Once the fixture had been established, the club has held its Championships in November. An early one (the triple crossing) was held in January but concerns about the weather at that time of year caused it to be changed to November. Recent weather in this month however could hardly be described as clement. Recognising that the Slow Warts’ recent outings had been, shall we say, extended, and we athletes needed to taper our training, Andy planned a route of an hour and a half which the ten of us did surprisingly achieve.
Our start from Cutthroat Bridge car park via the muddy “high” level alternative to the short road section got us immediately into the swing of things. From the bridge, our time on the path was limited before we dived into the rough stuff where we split into about four groups aiming to join the main path to the edge. There were “groups” consisting of just one person, Pete (returned after recovering from a fall into a hole) and Andy. The rest of us loosely formed into groups and spread out without bothering to use map and compass, apart from Pete. We all did meet up at the junction of paths on the edge for an analysis of route choice, but what else would we talk about?
Tapering down not only includes a reduction in time, distance and height but also terrain so, from now on, we trod mainly paths, down from the edge to the contouring path by the wall, quite pleasant running (!) to reach the path to Salt Cellar, again by a wall and perhaps not so pleasant, a bit bumpy and even uphill!
More track followed down to the Coach and Horses but to remind our legs and feet and even our heads of rough terrain, we cut across the heather etc. to follow an almost direct line at speed (remember the pub beckons), to Cutthroat Bridge where we risked life and limb crossing the A57 (note the A57 had been closed at Ladybower for a helicopter rescue).
Beer talk at the pub was of the club championships and best routes to the checkpoints. Anyone listening must have thought, correctly, that we are a boring lot. The main thing, however, is that we did enjoy ourselves, thanks to all!
Graham
