Race Report: Leaden Boot 27/05/2012

"Leadenboots challenge" or "Carry on Through the squeeze style turn right and up the hill."

I make no apologies for the length of this report, it was a long race. 

Well where do I start?, the day before I guess, or maybe even longer. A while ago Jason Bulley got my head thinking with a LDWA event being a great idea. Along with Chris Brumby who was telling me how great they are I thought I would add their website to my favourites tab. Then before you know it, there it was, the event of a lifetime - The LEADEN BOOTS CHALLENGE.  Described as a minimum of 26.2 miles but with 5000ft of climb, however every time I checked their website it increased and finally was given as 5800ft of climb, nearly all off road and in the wonderful peak district and self navigational. Being a LDWA event it was obviously for walkers but with a limit of 100 runners setting off an hour later. 

My brain was screaming at me, what a great event Paul you could do that!!! However, I could hear my body screaming at me NO! STOP IT!! STOP IT NOW!!!!! However as usual in these things my brain wrote the cheque and my body opted to cash it at a later date. Having shared my plans and received great encouragement from others at the club as well as some falling about laughing going no way!!! I could persuade no one to join me. However, Perry whom is also a glutton for punishment thought that it would be unfair to let me do this event alone and opted to help me out and come with me. I was real pleased with this and as the days went on, every time I spoke to Jason about it he told me what a great event it was and how he wished he was doing it but had actually booked to go to Edinburgh to run that marathon. 

So coming back up to date, sat in my office on Saturday receiving last minute instructions from Perry, he sent me a text which read Jason was going to be joining us with Jo. I don’t actually think Jo knew this at the time judging by her response.

Moving on to the morning of the race, Perry was banging on my door like an excitable child well earlier than the anticipated time, but I was up and ready to go and thought let’s get there early as we could have our feet blessed by the local vicar. We set off having an argument with the sat Nav and opting for straightforward maps and arriving in plenty of time on a hot, very hot, Alstonefield village hall. The village was so so beautiful with such a wonderful nature of those that lived in it. Having arrived with plenty of time we walked in to the church yard to have our feet blessed by the female vicar (is that what they are called?). We sang a few hymns one of which was Jerusalem and judging by the singing, half of the Welsh choir must have arrived!! My feet were then sprinkled  with some holy water and a comment of those trainers look new, with a reply of they are and a look of disbelief from the Vicar.

Late for the blessing of their feet Jo and Jason arrived and we got booked in and studied the last minute profile of the map. Interestingly it either went uphill, uphill very steeply or downhill very steeply. Before this challenge I had no idea what a 5800ft climb looked like, I DO NOW.

Having waved the walkers off we did our usual preparations and adjusted the numerous amount of running gear and back pack equipment we had with us. Then before we knew it we were off, off through the village and dropping down an exceedingly steep hill for a mile or so. At this point I was thinking how nice this was but at the same time the hill was very steep and the quads were straight in to action. Having reached the bottom nothing could have compared me for what came next. It was a climb, a very large climb and a very steep climb. When I say steep I mean steep, steep enough that should you have ran it, then the likelihood would be that you would have been in the Olympic games come July. At this point I was romping up the hill with Jo, she said “it will get much worse than this” OMG I thought, I then realised the magnitude of the task that would lie ahead. We kept going and a familiar theme was occurring. The theme went something like this, Perry was navigating, and shouting out instructions but every time he spoke the only things that came out were “GO THROUGH THE SQUEEZE GATE TURN RIGHT AND GO UP THE HILL” I would hear this that much on the day it would become a standing joke. Having come down to the first checkpoint we clipped our cards and got going, at last I thought a downhill bit. However, it was like running down a cliff face with rocks all over, tough on the ankles and tough on the quads. We then carried on through some wonderful scenery where we came across another massive climb in to the town of Ilam. For those of you that don’t know of this quaint little village, this is not the one where the plague started. We know this because Jo and Jason had a lengthy discussion about it so if you want to go and visit that place head for Eyam!!!  here you go Jo a history lesson http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/eyam_and_the_great_plague_of_166.htm

Eventually after what seemed like hours we hit Ilam and check point 2. This is where Perry broke my heart. Most regular club attendees know I take great pride in my Iphone app however because of the length of the Challenge I opted to go naked, no phone, no timing gear, nothing. Perry and Jason opted for Garmin gear and said we had covered about 4.5 miles!! I had been up and down dale and all for 4.5 miles. We fueled up at the check point and pleased that I had overtaken several walkers by now, even some old ones…and what’s more I had managed to leave quite a few runners behind me. We carried on along a very scenic but hard run/walk to check point 3. At this point I noticed that Jason was dropping his hat in the splash water provided so he being the experienced one I took my helmet off and washed it in the water. A few yards later I commented to Jason and Perry that I had got my Helmet well and truly wet. Some times when these things are said you nip back to your youth. Having said it and remembering that Jason myself and Perry were all southerners I realized that this had a very different meaning to us !! On we plodded to chase down some more walkers and completely on a mission I started seeing them as targets to get to. We hit checkpoint 4 filled and fueled and headed on.  Between checkpoint 4 & 5 Jason demonstrated to us exactly how experienced he was at not running but cow fighting. We passed through a field which contained some lovely young cow calves, Jo and I went ahh, aren’t they sweet, Jason said he was going to take it home for dinner. At this point mother cow must have heard and said, No, OH NO, you’re not having my calf and headed straight for Jason. Jason trying his new found technique of cow defence swerved away but the cow was having none of it, He ducked left and right and considered a nose punch, and just managed to get out of its way and run fast, faster than he managed all race, fun for us watching but not I suspect for Jason.

We carried on running and the pain was starting to take its toll, there were just some places we couldn’t run due to the steepness. Soon however I found a river, I had to do it, I had to go in and in I went. It did marvels for the joints, it was like an ice bath, but with the temperature in the 80s it was well worth it. More through the squeeze gate and up the hill and eventually Check point 5 came to our view. At this point we bumped in to another Strider that I had almost forgotten was doing the Challenge as a walker. Matt was there taking on fluids and we exchanged pleasantries before heading off on to check point 6. I felt this was the hardest part, Matt informed us that there was now a nice bit of running along the trail and it was quite flat. However soon after and a few more hills we started to ascend to the Trig point. This I found very difficult, but I looked across to Perry whom appeared to be really struggling, at this moment I thought to myself YES great.. it’s not just me, its Perry too. Sadistically this appeared to help me focus as I thought I am not alone. Eventually after definitely the hardest slog, we made it to checkpoint six. Boy was I pleased to see that sign. We filled water, laid down, took off shoes, waxed feet, ate chocolate and off we went again.   

However we had listened to the marshalls telling us that several walkers and runners had overheated and had to give it up and retire. A shame really, if only they would of kept their helmets wet they might have been fine. Jo was twitchy at this point, took directions and said she was off to the finish. So she left us, one minute she was there and next she was gone. Anyhow we soon got going again and very quickly hit checkpoint 7 which was an unmanned station. Clipped and running we headed for the checkpoint of number 8, the last one on the route. Uphill and some more hill and up some more hill we went, climbing ropes should have been used due to the steepness but we kept it going, kept climbing and climbing. Eventually we hit some road and we were able to make pace and run we ran and ran for a long time until we saw it, the ice cream van!!!. Yes we got some ice lollies and carried on about 10 yards to find checkpoint 8, which was hidden behind the wall with the best feeding station of the Challenge. Once again the enthusiastic marshals fed and watered us before telling us that there was only another 3 ½ miles to go. However as we turned left there was a sign telling us that we were on a footpath with 798ft of climb… Thanks! We again exchanged pleasantries with an older lady walker whom was hammering along making me feel embarrassed. We ran where we could and passed a nice lady whom told us we should be running, a very simple reply of “in our heads we are” ensured and we kept plodding along.  I know what 3 ½ miles is but if it’s up hills of 1/10 it takes a lot longer and is a lot more painful. There just appeared no end to this challenge it seemed to just keep going on and on until… there it was the car park. Yes we were home and looking at a sub 8hr marathon. We climbed up the last bit of the hill to cheering people and Jo taking our photo. Pleased it had finished due to the blisters but sad the day had to be over. 

Earlier in the day we were told of a guy at the event whom was on his 748^th marathon, wow I thought, but now I’m 2 down and on my way to catching him up. I thoroughly enjoyed the day, at first when I found out Jason and Jo were coming I thought I might have been made to run faster than I wanted to but Jason was ever the coach and helped enormously to keep me going. Jo was just Jo, pleasurable as she normally is with never a bad word and taking off down the hills. Perry was great, great to agree to do this with me but also great to help me on the way home whereby I took a turn for the worst with some heat exhaustion and ended up having to stop the car twice to be sick. So thank you so much guys for helping me enjoy and get the most of my day. Time on feet was 7hrs 44, I know some of you may think this is a long time, but I would think that only approximately 35-40% of this was runable, plus in temps of 80+ I was just happy to cross that line.

All in all a fantastic event with friendly marshals, A challenge that will do just that, challenge you due to the complexity of the course. Now I’m hooked on the LDWA challenges, so much better than the road race in my opinion. Till next year

For details of this and other LDWA challenge events, visit the Long Distance Walkers Association website.

Paul N