The Wild Peaks Half Round (55km) is one of three routes from the Inov8 shop in Bakewell. All of the loops visit Derbyshire Wildlife Trust nature reserves throughout the Peak District.

Having already completed both the Full (120km) and Mini (15km, but no leaderboard for this one) distances back in March, I really fancied completing the trio in the same year. It’s also pretty cool being able to take them on in Winter. Potentially I’m the first to do both long efforts in the winter months unsupported, and this one was also the day after the club’s Christmas Do (more caveats make it super special yeah?). Also running on the shortest day of the year, there was the goal of get back before gloaming. I had for company non-strider Matthew Burrell who had also been looking for an excuse to run the route. The two of us set off early at 06:35, heading off to the first checkpoint (CP) and most northerly point along the Thornhill trail.

The couple of hours or so through a couple of woods and smattering of villages absolutely flew by. We dropped down a very narrow sketchy path above Combs Dale into Stoney Middleton. The sun rose with little fanfare and the wind really picked up from the South West, but for now it was at our backs and while blustery it helped a little.

The weather steadily got worse – the rain came in to join the wind, so we mulled over the route options. The joy of this checkpoint-to-checkpoint run is there is no set route. Previous routes have scaled Win Hill via Parkin Clough. Because of the weather we opted to stay lower where we could and hugged the side of the hill toward Ashton after we took a photo at our first CP.

Stopping at the Spar in Hope we stocked up on water, Lucozade and an iced coffee, and reapplied the waterproof as our temperatures dropped a little after we faffed about a bit. The wind, low cloud and sharp hail came rolling in, and views of Lose Hill and Mam Tor were lost to the fog. It took a mile or so to warm back up but by this point we’d reached CP2 and were amongst the trees that weave through the cement works to Bradwell.

The steep climb out of Bradwell up to Abney Moor was a blustery one, but it is up there usually anyway, hence the position of the gliding club. From the top, the view encompassed the last 15 miles of running – where we’d been and where we still had to go, a real nice highlight of the route especially as the clouds had cleared and the sun’s warmth threatened.

I know I’ve whinged a lot about the weather, but bugger me it was tough going at times, no moments more so than the road from Great Hucklow to Tideswell that sits on the exact heading of the wind for 2 very slow miles. A quick water top up in Tidza and we were on the way to the Monsal Trail for the final stretch back to Bakewell. I had brought my filter bottle for topping up in streams, but most that we had passed were either in sheep fields (no thanks) or full rivers (knowing Severn Trent, more like to have shit in than the sheep fields).

The last trundle with 3 CPs along or just down off the trail was steady progress, walking every km or so as we both flagged a little, but progress was good and largely uneventful. We made it back to the shop in Bakewell for a prize coaster, a bottle of beer and a coffee.

I had a loose target of sub 8 hours and managed 7:28:54. So overall pretty pleased with the day all things considered. Thanks to Matt for joining me on this silly little escapade…

Current leaderboards (with Jim’s Half Round still to be added)

Leaderboards