feel like the polar opposite of how most organisations think nowadays (safety first, restrict and reduce).
It was very amusing to all of us on the start line how the official who was starting us referred to the dibber and electronic checkpoints as “sticks and holes”. He was right of course and no sooner had we finished chuckling at this, we were off.
I’d not raced for many many months so was very aware of starting at roughly the right point in the field so that I wasn’t too far forward or too far near the back. Gone are the days where I would start just off the front, so instead I opted for “midpack” and actually that was sensible as I finished exactly midpack (200 out of 400).
As ever when you’ve not raced for a while, the uphill was a shock to the system and my heart and lungs were struggling to keep up on what felt like a fairly flattish initial tarmac section. The race soon moved offroad and as soon as we did came the super muddy slippy stuff we were all used to after a very wet winter. The race took us through some initial offcamber boggy trods as we passed the wonderfully scenic Studgill Tarn but of course none of us had yet seen the main event – High Cup Nick – as we had to run over the shoulder and into it.
It was a big relief to finally see the scale of High Cup Nick as we descended to the Beck where our first control point / dibber was. The second photo above was taken just as we started descending and you can see the scale of it with runners disapperaring like dots into the horizon covering what was about 3km.
The next section was deceptive as after crossing the beck I thought we’d be running through bogs for a short section until we picked up the public footpath. How wrong could I be! The short section up to the footpath was indeed very boggy but actually when we got to the main path – it was just as bad if not worse! Oh well, only 2,000m of this I thought!
The bog section was replaced with a boulder field – and a slippy one at that! I was thinking “I’m so glad I’m not flat out racing across this and just here to enjoy it” as it was super rough and one slip and you’d be incurring all sorts of injuries you don’t want to even consider.
The boulder field section then morphed into a grassy steep section up to the final scramble up to the Nick where a photographer was positioned perfectly.
Once on top of the Nick we dibbed and headed what I thought was down. Sadly – it absolutely wasn’t as we continued climbing as you can make out in the route profile above with a couple of little “horns” adding bonus climbing for us all before we headed down a slightly techy section of the pennine way. Of course all the way down the upper sections we were rewarded with stunning views across the Nick making me want to head back up there at some point and explore the area more fully including the neighbouring hills none of which I know at all.
The descent was glorious down slippy limestone dappled paths and then tracks all at a perfect angle. The tracks went on for ages before peeling off right uphill slightly then down through about 5 fields to the final climb into the village.
It was great to see the fellow Harriers at the finish, with all of us agreeing that our drive north had been thoroughly worth the time and effort invested.