Coast to Coast 2020 - Preamble

Alfred Wainwright's Coast to Coast from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay at 190 miles holds an almost mythical status.  Today it remains one of the most popular long distance trails and is considered to be one of the world's great walks.  Whilst unlike many other routes such as the Pennine Way etc. have an official status and are properly way-marked, the C2C is a little less obvious and various guides will offer different route options.  If done according to plan, it would normally be completed in 12 days as part of an overall 14 day trip.

The Route

I have done the Coast to Coast once before, back in 2008 with a friend from work.  We were carrying full camping kit and we completed it in just over 5 days.  That is probably considered by some to be pretty fast, but the record is actually a crazy 39 hours that was set in 1991!

For whatever reason, from time to time I've contemplated another go at it now i'm much fitter but the project has never really got off the ground.  Now that most racing has been put on hold the time was right to have a second go.  In the end I only really decided to do it about a week before the off but in some ways it was good to not over plan it.  The goal was pretty simple - complete the crossing in 3 days which is a crazy 63 miles average per day over rough terrain.  It would be a semi-supported attempt; by that I mean I would navigate and only carry what I would need between checkpoints, but otherwise I would be by myself.  My wife would then follow in the car at various checkpoints to look after me and help with logistics.  I was conscious that keeping track of each other could be a challenge.  To resolve this I hired a GPS tracker that uploads live data to a web page every few minutes, assuming there is mobile phone signal.

It was never really in the plan to do the crossing akin to a race situation e.g. go non-stop or press on after dark etc., but at the same time I wanted to go as fast as I reasonably could.  There was an outline plan for the first day, which was to get to Shap (62 miles), but after that I kept things pretty flexible as I simply wasn't sure where I would get to, what type of accommodation I wanted to stay in or whether I would even be in a fit state to continue.

Pre-start review

The night before the off we stayed at the Ennerdale Country House Hotel in Cleator which has the advantage of only being a couple of miles away from the start and the route passes by the hotel at around 7 miles in.  This allowed me to treat it as a mini checkpoint with my wife and check that the tracker was working.  Despite these advantages, all I can say is that I wouldn't go out of my way to stay there again!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spine Race - Some Stats (2012-2024) - Updated following 2024 race.

Image
This is an update to a post I originally published in following the 2023 event.  I have now updated it to reflect the 2024 race. Over the years there have been a number of stats published about the Spine races, usually focusing on finish percentages etc.  I decided to take a look and see whether I could do something different with the data.  I've focused purely on the Winter Spine Race and none of the other races in the series. Some headline stats: 28 countries are represented in the finish results (increase of 2 as a result of 2024 event). There are 610 recorded finishes by 478 people Only 16 people have gone sub 100 hours (exc. 2015) - an increase of 4 during as a result of 2024 event. I've attached the spreadsheet I put together.  To explain it in a bit more detail take Jasmin Paris (row 6): She was the 230th recorded finisher The 185th individual to have ever finished the Spine The 5th fastest recorded time (includes people who have multiple finish times) The 5th fastest in
Read more

Ranger Ultras - High Peak 100k

Image
Over the coming months I've got three 100k races coming up and the High Peak 100k was the first of these.  On paper it should have been the easiest, more so as the weather in September is usually benign.  The reality was somewhat different, weather forecasts were stating it was the hottest day of the year hovering around 30c with very high humidity levels.  It was clear that the weather alone was going to make this a sufferfest and it didn't disappoint. I decided to be quite conservative with fluids, reverting to my expedition pack which is designed for multi day races.  It holds 2 x 750ml bottles, plus space for my 2 litre bladder.  Although there were 7 water stations along the route, I wanted to ensure that I could drink freely from the start and get a feel for my consumption until I was properly settled into the race.  The downside to this strategy was a rather heavy race pack... At 9am the race started and it was my initial plan to try and finish the 100k in somewhere betw
Read more

Ranger Ultras Pennine Bridleway 270km

Image
Since the Spine Race I have had a bit of a void that needed filling.  I spotted the PB270 as it is more commonly known that would fill the gap whilst still being a significant challenge.  The Bridleway runs from Middleton Top, near to Matlock in Derbyshire through to Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria, running slightly West to the better known Pennine Way.  The Bridleway runs along well defined tracks and roads and there is still some 6,500 metres of elevation to contend with, albeit there were no real individual ascents over 400 metres. Start at Middleton Top Start (Middleton Top) to Checkpoint 1 (Hayfield) - (37 miles) The first 15 or so miles are along an old railway bed so were very flat and runnable.  I knew this was going to play to my strength so the plan was to just go out at a pace that felt easy and expect to take an early lead.  This was pretty much exactly what happened and despite there being some long straight sections I was out of sight.  I always knew that I would eventually run
Read more