With all to play for in mile 49…..
The Welcome Way is an existing way-marked circular long distance walking route here in West Yorkshire, connecting Otley, Burley in Wharfedale and Baildon, with an optional loop around Shipley Glen and Bingley. Not only is it local to me, the route actually goes past the back of my house! Ultra-race organiser Punk Panther stages a running event which largely follows this route. Last year I completed a 42 mile version of the course. This year there were options to do 50 miles (with 6000 ft of elevation), 34 miles (4300 ft), 20 miles (2200 ft) or a half marathon.
In 2022 it had been cold and very muddy underfoot. This year winter weather had returned at the end of the week preceding the race on March 11, and we were treated to a winter wonderland of snow-covered hills, in addition a hard frost overnight added some icy patches to the route. Because of the weather conditions and the forecast for more snow starting at 5 pm, when I would still be out on the course, I took packing my mandatory kit as well as various extra items very seriously. OK, it’s hardly the Spine Race 😉, you are never that far from civilisation on the Welcome Way, but knowing how the field of runners often spreads out I felt it was highly likely I would be on my own for significant periods of time, especially towards the end of the race, when it would also be dark. So I packed various emergency warm layers, extra winter mittens, and ensured I had a spare head torch as well as a power pack and all the necessary cables. Thankfully I did not need any of that extra kit, but if I had been injured and needed to await rescue I would have been very glad of it.
After flagging part of the course on Burley Moor on Friday and falling into some dangerously deep bogs and holes that were very difficult to extract yourself from the race directors made the wise decision to divert the course along the road and avoid that moor section for safety reasons. An unpleasant diversion as it is a narrowish winding road without a pavement, but thankfully not as busy with traffic as it would have been on a weekday. Definitely better than running the risk of a nasty fall in a hole. And slightly faster and shorter (my 50 mile course was 49.75 miles in the end; we were offered the chance to run laps on the finish field to make it up to 50 but funnily enough I didn’t feel the urge 😊)
With Race HQ just 3 miles from my house I was spared too early a start, one of several advantages of local races: limited travel time, reduced fuel costs, and of course it makes reccying the route very easy. Having reccied and raced it last year, and revisited some sections more recently, I knew much of it like the back of my hand. There was one new section, a 12 mile loop at the end of the race, created to get the distance up to 50 miles. I had reccied this recently by walking it with a friend, taking extra care to know the last miles well, which I calculated I would be doing in the dark. I also carry a full, printed, route description with maps as part of the mandatory kit, and had the gpx file on my watch to follow, but nothing beats just knowing where you are going. As you will see if you make it to the end of this post, getting lost or not getting lost can really make all the difference!
After seeing the most stunning red/pink/orange sunrise over the Otley Chevin from my kitchen window, promising a beautiful day, I drove the short distance to the race car park in Otley. Registration was the usual lovely hub full of runners’ busyness and pre-race excitement and I was glad to see several of my Punk Panther friends as well as two Ilkley Harrier club mates who were running the 34 mile option (fun run really if you ask me 😉). We walked to the start in Wharfemeadows Park where my friend Gill, with whom I do many of my recces, unexpectedly turned up to wish me luck! A lovely surprise. Then we were off after a quick 3-2-1-Go from Ryk ‘Punk Panther’ Downes at 07:30. Up the hill along Farnley Lane to tackle the first section which goes north from Otley mainly through fields via Clifton and Askwith to arrive after a nice little downhill stretch on the road at check point (CP) 1 at Denton (9 miles). The snow was knee-deep on the fields, but at least for me, not being anywhere near the front, a good path had been trodden ahead. Still, it was tiring stuff and gave us all a clear sign that the legs would have to work extra hard today. But we were rewarded for our efforts with beautiful views, sunshine aplenty and blue skies. Looking behind me I saw I was very much at the back of the field, but was not unduly worried about my position as I know from experience that my time will generally come in the second half. I had some brief chats with a few runners I had met on earlier events and ran with Sarah, a runner I had spent literally half the Dalesway Ultra with in August but had not seen since. Sarah was doing the 34 mile version this time. In fact we stayed more or less together until CP3 at mile 21, where the courses split. Also nice to catch up again with brilliant ultra-legend Sharon Gayter whom I had met on the Dalesway too, and to meet her husband Bill who was crewing from the van and kept popping along the course so he and I were on solid waving terms soon enough!
After Denton we ran to Ben Rhydding and then onto my ‘home village’ Burley in Wharfedale and CP2 (14 miles). It was pleasantly warm by now, hat and gloves could even be removed and stowed away! After a climb up out of Burley we dealt with the road diversion, thankfully most car drivers were very considerate and stopped for us when we couldn’t get out of the way for lack of a suitable verge, and I made sure to raise my hand in gratitude every time (always good karma I reckon). We rejoined the Welcome Way from Bingley Road, where the footpath goes through a couple of cow fields with the very worst mud imaginable. I knew this from last year but it was still no fun, though at least it was now snowy mud rather than foul-smelling, but still knee deep, downhill, and with hidden rocks to add to the difficulty. One of my fellow runners lost a shoe in the quagmire, she was helped to retrieve it by others. Obviously if she and I had been on our own I would have helped, but as it was I pressed on, I was definitely in competing mode during the entire event. Minimal checkpoint stops, just a quick cup of coke, grab a snack and onwards, no faffing, no photos. That’s not to say I ran that fast! My speed is limited (compared to many others) at the best of times, and the underfoot conditions certainly slowed all of us down. I had estimated I would not cover more than 4.5 miles per hour on average with this terrain and elevation (in the end it was actually only 4) Now that the sun had warmed the ground we were no longer striding through nice crisp and powdery snow, instead slushy mud became the theme for the rest of the day.
We reached Shipley Glen and CP3 (mile 21). The 34 mile runners were turning for Baildon Moor here whilst we 50 mile runners headed out on the eight mile loop. This takes you to Eldwick and Micklethwaite, crossing the Leeds and Liverpool canal via the Morton Swing Bridge. Back along the canal via Five Rise Locks to Bingley where you cross the main road and pick up the bank of the river Aire to Saltaire and Roberts Park, then climbing steeply back up to Shipley Glen. There was some confusion as the checkpoint marshal had sent some runners clockwise around the loop. It is of little consequence as obviously distance and elevation are the same, but the gpx goes anti-clockwise so it may have made things more complex for them, I am not sure. Anyway, I said I would rather go the way I know which is anti-clockwise and that was fine, two runners followed me (I seem to exude that air that I know what I am doing 😂). Unbeknownst to me, the clockwise v. anti-clockwise situation made life difficult for Dawn and Jonathan Turner, two of my friends from the club, who had driven out to Roberts Park trying to catch up with me! Due to tracker foibles they had missed me at the railway crossing in Burley in the morning and were now determined to find me, but couldn’t work out why there were runners going in the ‘wrong direction’. In the meantime I was running for a bit with a nice runner called Chris from York, he was wearing last month’s Harrogate Hustle t-shirt so that provided a nice conversation starter as I ran it as well. Just as Chris started to flag at Bingley Five Rise Locks (or maybe he was bored of my conversational abilities by then and was slowing down to lose me!) the Turners came towards me which was absolutely delightful and a total surprise to me. The three of us ran together to Roberts Park where they returned to the car and I climbed back up to Shipley Glen to return to the checkpoint.
Then up to Baildon Moor, by now almost 30 miles in, so I got my poles out for this climb up and they stayed out until the finish, taking some of the load of the legs and helping me to stay upright on the mud which seemed to increase in slipperiness. Down from the trig point, on to Hollins Hall golf club and then to Esholt and through the woods to Guiseley. I was climbing out of the woods and remembering how the next section, a disused railway line to Yeadon, had been my single low point last year. That one mile stretch of tarmac looks so flat and runnable but it is actually very marginally uphill, quite deceptive. And it comes at a bad time. Tired, but still so far away from the finish. Anyway, just as I was garnering my mental strength who do I see coming running towards me but Jeff Green, another club mate! So lovely to see him and so kind to come out on his bike looking for me. We ran together and chatted and before I knew it we were at Yeadon where Jeff returned to his bike and I pressed on turning north towards West Carlton and the Chevin. Then there would be 12 miles (and a fair bit of up and down) to go on the loop out to Bramhope, Arthington and Pool Bank before reaching Otley. This is not part of the official Welcome Way but has been added to create the 50 mile route.
I reached the checkpoint at Surprise View on the Chevin and asked the checkpoint marshal how far ahead I was of any others and I managed to ascertain that Sharon was half an hour behind me, so my position as potential veteran female winner, barring any incident and if the trackers were correct, was feeling fairly safe. Having chatted to Sharon early on in the race I knew that unfortunately she has had a slow recovery from Covid and has not been able to train to her usual standard, I am absolutely under no illusions that when on top form she would easily leave me in the dust! I cracked on and ran east along the Chevin, downhill at first and then a long climb up and after some fields reached Bramhope where there is quite a long road section which I ran at a good pace (strangely enough Strava doesn’t quite agree and tells me it was an ultra shuffle but I tell you I was motoring along!) The light was fading, it had become noticeably breezier and colder and started snowing. Hat and gloves and mittens back on, buff back round my neck, but not so cold that I needed to stop and spend time putting on any of those extra layers I had packed. More fields until I was above Arthington where I descended, coming out by the church and reaching the final checkpoint (44 miles) at the village hall where I put my head torch on. I had learnt a lesson in an earlier ultra, namely that if I pack my head torch in the main compartment at the back of my race vest I wait too long with getting it out (as it requires stopping) so I had taken care to pack it in one of the front pockets. Every day’s a school day in ultra running and I love that!
From the last checkpoint in Arthington another ‘fast’ stretch along the road followed until I turned left at the railway viaduct for more paths and fields, in one of them a large flock of sheep decided to follow me en masse! It was quite a sight (and sound), all those shiny eyes reflected by the light of my head torch in the dark. Glad they weren’t cows! Down to the main road out of Pool in Wharfedale via a wooded track which was a bit messy and rocky in the dark, and which has a recently abandoned car in it. This looks a little disturbing as you do wonder how on earth it got there. Thankfully that car was already there on my recent recce, so I wasn’t spooked by it now. Then followed the long steep climb up the grandly (pretentiously?) named Avenue des Hirondelles, a long unmade road with a big stone archway at the bottom and some very grand houses along it. When we reccied it I said to my friend, I bet I will be crying here, leaning over my poles, about 47 miles in, but when it came to it in the race I was about as far from crying as I could be. I felt almost deliriously happy! There is something very special about being on your own in the dark in an ultra. Though I might have been crying if I didn’t know the way, I was so very glad to know exactly which of the three identical looking tracks to take in the woods at the top. The final stretch goes from the corner at the top of Old Pool Bank through some very muddy fields, quagmire is an apt description, back to Otley. I said hello to the spotted pig which I had had a friendly encounter with on my recce, now it was asleep in its shed. It was dark after all.
With just under a mile to go to the finish I saw a light ahead of me. A head torch with a runner attached, albeit a runner who was walking. This was on a short bit of flat road, obviously someone who was very tired. As I got closer I saw it was a woman. This had to be the only woman ahead of me (there were four women in the race including me and I knew two were behind me), I had seen her briefly at earlier points in the race. As I caught her up I said something along the lines of ‘come on, let’s run’, but immediately regretted it and thought maybe I should have just sped past, she might not even have seen I was a woman? She said despondently ‘oh, I got lost so many times…..I must have lost half an hour’. But I was already off. Suddenly it was game on. This was no time for friendly chatting, or companionably going over the finish line together like I have done in my last two ultras (with runners I had spent about 30 miles of the race with).  This was a time for winning if it was in my grasp. I could barely believe what was happening, I was so excited by this sudden turn of events but expected to be overtaken any second. I knew she had to be a faster runner having been quite a long way ahead. She was definitely younger. And all she had to do was follow my light now. I ran with all the remaining speed that I could summon from my legs and lungs, through muddy fields, over stiles, praying not to stumble now, I finally hit the Otley streets and belted down to the Cricket Club, through the car park avoiding the treacherous potholes, not daring to look back as I was sure she had to be be right on my heels. She wasn’t though, perhaps she had lost the will to fight as she was a full minute behind me in the end, and I was delighted to finish as first lady in 12:18:06. Winner winner, chicken dinner 🥇Small field of four (11 finishers in all in the 50 miler) but I am taking it nevertheless, it’s not something that normally happens to me. Ewa and I became instant friends over tea and pasta which we were treated to by the ever-wonderful Punk Panther team.
With thanks to Stephen Kirk for letting me use some of his photos. As I already said above, I didn’t have time to stop and take photos, whereas Stephen has the ability to run very fast and take photos all at the same time 😃 I am quite jealous!
Shoes: my new VJ Ultras. Brilliant choice. Not many people run in VJs, but I have had a pair of VJ Sparks for about a year and they suit me very well for off-road running and have phenomenal grip. I wore Sparks for the first 40 miles of the Dalesway but then swapped over to some inov8’s with more cushioning for the rest. The VJ Ultras are more cushioned than the Sparks, hence this recent purchase, and I am over the moon with them. The grip is amazing, many runners struggled with the ice but I barely noticed it (and I am not the most sure-footed runner) and the comfort was excellent. These will definitely be the shoes for the Dales High Way in May!
