Another great run at Church Stretton tonight... We had warm weather, but enough breeze to make it pleasant on the tops, and 19 runners today.
Tom and Naomi had come up with a good route, so we headed out via the top path in the Rectory Wood and then the ramp into CMV. At the fork between Mott's Road and Lightspout Hollow we went vert, climbing the very steep face of Calf Ridge, then running a great trod following a descending contour into Lightspout Hollow, hitting the bottom right opposite the start of the side gully used on the Stretton Skyline. We followed this up to the road and then ran along the road to Pole Cottage, before heading off to Barrister's Plain. From here we took the LMV descent straight down into Ashes Hollow. This was the only part of the route I had trouble with, holding back a lot because of slower folk in front of me on the descent.
The group split at Windy Batch, 12 taking the re-ascent over Yearlet to get home, the rest of us going on down Ashes Hollow and back via the paths through the woods. The bit climbing back up to the Longmynd Hotel is a bugger, just steep enough to be hard work, yet gently sloping enough to be runnable throughout... We had a couple of kilometers more than the Yearlet group, but they had an extra 200m of climbing. They were back a minute or two before us.
8.1 miles (a record for a Tuesday night) by Leyton's Garmin, and about 1,650' of ascent for us in about 01:40:00. I felt ok to good most of the way round. The Peregrines were also ok but for suspect grip on wet rock (to be expected) and a bit less assured on the steep stuff than the fell shoes (also expected). I found the heels quite hard on the faster grassy descents again.
A new plan has hatched as I'm feeling a bit fitter now - given some encouragement from friends, I'll probably run the Sedbergh Hills champs race in a fortnight. I love the Howgills and the big sweeping climbs and descents...
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