Race History Part 1  

History of the White Peak Marathon part 1 - transcript of notes compiled by Brian Howitt.

This unique race was the brainchild of Cromford bookseller Dave Mitchell, one of the original members of Matlock A.C. when it was founded in 1976.  Dave had often surmised that a combination of the High Peak and Tissington Trails, former railway lines axed by Dr. Beeching in the 1960s, could provide a course of the classic marathon distance but entirely off the road.

In its first year the club decided to investigate the possibility of a 1977 race which would start at the Ashbourne end of the Tissington Trail and finish at the Black Rocks car park above Cromford.  Fortunately the club included some qualified surveyors who had access to the original railway maps and who were thus able to come up a course of 26 miles 385 yards.  This was achieved by putting in about a half a mile towards Buxton after the intersection of the two trails at Parsley Hay, doing a U-turn at the quaintly named Custard Fields and returning via the High Peak Trail to the finish.

The early races were designated the "White Peak Twenty Six" for specific reasons: White Peak coming from the colour of the limestone rocks in that part of the peak district and Twenty Six because the strict AAA rules of the time specified that a marathon was a road race. A road race this is certainly not.  Although the surface of today's course is generally smoothly compacted aggregate and cinders for most of the way, in 1977 much of the Tissington Trail was grassed over and could become a quagmire on a wet day.  There were also long sections of sharp limestone ballast, particularly near the turn, where sprained ankles have occurred. The second half of the course has always given the best running (the longest cinder track in the world?) although to this day there can be deep puddles in bad weather.

The original course climbed some 700 feet in the first 13 miles although the well engineered track avoided steep gradients.  The sting was in the tail when, after negotiating a murky tunnel, runners descended the Hopton and Middleton inclines, steep gradients up which wagons were once winched by stationary engine. The effect of this on the legs in the race's later stages was always a problem which the addition of a third incline in 1993 would do nothing to improve.

Prior to the first race Brian Howitt and his colleague at the Matlock College, Mike Cudahy, completed a steady run over the course, minus the Parsley Hay loop, at Easter 1977.  Their time of about 3 hours 30 minutes showed that it was mostly good running all the way and Mike would eventually use the race as "speed training" for his Pennine Way and other records!

The race has always posed major logistical problems for the organisers in that road access is only available at five points which necessarily constitute the only feeding stations and on a hot day it is impossible to get as many drinks to runners as one would like.  Similarly runners cannot simply drop out and be picked up where they like, and it has always been stressed that they must decide at each checkpoint/feed station whether they are confident of surviving another 5 miles.

Copyright © 2006 Matlock Athletic Club