Tanky's Recce

Saturday morning, Wardy and I caught the train into Manchester and then back out again to Marsden to run the whole of Tanky’s for a recce. Various things have always got in the way for him so he has still not been initiated into the annual bog fest that is Tanky’s. We had good clear weather only slightly spoilt by a southerly headwind for the entire route. We trotted steadily up Wessenden to the Isle of Skye road. It seemed strange to be heading up there at a steady pace, as I have only ever run that section actually in the race. We bumped into two fellow recce’ers Steve and Paul at the road crossing, but as they were still faffing and only heading to the Snake we left them too it!

It was a pleasant trot up to Black Hill and Soldiers Lump. The streams were so low compared with normal December levels it felt decidedly weird! After Soldiers lump, I showed Wardy the direct line down into Little Crowden Brook, along which we found this little monster! 

Wardy was so close behind me he followed me straight in. I managed to haul myself out but he needed a helping hand to extricate himself!! The brook at the bottom of the descent didn’t provide much of a cleaning service to us either!

After crossing the road at Crowden we checked out the Lawrence Edge line. Not sure we got it spot on, but it has to be faster than the Wild Boar Clough route! Up and over Bleaklow and down to the Snake to check the new wooded section out off road. Have to say I’ve never had a problem regarding running down the road, but I’ll go with the decision. The only issue I see is that the path down through the woods is already incredibly eroded due to all the recces. I’m not sure it’ll take the hammering year on year! Got a great line up Seal Stones – its amazing how little tweaks to known routes can still provide gains, and then up and over Kinder. We politely ignored the notices about shooting across the centre of the moor, and came away unscathed, to drop down to Grindsbrook and into Edale. We timed it so perfectly that a 10 minute wait at the Station was all we had to catch the train back home.

I did feel the pace a bit at times, but realised that 3 runs in 41 days was going to mean that I felt the pace! A bit of work to do before the race itself but as my priorities have been elsewhere, I’m pretty happy about that, and it was a great day, peat bogs n all.