Thursday 30th December - Tough run!

Met Nick over at Cowpe a small village near Bacup.
After yesterdays long ish run we had planned a steady run out today.
However ... the run from Cowpe, the 'Whittle Pike fell race was an absolute killer!
The race route is below, 4.5 miles and 1450 ft of climbing! - This we did and added sections on for fun!

It has been a Championship route a couple of times in the past and is due to be again in 2011
Initially we followed the race route, all up hill and very steep!
At the top of the first climb, off the road to the gate at the top I was struggling!
The climbs were really steep!
And so the run went on.
A downhill section over rough ground and then a long drag up to the top of Whittle pike.
The first section here was steep but runnable.
Once onto of the first section the ground was full of tussocky grass - terrible to run on and what at first sight appeared to be the top was actually only 3/4 of the way up to reach the cross at the top.
This last section was tough, but, the view on top were great.

The cross is in memory of a flying officer and Scout Group founder who was lost on a flying mission in 1955. From here we followed the race route down to the bottom of the next climb that was really steep. Very tough. At the top we followed the route past Waugh's well, out to the far hill, up another climb to the trig.

We followed the route back to the junction of the Pennine bridleway, up the last climb, again tough, back to the top of the first climb, very slutchy here, down the first climb, thighs felt it here, along the road and home.

Really tough after nearly 2 hours running yesterday!
Watch says - 115 mins, Avg hr 147, Max hr 164, cals 1355