Wednesday, 7 September 2011

Wreck run with IDP

Blowing a hooley this morning, and rain battering against the window. Certainly not conducive to getting up and heading out for a run, especially not with the slightly soggy shoes from last night.
The orginal plan was to go out onto Bleaklow with Ian from Dark Peak (IDP) and nav around all the aircraft wrecks, that was the plan until we worked out how much running and racing we were both intending on doing in the surrounding couple of weeks.
An alternative plan was hatched that we would do a few of them, and then this morning it seemed like the apocalyse had come, I went for a run last night and I was feeling a bit like I really didn't want to go out.

IDP on the phone convinced me that it would be lovely to meet at the Blacks and head out up the moor to find a couple of the wrecks up that way. He was meant to be leading out on a run this evening, so it was going to be relatively easy going. Perfect. I'll get me kit on then.

The weather was changing from relatively sunny and bright to hammering down with rain (sometimes horizontal) and force 4-6, apparently gusting up to 7+ on the tops. Right. So a pertex top might not quite be warm enough, Windstopper is probably the way forward, so the Dragon Jacket it is then, and a vaguely waterproof layer of a pertex Litespeed jacket in the bumbag just in case it gets really really nasty as a spare layer.
Shorts or tights? C'mon, its still "summer". Shorts all the way.
We met up over at the Blacks and had a rather good run up onto the moor. The peat was slippy, but he had no more grip in his old Mudclaw 330s than I did in my Roclites- for the majority of the time anyway. I felt that the 2litre bum bag was just a tad small for what I needed, basically because I can't fit a full size map in there, or water, which would have been useful.
Having said that, a 3litre bag wouldnt be able to fit a map in either...

We went past 2 wrecks and followed a few trods that are used for the High Peak Marathon. Good to see places where they lead, even if, with the cloud down, you couldn't really see where they were coming from or going to...
After going up Near Black clough we went skirted over a fair amount of moorland, and then came back down Far Black Clough. My Dragon Jacket held up well, despite some periods of driving rain, and the underarm vents were most useful- as ever, a good choice, even though its meant for very cold mountainous conditions.
Ian had the Kamelika Smock and sung its praises. The fabric is very good, breathable and stretchy, and certainly nowhere near as expensive as an eVent top. He was saying that if it got really really nasty then the Goretex Proshell just gets pulled out. Interesting. We both were still relatively dry despite the changable and ocassionally foul conditions.

A delightful run was finished off with a bit of a stream crossing which cleaned off the shoes, and even though the Garmin was fine up until that point, I managed to turn it off as we got out- I suspect that it was a bending back of the wrist that did it this time, as opposed to it spontaneously switching off.... so I'm going to have to keep an eye on it. (Its odd, lots of people are obssessed with stats on the run, I barely look at the watch when I'm out, hence why I'm always astonished when I get to the end of a run and its not on).

The track of the day is here, I didnt have a camera, the bag wasnt big enough, so I don't have any delightful shots of a misty and wind blown Bleaklow. Next time maybe. 

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