Preston Harriers' fell & trail running section . Some of our fell runners also do cross country and road running, but fell running is our main activity.Fell Running tends to be a Northern sport, the Lake District being the main centre for fell runners. The Harriers are the organizers of Paddy's Pole Fell Race, which usually takes place in June. Our junior fell runners are in a keen fell running section, you can read about them in juniorfellblog below. Preston Harriers running club was established in 1881. Mick McLoughlin the chairman of fellblog did the Bob Graham Round in 2005. Fell Runners are not as much bothered about PB's as they are about 3B's ( a local brewery).

Preston Harriers Fell Section :- Fellblog        

Bullock Smithy

The Bullock Smithy is an arduous 56 miler over the beautiful fells of Dark and White Peak in Derbyshire. Held on the 1^st Sat/Sun in September the checkpoints to be visited are above and must be completed in less than 24 hours.

Because of the time of year this event usually means around 9 hours of darkness.

I have run this event in 1989 in a time of 13hrs 45 mins and I think 2 years earlier I walked it with several of my very strong walking colleagues from the LDWA (Long distance walkers association in a very good time of 18hours and 8 mins. I had done it unofficially in between in around 11.5 hours.

Christine (my wife) had heard my tales over the years and felt the romance of the Blacksmith banging hammer on Anvil to start the walk would be a very good challenge for her.

We tried 3 times in the years 1998-2005 failing on all 3 occasions the furthest we got was 39 miles. We did not really train properly on any of the occasions and fitted it in around work something you can’t do on ultra and challenging walks.

On the 26^th Jan 2005 Chris decided this was the year and I thought oh gosh!! So we embarked on a life changing regime, I had always threatened to get a bit fitter but always became ill since the epic of 1992.

Chris started to walk 3 miles per day on the roads around us which is fairly hilly. We both cut out all oils and snacks (well she did but I wasn’t quite so rigid).

After around 2 months Chris had lost a stone and was now walking the same route twice per day. Although having a very stressful full time job Mon to Friday 9-5pm she would get up at 5.30am to do her 3 miles before getting ready for work and then do the 3 miles after work. By April her regime was 6am 3 miles Mon to Friday. In addition it was Mon, Tues, Thurs evenings and Sunday afternoon Great hill a power walk to the summit and back.

Sat afternoon was a 3 mile power walk on her morning route.

In addition to be a cleaning freak Chris has a second job working every Friday 7pm until midnight every Sat and Sun night 5pm until 10pm looking after terminally ill and aged clients.

We managed only one very long walk which was the Yorkshire 3 peaks to help one of Chris’s colleagues to get around the 26 miles to raise money for the Sunami appeal.

 This time Chris booked the day off work prior to the Bullock smithy and she had booked a week holiday some 2 weeks earlier when we reccied the second stage of the event and did a couple of walks in the Lake District .

Chris got to the start line weighing 8stones 7lb ( a loss of 32 lbs) and I had dropped from 13st13.5lb to 12st 8lbs.

I did not tell Chris that I was carrying a couple of niggles before the event. Neither Chris nor I expected me to finish but I would go as far as I could then follow her around in the car. The important thing was Chris must get around.

Sat 3^rd September came and the anvil was struck at 12 noon with some 245 setting out in very hot conditions.

On the long and exposed 5 miles (1,010 ft of ascent) to Bowstones we set a fast 4 miles per hour pace and we were surprised to have more than 100 behind us. Next was an equally exposed 1,400 ft climb to Chinley Churn maintaining a good pace. From Chinley we made the descent then the 2.5mile climb up the very rocky track to Edale cross around 1,600 ft of ascent by which time I was wet through, had drank about 3 litres of water and was very ratty and we were only at 14 miles.

I recovered on the very steep and rocky descent to Edale via Jacobs’s ladder Chris was looking very good.

From Edale we made the very steep ascent of Hollins cross about 750ft of ascent in some 600 metres with another of those rocky descents in what were becoming unbearably hot conditions.

Checkpoint 5 at Castleton led us onwards and upwards on another rocky ascent to Peak forest1200ft and now at the 22mile marker, but more importantly the Sun was dipping below the horizon a welcome relief.

On the trek to Millers dale we donned the head torches ready for 9 hours of looking at the ground with a 1 meter diameter of light 28 miles had now been covered yet we were feeling good in our night group of 4. Chelmorton with its relatively easy 300ft of climb took us to32 miles followed by the relatively flat next stage Earl Sterndale at 35 miles.

The effort in the climbs and the heat was beginning to take its toll and we are at time of night when the body is at low ebb.

From here on this was unchartered territory as the next 21 miles of the route had changed from my excursions in previous years. To put it bluntly the next 16 miles were climbing and descending on very rocky tracks in mud and slime, a bloody nightmare, Strangely enough I was feeling fairly good, Christine looked pretty good but our other 2 lads in the team were having fairly bad times, result being wanting to stay longer at check points but we were just getting stiff and cold to the point were we donned waterproofs, woolly hats and gloves.

I had to get a bit bolshy and get them moving, not readily appreciated by the lads at the time but it was necessary because on these events once you begin to slow you begin to slow with a vengeance and can lose masses of time very quickly.

At 5.15am Sunday the sky began to lighten up and day broke around 6.15 another glorious day but we were still only at checkpoint 11 with a full 13 miles to go and it was only going to get hotter.

Christine was beginning to feel it a bit now but still looking quite good and determined to finish within 24 hours. On we travelled to checkpoints 12 and 13 now we had only 5 miles to go. One of the guys had dropped back now it was daylight and walked at a slower pace with another group.

We had 4 miles along a canal bank and then a very straight seemingly never ending trail at one stage our new friend Paul suddenly stopped in his tracks, leant on his 2 sticks and uttered his exasperation at apparently not nearing the finish (he did not swear).

The final mile took us on the return straight track through Lyme Park in very hot sunshine.

600 metres from the finish and only 200 metres from the housing estate and the finish Chris had to sit down she was feeling very sick, a bottle of water and a hawk to her feet saw her finishing the Bullock Smithy in a time of 22hours and 32 minutes. Great reward for her dedication to training.

Next year I will try to get Jonathon Edwards to do it!!!!

Pete Benson

Start  

Finish

The start looks more like Gretna to me! Look how well Chris is shaping up after all those miles! I notice there's no picture of  Pete at the end......

If you would like to read other stuff from Pete (Our Present President) he has done stuff on:-

Supplements

Anglezarke Amble

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Preston Harriers Fell Section :-  FELLBLOG  is the proud fell running section of the famous Preston Harriers Athletic Club. Our athletic club has been around for 126 years. We like to call it famous because it is what Brendan Foster calls us on BBC athletic programmes. We are well represented in Track & Field presently by our pride & joy, Helen Clitheroe.  We also have some accomplished road runners. Our Fell runners are a mixed bunch of beer drinkers, most fell runners seem to be like that! We do run lots of races, as can be seen in the site itself. We have a world record holder Pete Benson, you can read about his feat inside. We are pleased that you have visited our website, which of course is mainly about fell running. The website is based in Riley Green, where the blogger is also Mayor of Riley Green. If you want to see more about the club, you can visit our main site. Click here