Peak District Challenge 100km-
On Friday 19th September myself and my friend, Sarah, took part as a team in the 100km distance challenge. The loop started at 9pm from Hathersage and involved some degree of self navigation to checkpoints located approximately 6-8 miles apart. First stop was the Ladybower Inn, unfortunately just the car park for a quick slice of pizza and a top up of water then over to Fairholmes. After this we enjoyed a loop over to Alport Castle and eventually over to Edale (another car park in the dark!)
The most challenging section followed with us heading up to Mam Tor and over to Brown Knoll, with the absolute highlight being the descent of Jacob’s Ladder. Visibility became poor and we were very happy to arrive back into Edale before heading over the hill into Castleton. Luckily there were no rules around outside support so we treated ourselves to some ‘posh coffee’ in the village before a climb up Cave Dale.
Next stop Cressbrook for a welcome drop bag and shoe change and it was just a hop skip and jump down to Calver, followed by a little trot/shuffle along the river into Baslow. A welcome can of coke here helped with the final climb onto Baslow edge just in time for the rain to start again. After dropping down to Grindleford there was just a couple of miles left following the river back to Hathersage. By this point we were so drenched we may as well have swam down. We finished in 18hrs 49mins as first women and first team. I believe there were around 30 entries with a 50% dnf rate. The male winner of the 100km was Sam Evans in 13:04. As well as a 75/50/25km distance, there is also a 100 miles/24hrs challenge which so far no one has completed if anyone wants a challenge for next year?
