Sweeping is the plum job everyone wants, mostly. Most of the time I do whatever job needs doing, but once in a while I'll actively request a jolly. Last year's 15 res's was one of those, but unfortunately I wasn't able to complete the route as the final runner got timed out a long way behind cut off, and I had to cut the route short and run in a more direct way.
This year I asked again, in the hope of getting to the end. I did, just about. But we'll come to that later.
The 15 Res's is the ultra distance route in the Saddleworth Res's event. You can do 5 (about 25km), 10 (the original route, a beast of a fell/trail marathon) or 15 (similar to the 10, but 61km with 2000m of ascent and obviously 5 more reservoirs). The Saddleworth Res's is one of the bigger events run by Craggrunner, and one of the most popular.
Claire and I stayed down at the venue (Saddleworth Cricket Club) Friday night, and got up about 6.15. Registration started at 7 but people started arriving earlier, so we were straight onto kit check and registration pretty much as soon as we got out of bed. I had a couple of pain au chocolat and some nice coffee while I handed out maps and t-shirts to participants. It was a mad rush for the first hour, thankfully I'd packed everything the night before but did almost set off with the wrong shoes on. I picked up a map (last year's map - this is important later...) and marked up my marshalling point, made sure I had food, emergency kit, first aid gear etc. About 4-5kg in total, a good weight to be carrying for a long day of training.
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| Near Greenfield Res |
I needed to be setting off at 7.30 to get to my marshalling point at "the easy route" junction. The climb up Rimmon Pit Clough is gnarly and difficult, and there is the option of climbing up onto the side of the clough and bypassing the rocks. No one took it this year though, and quite rightly - I regard the character building experience of Rimmon Pit to be the highlight of the race.
Once the last of the 15 runners came past, my fellow sweeper Emma arrived. She was to join me from here until Marsden (or Castleshaw depending on how she felt). We hadn't met before, and set off up the track chatting.
There were still early start 10 res runners coming up - the cut offs on the 10 are much more generous than the 15 - so we were gradually working our way up the clough and standing aside for runners to come through. Once we got up onto the moor top it was a bit easier, and we trundled along talking about work, running etc.
At the A635 road crossing CP someone had left a tracker for me - we'd been short on trackers for crew in the morning, so a few had been reassigned later from the ones where people hadn't showed up. That reminded me to switch on the Lora/aprs tracker I've been experimenting with. I scarfed down some bits of malt loaf, peanuts, mini cheddars etc and we got going.
We were trying to push along and get the back of the pack into view. This got easier once we split from the 10 res route, and we caught them up at Castleshaw CP.
At Castleshaw I stopped off for a brew and munched my way through more peanuts, a few wraps and a small amount of sweet stuff. Then on we went once more, walking fast up the road and then up the track. We made a slight nav error here (I was conserving watch power by sticking to the paper map and took the wrong track) then cut down through the fields to the path. More field paths, and then we were at the control on the fence near Rooden reservoir. Back across the horse field and up a concrete lane, then more fields all the way to the stream crossing under Pule Hill. This was a lot shallower than last time I'd crossed it (the Stanza Stones route in October) but still cold. Emma was starting to feel the climbs a bit and I eased off climbing up to the road.
The path isn't very distinct on the way round Pule Hill, but eventually we were on obvious field paths and tracks, then down to the road and up to Marsden Cricket Club where we found Steve, Sally and Max on CP duty, and a few runners just finishing up.
I stopped for a natter with Sally and a quick cup of tea while Steve nipped out to collect the signage, then said goodbye to Emma and headed out. Once again I wasn't clear on the right route out of the cricket club, but after a quick chat with Steve sorted it out. I pushed on fairly hard up the track to Wessenden as I wanted to keep the rearmost runners just about in sight, and once I saw them I eased off.
At Wessenden CP I caught them up again, and stood around for a while chatting. Stu Smith was there representing Peak Medical which was a nice surprise (reminds me, must book my First Aid refresher...). Stu checked I'd picked up my tracker - he'd delivered it to the previous road crossing CP. Once the runners got ahead I set off to keep them just about in sight.
Hopping over the wall at the nearest stile, I stopped to put my insulated windproof on as it was getting chilly. The Pennine Way climb up Black Hill is a series of small reentrants, and I couldn't see the runners ahead of me. Eventually I caught a glimpse as they reached the top of the climb and onto the plateau, and they were perhaps 3 minutes ahead.
They hung around the trig for a few minutes, and as I approached they started shouted "oh no, it's the sweeper - GO BACK!". So I hid behind a peat hag.
Once they moved on, I went up to the trig, ate a nut bar and did some bag faffing. I did notice that they seemed to be heading off slightly more westerly than I would have expected, but last time I was here I went well past the trig before heading south, so I didn't think it was particularly odd.
Once I'd finished bag-faffing I set off after them, and quickly noticed that the trod I was following was heading west rather than south. I veered round and got on to try and get them in sight again. About this time my phone started ringing, but every time I answered it cut off. Eventually it worked long enough for Claire to tell me that they'd gone the wrong way, and could I try and attract their attention.
I got onto a high peat hag overlooking the valley and gave a few hard blasts of the whistle. I could faintly hear voices but couldn't see anyone. Eventually after a few minutes of whistling I spotted them heading back along a fence line towards the right route, so I started making my way to meet them where they met the route.
It later turned out one of their party had hearing problems but was faster than the others, and had taken off in the wrong direction but couldn't hear them calling him! They eventually rounded him up and got back on track.
I was keeping an eye on progress and the overall average pace was still around 11:40 min/km, so as long as they kept the pace up they'd get in before the cut off. They pushed along well across Tooleyshaw Moss, and as we dropped down to Crowden I caught them up. I was looking at the map in my hand, which said the cut off at Crowden was 17:45, so I told them they had about ten minutes.
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| The back of the pack on Tooleyshaw Moss |
There was a bit of a debate at Crowden - it turned out the correct cut off for this year was 17:30 (I had last year's map, remember?), but they were moving well so I advocated for them to carry on.
We set off from Crowden again, and I caught them up very quickly getting head torches out etc. One of the party was Lee (The Sunday Pootle), and he was putting his Gopro light on. I chatted with him as we climbed Laddow rocks, about races and training.
A couple of navigation questions on the climb up, but I know this bit pretty well and we were OK. I could see the time ebbing away though, and they really needed to speed up once we got on the flat at the top. The next few km are boggy and wet, but OK ground and I hoped they'd be able to pick it up a bit. Sadly I think tiredness and the stiff climb had got the better of them and we plodded slowly as far as Chew.
At Chew, Claire phoned through to one of them to let them know we were going to close the course and they needed to drop down the road. I stayed with them to the top of the road, where I found a load of signage. Ah. What about the signage?
I tried ringing Daz, but he'd left his phone behind when he set off up to Dovestone car park to collect us. Claire said he'd planned to bring in the signage the next day, but I was certain that a) our timed out runners were fine on the tarmac and weren't in any danger, and b) I could collect all the signage from the rest of the course and still get back in not much longer than it would take to collect them and transport them by road.
I picked up one 40cm x 40cm signboard and the big metal pole holding it, then ran at a brisk pace over Alphin Pike pulling pin flags as I went. I got a call to say 2 people were showing on the Open Tracking page as static on the summit, but I was only a few minutes away so should be able to reach them quickly in case there was an issue. As it turned out, the tracking was incorrect and they were just about at the finish.
Down the steep rocky final descent laden with flags and poles, collected a few more signboards on the roadside, and I got back to the cricket club a couple of minutes after Daz arrived with the timed out group. Disappointing - I'd hoped to beat them!
A much better situation than last year, when I arrived pretty much as we had to vacate the venue - I was able to have a leisurely pie and some cheesecake as there were still a few people around.
It was a shame the last few weren't able to complete - we do our best to get everyone round as much as possible, but with an ETA past the time that we needed to hand back the venue we had to pull them out. Lee got an eventful day of filming, it should make a good video!
Thanks to all the marshals who fed and watered us on the way round, and the race control team who kept an eye on everyone.
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| tracking from aprs - radio-nerdfest |
Kit
- Patagonia Terrebonne jogging bottoms. They were fine until I had to run hard, then they were a bloody nuisance. Too tight around the calves, they tend to pull down.
- Awdis fluo green long sleeved top
- Altra King MT 2.0 - trying them out for the Fellsman, they were ideal
- UD Fastpak 20 rucksack
- Ron Hill running cap
- Montane polartec alpha pull on
- Montane Element waterproof
- Kalenji waterproof over trousers
- Bridgedale merino socks
- Kalenji lycra undershorts
- Montane windproof gilet
- Montane prism jacket
- 3 pairs gloves
- 3 hats
- 2 person emergency shelter
- group first aid kit
- poles
- ti thermos
- water bottle
- Lora APRS radio (reasonable coverage of the route once I left the Dovestone valley)
- Survival bag
- marine whistle
- Suunto compass
- lots of buffs
- Petzl Nao headtorch
- Zebralight H600fw backup torch
Food
- 4 cheese scones (ate one)
- nut bars (ate 3)
- peanuts, several humous wraps, some jaffa cakes, lots of malt loaf
Litter found
Nothing that looked likely to be from the race.
- A wrecked walking pole
- A well rain-rinsed gel packet
- various small bits of plastic waste
Lessons
- Navigation from Black Hill trig towards Tooleyshaw Moss is a problem, we should probably flag it.
- Comms is a serious problem in the latter third of the course. Mobile phone coverage is really patchy at Crowden, and even worse up on the tops. We might be able to do something with mesh or voice radio for this.
- We need a handy laminated card for sweepers with the cut offs (and signage to collect?) - a multi page pdf is of limited use when you're standing in a bog with no mobile signal. I'd printed out a single sheet with various bits on, but it was too big to have handy along with my map. Maybe have a single sheet of sweeper instructions accompanying the map on waterproof paper.
- The cut offs on the 15 Res's have no leeway at all. On other events we can usually be flexible, but on this one we have absolutely no breathing room.
- The Alphin Pike finish is much much better than the Chew Road (although the last bit of the traditional route through the woods is quite nice).
I make this ultra number 43. Getting close to the 50!
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