RACE REPORT BY RACHEL H – 25TH APRIL 2026
Last year whilst watching the London Marathon on TV and scrolling on my phone, the race photos started popping up onto me feed. I have walked and ran this route before, so it immediately grabbed my attention. Despite having recently filled my race calendar for the year, I knew I wanted to do this race.
The main challenge and my worry, was I good enough to make the cut off points in time?
The race dubbed as the marathon with mountains, is a 24.2 miles circular route with 5’433ft of ascent. Training was going well until February when I had a fall. My feet came off worst and I’ve had on/off problems with them since.
After buying a couple of new pairs of trainers, insoles, laces and experimenting with taping, I was as ready as I could be.
The weather forecast was for 20 degrees of glorious sunshine, not ideal but at least we would have the views. I stayed over the night before and arrived nice & early. So, I had plenty of time to check out the stalls and have umpteen trips to the loo.
730 solo runners, plus 50 teams of 6 (2 per leg) in the relay, all eagerly waiting for the countdown. We had a short little tootle out of the field, down the road, left hand turn onto the track to mountain number one – Pen-y-Ghant. The smallest of the three at 696m so a nice gentle warm up! This one has a well-maintained stone path all the way to the summit. I was halfway up when the leadings started to fly down! But stick to the plan – nice steady even pace. Summit and checkpoint 1 reached, dibber had been dabbed, a little loop around the top before descending the way I can up. I was struggling a little on the descent; whether it was the tape on my feet sliding on my socks or that I kept my laces as loose as I dared but my feet were sliding around inside my trainers. I trusted my ability and hung on in there. We then picked up the Pennine way over Whitber hill, jackdaw hill, through some farms and heading out onto the road towards the iconic Ribblehead viaduct and checkpoint 2. This is the longest section between the peaks, by the time you reach the viaduct, you have clocked 13 miles.
Check point 2 is the first of the timed check points. I had to reach this point in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Everyone around me was checking their watches as we hit the road section, we all knew that time was ticking away. We made it with just 5 minutes to spare! Cutting it fine on that terrain but I was still in the game. I quickly picked up my spare water bottle and refilled my empty one, not wanting to hang around, I set off again not stopping for a breather.
Mountain 2 – Wharnside, the highest peak at 736m. Here we followed the normal track up as far as the second railway bridge and then diverted off from the main walk route. This section is private land so was the unknown element of the route and the toughest section. You start by crossing moorland, wading through a bog, even with the dry weather we have had, before tackling the final bit of ascent which can only be described as red bull territory! A bear crawl scrabble up a rocky, grass bank, with runners laid out on both sides of the route, stretching out cramps, catching their breath or calling it a day. I tried to keep a slow steady even pace, so that I could just keep moving forward. I dibbed in at the top, the marshals were keen to get us going quickly, I had 30 minutes to make the descent! I panicked, I knew I couldn’t do that with my current trainer set up. My feet were all over the place and this descent is the steepest, with tricky stoney sections. I took a moment to sort my laces out, if the foot pain came, I would deal with it. By this time it was around early afternoon, on a beautiful sunny day, the place was full of walkers. I trusted in my ability to just let go and with arms flapping around I bombed it down as fast as I could shouting “runner coming through” to all the walkers, arriving at the check point with 6 minutes left on the clock! That was it, my unofficial finish line, I was going to complete the race, YES. I picked up my third bottle, filled up an empty one and popped the other in my backpack before heading off for glory.
Mountain 3 – Ingleborough 723m, has the worst ascent, with jelly legs and screaming glutes, it’s basically steps all the way up to the top. Obviously, we are not talking nice even steps, they are all over the place so you can’t get into a rhythm and one particular evil section is very challenging for little legs. Again, on this ascent runners were turning back, due to legs just giving up or cramping out. The heat definitely played apart in the amount of DNF’s. Near the summit I grabbed a couple of jelly babies from a marshal as a little victory treat. It’s all downhill from here, 4 miles of it. A tricky lower section through the limestone fields but thankfully the dry weather made it easier. The last section to the finish field is again over private land, through some gardens over a road and boom, done. A lovely touch, as you turn the final corner a marshal radio’s your number to the finish line so the race announcers knew who’s arriving. They call out your name and club over the sound system as you’re crossing the line, because we all deserved it haha.
I was bricking it for this race, I didn’t want to get disqualified. I did enjoy it though, it’s a great event with lovely people, fabulous atmosphere and comradery. There’s something about trying to hang on and survive that brings people together!
