Lloyd Biddell

A bit of a strange race this one, let me explain.  I have been doing some training and arguably plenty of it in the last few months, albeit averaging 25% less volume than at my peak a few years ago.  However, most of the training has been steady state stuff / endurance with no focus whatsoever on speed work.  What sessions I have done have been well adrift of my capabilities at my peak in 2019.  The figures do not lie.  Nonetheless, I felt training had been going well enough in recent weeks alongside a gap in diary commitments allowing me to enter a road race for the first time in ages just to see where things are at, with zero expectation set.  I had thought my last road race was pre-covid in 2020, but actually that is not true as I also did the Wheaton Aston 10k in December 2021. The Burton 10k is a race that I know well, having won it in 2017 (32.38) and 2019 (32.56).  I was very borderline on entering the race and my original intention was to enter...

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 kne...

Since the Winter Spine my focus has primarily been on rest and recovery and only more recently have things got back to some form of normality.  Unfortunately my back has started to spasm/stiffen again so has limited my ability to do any speed work, although barring the odd day here and there I've still been able to run.  I entered the Pennine Bridleway 18km as a warm up to the much longer 270km full length of the Pennine Bridleway that takes place in 3 weeks time. Just before the off. Although the distance is 'just' 11 miles, the sting is that there is c.640m of total ascent (and descent) along the out and back course.  In theory it requires navigation too, but on the whole I found it to be pretty obvious.  The first 5km has a 250 metre climb so I knew that early pacing was key; get it wrong and it would make a pretty miserable remainder of the race.  However, what comes up must also come down, so effectively the final 5km are steeply down hill, so in some ways ...

I might have revised my plans had I known in advance that within 15 minutes of leaving Bellingham the hallucinations would start so soon.  Again, more caffeinated gels came out and again they did nothing.  I was beginning to think I could be chucking away a potential finish of the Spine Race for just sheer stupidity.  However, I made my bed (excuse the pun) and now I needed to make the best of it. I decided to make decent progress in this section by going at a good walk and no more, not knowing how I would fare later on.  I was having wave after wave of new hallucinations, occasionally interspersed with some normal thought.  Thankfully a useful distraction was that my wife turned up at one of the road crossings and Ultrarunning Sam was also there who was doing media work for the Spine.  This time I was happy to stop and have a chat for 10 minutes and both my wife interviewed me for the Youtube channel she puts daily updates on as did Sam.  With hindsig...

On paper this leg looks to be the easiest.  For the first time I didnt know any of this section, the possible exception being where we follow Hadrians Wall which I have done in the past going the other way.  Early on I hooked up with a French competitor for about an hour, but the pacing was just too hot for me and we drifted apart.  I have to say that although I consider myself a very proficient navigator I found it very challenging here and needing to use the GPS almost constantly.  Despite this, I'd often drift into the wrong path or into a sheep trod and I must have lost loads of time here.  Just before arriving into Greenhead and hitting Hadrians Wall I met Malcolm who views the daily videos my wife makes.  I couldn't believe he had driven some 20 miles at 1 am in the morning to cheer me on!  I felt really bad explaining that I couldn't really stop and he was very understanding, but it was very much appreciated and I do still owe you that pint!...

This was the big day ahead.  No more comparisons for me to last year beyond Dufton as it was a little beyond there where I dropped out in 2022.  It was also the stage I feared the most, last year I had the most horrendous section through Falcon Clints and Cauldron Snout.  I had assumed that if the diversion was set up last year (which I ended up not taking, but that is another story) then it would be a given this year, but no. No heroics following the River Tees on what is otherwise a very runnable section.  I continued to take the view that at night a solid pace is all that mattered and I wanted to avoid the Shin Splint that started to develop last year and then got steadily worse as I headed to Dufton.  As I was doing this section I could actually feel my shins starting to ache.  Not again!  I think with the benefit of hindsight it was sympathy pains from last year coming through and if you think things are there then they will be, even if they are n...

I set off once again into the foray at around 3am, so only about half an hour down on last year despite arriving into Hawes 2 hours later.  I felt fresh and a damn sight better than the manner in which I had arrived.  Next up is a brute of a climb - Great Shunner Fell.  Its about 5 miles long and seems to be a long old drag with lots of false summits.  In an increasing trend as we trekked further North the snow on the ground was heavier and heavier, many icy patches and plenty of drifts.  However, generally there was a well trod path in the snow, although at times I would drift off and it would then take some time to reattach myself.  The downside of only using GPS navigation and not having a watch with turn by turn guidance and alerts when straying off route. It was up Great Shunner that I started to have my first serious sleep monsters so for the first time I downed a caffeinated gel.  I don't know whether it was a placebo effect, but it soon knocked...