UKC

Tomorrow morning begins the biggest event in the UK dot watching calendar! Not as stacked a field as last year, but some names nonetheless. Immensely challenging conditions underfoot to begin the race, but maybe preferable to warmer and wetter - although who knows how it'll develop.

Feel free to shout out anyone you know that we should cheer for.

https://live.opentracking.co.uk/spinerace25/

My dot-watching started this morning when I was warming up after my open water swim!

Please keep an eye on South Challenger runners:

314 Martin Berkeley who is a former member of Central Beacons MRT and running to raise funds for us.

903 Chris Bagworth in the MRT event, a member of Derby MRT (and formerly CBMRT)

Fingers crossed for them both.

I was out on Kinder earlier and the conditions are absolutely incredible. Suffice to say I was jealous given how unbelievably wet and windy it was the year that I did the Spine Challenger South. I think today’s runners have got the best start too - cold/clear. Less so those that start on Monday, just as it begins to thaw.

I don't know her personally but Alice Kershaw from my running club, Saltaire Striders, is doing the South Challenger, so I'll be watching her dot!

Beautiful, it was great on the hills in Yorkshire today too. Far better than the year you were out - though that didn't stop you picking up a nice result!

Will hopefully see the Spine leaders at White Hill/Windy Hill tomorrow, they normally get there before dark, although might be moving a bit slower this time...

Impressive running from Paul Brennan in the Sprint. Aready at Wesseden Head and halfway through the Challenger field, despite starting over 4 hours later.

John Kelly is favourite to win I think, he will have his eye on the CR as well I believe.

Kim Collinson will give his a good race for the first half, then who knows.

JK favourite for me too. Not sure the conditions will be conducive to records but that may not stop him trying. And yeah fingers crossed for Kim to finally finish at least!

Tiaan Erwee is the Summer Spine record holder so could feature too (although that's never been as competitive as winter). Simon Roberts will no doubt go out at a fair pace, will be interesting to see how long he can hang on. My others with good potential for top 5 would probably be Dougie Zinnis, Dave Phillips, James Leavesley, Eugeni Sole. 

I'm less familiar with the women's field - standout names for me would be Elaine Bisson, Robyn Cassidy, Lucy Gossage, and of course Hannah Rickman. Anyone got any to add?

Agreed, Challenger South is the place to be this year. Should be done before the big thaw next week turns the route into slop!

I am just back from a week climbing in the sunshine in Spain, now settling down with popcorn to watch as much of the Spine Races as possible - they seem to be putting more stuff on Youtube than before. The first daily update made for good breakfast entertainment today. I am in awe if all participants - 5k in frosty Berkshire this morning nearly froze my toes off.

Ultrarunningsam is the podcaster in residence and there’s already 2 preview podcasts up and there will be daily podcasts if you want to listen to something while dot watching. It’s also on YouTube, as are the Spine organizers videos. 

Is the Spine mail thing up and running this year?

 A friend told me how greatly appreciated the messages were last year so I was even keener to message friends on this years race but I just cannot find it on the trackers.

Looks to be working, via the mail tab or within each runner profile

Both my mates running the Challenger South have been forced to retire; 'challenger' is an appropriate word to describe the event - never mind the thaw to come, the snow drifts were hip deep at times!

I predict the Challenger South will have the lowest finisher rate ever

Heads up to gary and neil from the wirral both starting Monday morning.

Made it out to M62 to see the first 15 come through. Pretty much complete whiteout with cloud rapidly dropping while we were there. Good fun though, runners in good spirits!

Leading men, and woman:

Congrats to James Allen for winning the Challenger on his first try. There was a lovely interview with him early on when he expressed his surprise at being so close to the leaders - now he's gone and won it!

Saw that interview, but with the various spine races the old racing adage is very apropos, to finish first you've first got to finish.

That option is missing on both phone and laptop for me

Are you using an old version of the app?

I'm on chrome, on my android phone. I can see the same option on desktop, on chrome on mac.

https://live.opentracking.co.uk/spinerace25/

That's really strange.

I haven't got it on Chrome on an android phone or Chrome on a Windows laptop.

Dumb question - it is the Spine Race that you're looking for it on? 
(ie: Not the Challengers or the Sprint?)

Just been out above Hebden Bridge to stalk someone I know. Conditions are interesting.. massive thaw happening and a lot of lingering sheet ice on the trail. 20m vis on the tops and dropping as the valley air condenses.  

Flooding up next you presume but maybe they'll be clear of it by the time it kicks in.

Good to chat briefly as I passed you Rob. Agree conditions were perfect on Kinder, a joy to be out. Bleaklow and Black Hill were then a taste of the struggle to follow. Which reached its apogee going up Fountains Fell. About 6hrs longer to Hawes than it typically takes me when doing the full distance and I wasn’t slacking.

The snow had already started to soften by Sunday morning, don’t envy the slush and mud thrash to come.

I DNF'd the Challenger South at Lothersdale at 107km - the weather was stunning (for the cameras) but the underfoot conditions were horrific!  Bleaklow, Black Hill, Ickornshaw Moor in particular were brutal - thigh deep post-holing.  Any of the bits where you can usually switch off and plod - slab, dirt roads, tarmac etc were all dicey so there was very little opportunity to eat/sort things on the go without stopping.

Tough out there - hats off to everyone!

It's not a dumb question at all.

It appears that the answer is that there is no spine mail for challenger runners this year.

Exciting, as predicted, Kim C has gone out all guns blazing and is out in the lead, with Eugeni, John, and the "pack of three" all equally spaced behind him.

In the women's, Robyn and Lucy seem to be storming ahead.

Big shout out for Edwin Tate, who has been battling it out on his own at the back of the Challenger South for a while. The slowest ever finisher made it with 6 minutes to spare and Edwin is about a mile ahead of that with 7 miles to go, so it's going to be close. Good luck to him.

Well, that's Eugeni and Kim at Tan Hill. Difficult to know exactly where John is as his tracker doesn't have signal right now. I predict we'll see it jump forward when he gets out on top of Stonesdale and gets some signal again.

Max Moberg seems to have broken away from the pack of three. Wishing him luck!

Robyn is going great guns! Keep it up!

Lucy too, of course  

Good luck to him!

I love rooting for the back markers. I'm going to have to check in just before 8 this evening to see if he's made the cutoff!

Also a shout out to Mel Sykes, who had brain surgery not much over a year ago and was told she would never run again. Currently crossing Fountains Fell as 6th woman in the full Spine - quite some recovery!

Great to see you on Saturday Mark. I was wondering about how to contact you, as I wanted to send you a message to say congratulations - then who should I see commenting on this thread but you!!

That sounds tough going, especially given that the further you got - the harder it got (and it's hard enough anyway, even in good conditions). Fountains Fell really does represent a low point though, because for such an insignificant hill it seems to take forever to get up - it goes on forever doesn't it?!

Hopefully the body/feet/mind have held up!!

Likewise, I do not envy anyone that's out over the next few days. It does look quite sunny, but underfoot conditions are going to be awful - albeit in a very different way to the ones you experienced. 

Great effort once-again!

Great effort Si. It's easy to forget that 107km in those conditions is still an absolutely/insane* epic achievement. Those sorts of things add up too and take a massive physical/psychological toll...

*delete as appropriate

Oooh, looks like Eugeni has retired at Tan Hill.

That's a shame - I was hoping to see him fight it out with Kim and John.

I hope he's ok.

John made a very quick transition through Hawes earlier, barely stopped by the looks of it. In doing so, he leapfrogged back into a podium position, despite having been down to around 7th overnight. But presumably that means the runners he overtook got some rest in Hawes, so could that come back to bite him? I would imagine his strategy was related to making progress in the daylight, but with the checkpoints so far apart, you have to stick it out for a good while longer til the next chance to sleep!

The distance that Robyn and Lucy are putting into Nikki (and the rest of the race) is pretty phenomenal. The next pack ahead on the road are a decent distance from Robyn, but if she keeps this up, I'd imagine they'll start getting reeled in...

Edit:

Sad to see Eugenio depart at Tan Hill. Will look out for an update on what he came up against.

There was also an MRT response to a runner on the Cam High Road. Sounds like it's been handled safely, with runners providing aid and being given time bonuses to compensate. 

I sodding hope not   Snow is thawing quite slowly, so once it doesn't rain we should be fine! 

Cheers buddy - a lingering chest infection got the better of me.  I thought I was over it but 24+hrs of shuffling in minus degrees took its toll - i was a coughing spluttering mess by the time I got to the Lothersdale bacon butty heroes!! 

About 5 degrees even on the Cheviot summit for a bit, which might start the snow shifting quite fast. And it sounds like there's a fair bit of it to melt.

At least there's no major rain forecast for the next few days so maybe?!

He made it

19 minutes to spare! Perfectly timed!

👍

Always tough to be the back marker, with the clock chasing you, good on him.

Re Eugeni:

Thanks Rob! Hope to see you back on the start line in the future.

The shift of CP3 from Middleton to Langdon could be significant for sleeping plans of the faster runners. People likely underestimate how long those miles along the river will take when you’re half asleep and trying not to fall into it. For a midpacker like me, it’s just a bit too far without sleeping but Hawes is too early. In typical conditions most frontrunners can make it without becoming a shambling mess.

But with the conditions this year, it’ll be a stretch for all but the quickest of the leaders (or most resilient to sleep deprivation) to make it without an interim stop for a quick sleep.

can’t see Kim anymore. Has he dropped out? 

Nope. 
 

John Kelly appears to have caught up with Kim, although it could be they've both lost Tracker signal at the same spot (about 1km west of Cauldron Snout heading to High Cup Nick).

Looks like John is right on Kim’s heel’s now!

It also looks like the chasing pack of three have taken a wrong turn. 

Everyone has been diverted along the road to Cow Green Reservoir. Happens a lot of years as the PW route goes over boulders right next to a river and gets treacherous 

Difficult to tell exactly because their trackers are giving position at different times but looks like John is still behind Kim but under half a mile.

Wonder what their (lack of) sleep strategies are.

I think John's got more experience of multi-day sleep deprivation events so I'd put my money on him, but it's a close call so it would be a very small bet.

With this year's conditions, it's impressive that they're ahead of Sabrina's record tracker, although I don't know if that maintains average speed over the whole PW or whether it mirrors her checkpoint timings.

What's going on at the back of the field - diverted off Fountains and PYG?

Edit: looking at people's tracks (bit more difficult on the phone) it looks like diverted to avoid PYG - which happens quite often, icy steep rocky bit IIRC, but then diverted off Fountains as well - can't remember if they've done that before.

Yeah I noticed that, never seen that diversion route for PyG used before

With that diversion Phil & Amy at the back may have a chance of staying in the game but I think they have to be leaving Malham Tarn NOW, time-outs are leaving times IIRC.

Anyone know why John Kelly's got a 26 minute time penalty?

And answering my own question, advantage gained by failing to follow Cauldron Spout diversion.

11 minutes behind arriving at Dufton so 37 minutes behind at that point.

Further Edit: forgot to press save edit - doh!

I think that is correct but there's nothing to stop them sitting down just outside the checkpoint for a rest if they want.

Maybe because he took the PW route to Cow Green not the diversion? That's just speculation on my part though

He missed the Cauldron Snout safety diversion, apparently..

He's not the messiah, he's just a very naughty boy 😁

I was advised that the diversion was in place because it was too icey, really a crampon and axes job so I think they made the right decision 

Does that get added on at the end, or is it reflected in the current race positions on the tracker? Kim seems to have pulled away from him again…….

Added at the end, tracker position should be unaffected by time penalties

Cheers Ed. John has his work cut out……

Yes, did the Challenger South. I thought breaking trail over Ickornshaw was as bad as it would get but Fountains Fell was a new low. Then I slowed down to conserve energy for the Cam Road expecting it to be even worse but was ok where you could climb above the deepest drifts. Not exactly runnable on the descent though.

I guess we are all different but I would have thought that few midpackers would reach Hawes within 30 hours?

Somewhere around 32 hours tends to be ny ideal time for a first sleep if a race is going to extend beyond 40 hours.

Yes, agreed! I met Mel while we were were marshalling on CraggRunner events. She's an understated tough, tough cookie and a lovely person. It's amazing to see her doing this after what she has been through. Go Mel!

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy384w24x6o

Seems notable that Lucy has caught Robyn and they've been moving roughly together from Langdon to Dufton. Will be interesting to see if they get back onto the course together - no doubt they'll want to leave quickly in the daylight, and they both spent 1:30-1:50 in Langdon, so maybe that was enough time to sleep a little and setup the next stretch to at least Alston? 

Yes agree, I’m probably using the term too broadly, I was including the runners one step down from those challenging at the front. Top of the middle if that makes sense. Tricky to segment on the Spine when you can be over 24hrs behind the leader and finish in the top 10. People roughly halfway in the field, I agree - Hawes may even be too late for a first stop.

I’ll tend to push the first sleep to 36-40hrs but gets very hard after that, unless the finish is close. That’s roughly the range that the front pack reached Langdon last year but I think few (if any?) managed that this year.

My question has been answered immediately... they have both left the checkpoint within 3 minutes of arriving! 

Bloody Hell, tough cookie indeed. Another hero added to my Favourites on open tracking.

Spine Sprint North trial event just started, with Damo and Eloise Eccles doing the route from Bellingham to Kirk Yetholm. Love that the route takes them up the Cheviot as well!

And now Lucy has gained a small lead as they head towards Cross Fell! Running with Max maybe? 

The 26 minute penalty has been removed. He's still been docked the estimated 13 minutes he gained by not following the diversion.

Source: Spine Race FB page.

Looks like she's still ahead of Robyn and potentially gained a tiny bit more. They are both ahead of Max  now.

At the tail end, Amy and Phil are both somewhat behind the Slowest Finsher marker, and they have until 8 pm to get through Hawes. I think that's possible for Phil if he's moving ok, but likely to be very tight for Amy. Wishing them both luck.

Amy has retired ☹, Phil has 1:35 to get in and out of Hawes checkpoint - about 2.5 miles away.

Lucy back out on the course already. Looks like the Women's race is shaking up to be a real head to head.

In the Men's Dave Phillips seems to have forgone as much rest as the others and set off too.......

Phil Bristow's in Hawes - and he's now level again with the lanterne rouge (slowest finisher time), but will he manage the cumulative loss of rest, warmth etc. Best of luck to him tonight, hope he's still in it in the morning!

Phil's back out matching the lantern rouge stride for stride. I'm hoping that his long leg to Malham tarn (29 hours) included some sleep so that he can keep going for some time before the next bit of shut-eye becomes inevitable.

In some ways, the back markers have it worse than the front runners, they suffer for longer and can't easily avoid needing some longer sleeps.

I've pondered similar for a road marathon for example. Kipchoge being at his max for 2 hrs is probably not as exhausting as a regular person being at their max for 4 hours. It may even be twice as exhausting for them. Similar perhaps to Kipchoge having to run 50 miles (which might take him 4 hrs if he could be bothered to try).

Apart from having their nutrition and hydration properly sorted (usually), elite male (& probably female) marathon runners avoid "hitting the wall" partly because they're not running for long enough.

Phil's retired ☹️, some funny stuff wandering about on the tracker coming off Great Shunner Fell at about 04:00 and then obviously no longer walking once down at Thwaite, driven to Tan Hill.

I suspect sleep deprivation claimed another "victim" and the way the tracker is right on the path after the "walkabout" makes me wonder if someone helped him down off the hill.

Awww, that's a shame

Yes, looking at his track on PC (rather than phone) you can see that he's been wandering about and in over an hour has ended up only 100m away - I'll bet somebody from the Montaine team was checking up on him (*) in the night (since he was the lantern rouge) and realised what was going on and sent somebody up the hill to get him down.

Maybe it's mentioned on their Facebook page (I don't do FB).

(*) - or maybe they've got a "behaviour" algorithm on the tracker data to give them alerts.

Nothing on FB since he successfully arrived a CP2.

I imagine the safety team were following his progress manually, and also grew concerned with the wandering! A real shame for Phil, he's showed such determination to make it this far.

James Barlow is now the back of the pack, resting at Tan Hill, and one of three behind the slowest finish record. They've got til 2300 tonight to make it to CP3, best of luck to them all.

Bruce from my running club (#170) is just in front of them, we are willing him on!

Kim seems to have a commanding lead in the Men's at the moment, and Lucy seems to be attempting to build a similar buffer in the Women's.

Be interesting to see what falls out of this leg to Byrness as the lack of sleep and general fatigue takes hold......

Looks like Kim has it unless something unexpected happen (of course, you can't rule that out!). 

The race just behind is getting more exciting - looks like Tiaan and Dave have overtaken John now.

Yes, I would imagine that the safety team manually follow progress for those right at the tail end of the pack, and probably also for anyone who checkpoint staff express any concern about...

Such a shame for Phil, but looking at his track sending someone out to pick him up was the right thiing to do.

One of the back three is Woolsack. Used to come on here. I've been following him all week. Fingers crossed he makes it to CP3!

E

Lucy Gossage is rapidly approaching John. Touch wood she's having a terrific race.

I'm hoping Kim can hold onto first. Not sure how much rest he's had compared to the chasers.

Max Moberg is hanging in there, and Robyn Cassidy is doing well too.

10 miles to go and 7 miles ahead of 2nd. 

W

Just 6 miles to go now for Kim, neck and neck with virtual Jasmin. He's well clear of the chasers so as long as he stays upright it should be a formality.

Yep, he's through Hut2 now - just needs to keep moving and stay upright for a few more kms.

I'm wondering if John might try to overtake Tiaan at Hut1 - but I wondered that at Byrness as well and it didn't happen there. Maybe he's just happy chatting with Lucy!

Edited to add that I saw a load of retired trackers move up to the finish in two batches earlier. I'm not sure if they were just moving trackers around, but I like to think they were taking retirees up there to see the first finishers come in

Well, Tiaan left Hut1 before John got there, so that theory is out!

Hopefully downhill all the way for Kim now.

It'll be interesting at the back for the next few hours, the Lantern Rouge has stopped at the old Middleton checkpoint but won't stop at Langdon. I don't think we'll get an accurate picture of how things compare for a few hours.

He's motoring! Relatively of course.

In other news Nicky Spinks has done well, first woman in the Challenger North.

Yes, he's ahead of virtual Jasmine now.

Well done Kim! What a way to finally complete this elusive race

I get the feeling that there might be a little "competition" amongst some of the back markers to beat the lantern rouge, i.e. finish in the 21:44 time window that's still available.

Might just be me "seeing something" when it's just several competitors getting as much rest as possible before being "kicked out" of each checkpoint by the cutoff times.

Good luck to them, that might be quite tricky to judge with significant risk of running out of time.

Edit: looks like it's almost certain to happen in the challenger north with 2:27:11 available and several people looking like they're in that window.

Must say that watching the YouTube daily summaries can be pretty inspiring.

The interviews from Emily Mills, Dave Brown and Angela White … powerful words.

Particularly liked Angela’s “your time is now” line.

You know when you watch those, particularly if they're using that stirring music they often use, you think "maybe I could have a go..."

Watched one the other day from the Winter Downs 200 with someone I know in it crossing the finish looking spent, proud, etc., hugging his parents...I immediately started imagining myself doing the same thing! I think my family would kill me for entering rather than hugging me at the finish (let's be honest I wouldn't make it anyway).

Back to the Spine...I find this bit very exciting watching the last few heroes trying to stay in front of cut-offs... fingers crossed for all them!

I’m so wrecked at the moment I didn’t even make it to ParkRun. To complete it I’d need some sort of “e-hike” device 😀

The two heroic backmarkers are just approaching Chew Green, which is an incredibly exciting Roman site - a complex of encampments probably dating to some different campaigns and a fortlet designed for longer-term occupancy.

Sadly the Spiners are probably too knackered to appreciate the unique ancient landscape they're running through!

Glad I'm not the only one who gets 'distracted' by the various sites along the way, whether running these events or dot watching them. Clearly we don't easily switch off from the day job 😉

😆

I felt so rough today on an easy run (I can't get up early enough for parkrun) that I took a COVID test! Still feel awful but test was negative.

On these multi day events I suppose you could easily get ill during them and not realise (apart from feeling awful and knackered, which you would be expecting anyway).

My two friends finished yesterday morning after going straight through Thursday night. I do hope the last two make it in time. That would be the equivalent of getting ill the day before paris in le tour.

Someone I used to know dropped out at Hut 2 in the Cheviots on the Challenger North - must be a real bummer.

Final hero just finished?

What an amazing week it has been. I am always sad when the excitement, and the daily updates, are over.

Lots of interesting Iron Age forts and Saxon settlements up in Cheviots, a fascinating neck of the woods 

Indeed. I was delighted to see him make it after his slight 'diversion' before Alston.

A great race, as you say. It will be round again in June before we know it, which as I'm competing is actually quiet a terrifying thought...

Anyway, well done to everyone who took part, whether running or volunteering, you should all be very proud of yourselves. And thanks to everyone on here for reporting and comments 👍 

Good luck when the time comes for the summer Spine for you. I'm impressed that you are even starting. I am impressed by all the runners, even the ones who have to pull out.

The most I have done on my own is about 12 miles, and I usually go once or twice per week for about 3.5-6 miles. My problem is that after about 10Km (sorry for mixing units of distance) I seem to run the risk of getting blisters/ulcers on my feet due to bunions (it can also sometimes be a problem when Munro bashing).

My thought is to see if I would deal or cope with a half marathon, first. That might be the level that I get stuck at, but repeat(?): Or I might be able to progress a little from there. One thing which heartens me, is that the runners, seem to walk a fair bit at times, but they don't hang around.

Once again, great good luck to you.

At the elite end they're running most of the time unless going up steep slopes. But it's more of a jog/shuffle that just keeps on going and going - faster than brisk walking, very little foot-lift, efficiency with fatigue minimisation is key. Also uses muscles differently from walking so interspersing with brisk walking can help with the fatigue (*).

At the tail end very little running is done, determination , grit and not giving in appears to be key.

But whether fast or "slow" it's all very impressive. Normal walking trip time for PW IIRC is 2-3 weeks. If someone said "I did the PW in under a week" you'd be saying "wow, that's quick", and in winter too.

(*) - I do some of this in the hills, jogging the level and downhill bits, legs feel fresher than if I carried on walking. Downside is that when you finish all your muscles are knackered rather than just some of them.

Many thanks - very much appreciated. 

It will be the longest event I've attempted by a huge margin, but I'm hoping my many years of walking and backpacking will pay off, as I've not been running for very long at all in comparison. Anyway, as you note I won't be running much, just walking like I mean it. For me this is the key - just keep moving and don't faff at the checkpoints!

I'd say if you're out regularly and build up the distance slowly then a half is very achievable if that's a target that motivates you to get out and about. You may well surprise yourself, as I have, just how far you can actually go if the route and/or location inspire you.

Best of luck with it and hope you can find a shoe solution that works for your feet...

Absolutely. Being unfailingly cheerful and not letting the doubts about carrying on settle when the wheels have come off are vital.

All in all rather like climbing...

Which distance? Full Spine or one of the other bits?

Kudos whichever and good luck.

I am seriously thinking about trying for one of the summer sprints but it'll have to be 2026 (2025 is full). Although I can push myself for one day, my legs laugh at me at the thought of doing something the following day so I think the longer distances are now beyond me.

Full Spine. 

It's a big step up in distance and time from what I've done so far, but it just felt like the right time to give it a go.

Having enjoyed another week of dot watching I'm really looking forward to it, even though I know I'll be right at the back and it will likey be truly horrid at times...

Go for a Sprint in 2026 I'd say. Finish or not I doubt you'll regret it.

Ooh tell us your number in summer and we can all watch your dot!

I seriously considered the Sprint, because I reckon I could do the distance ... but having walked Edale to H Bridge I reckoned I didn't want to be doing that awkward path over Laddow Rocks and then navigating the moors beyond in the dark and under time pressure, so decided not to.

But I see there is a new Sprint North, and I am tempted again, although i have missed the boat for 2025.

Given your orienteering pedigree, have you done any of the easier 'mountain marathon / multi-day' events?  I'm sure you'd love them (and you'd find the navigation dead easy!)

(p.s. saw you were running Eccy Woods last weekend - how did it go?  Sorry not to bump into you, I'm injured, so not running - I was control collecting later though...)

Thank you and will do - the support will definitely spur me on.

Do go for a Sprint in 2026. You know you want to and I can repay the support...

Not done any multi-day stuff (*), was thinking about doing some of those Kong 4 hour mountain thingies but some health issues rather messed up planning anything in 2024.

Eccy was my first blue for a while and whilst I would probably have been more effective on a green, I decided that I'm just going to have to step up and take on more struggle and pain to get fitness back. Didn't make any major mistakes and a couple of controls happily appeared just as I was thinking that I'd have to do a proper relocation. Also, you get more points on a longer course for the same level of (in)competence 😁. Eccy always gives the impression that it should be an easy place to navigate and it somehow never is.

(*) - I think I'm past trying multi-day stuff, just takes too long for my muscles to recover after significant exertion. But if anyone's got sensible suggestions about how to regain the recovery ability of my youth, I'm all ears.

I've really enjoyed the few, easier events that I've done (OMM Lite, Saunders, Great Lakeland 3 Days) - you just take them as easy as you fancy (esp. OMM Lite & GL3D) and enjoy a few hours out on the hills.  Defo worth Googling them and checking out the formats.

If it's any consolation, Eccy Woods is my local woods (5 mins from my house) and I've NEVER had a good run there.