Stanage Edge. Hot Dry Dusty conditions for Technical Running and Transcendence

The 19th Marathon of this 40 marathon (Hopefully 41) Challenge was completed close to home. In fact in my back yard up on Stanage. Everyone who has ever walked along the edge, let alone run along the Edge knows it's tough. There are twists and turns, up and down, rock steps, peat sections, loose gravel, loose rock. This run has everything.. Well almost I had planned to do this run a few weeks ago when the birth of our daughter put pay to running over the weekend. Instead this rescheduled date took place at the end of a 10 day dry spell where most of the puddles, mud and peat had dried out. It was therefore, with a little jumping, bone dry. If you've never been to Stanage Edge, it is worth visit for a number of reasons. It is one of the most famous natural gritstone edges in the country and has featured in many films. Quite simply breath taking to look at, walk or run along and most importantly to climb on. Prior to living underneath it and looking out upon it everyday, I used to spend many, many weekends driving up to stay and climb here. In love with the eternal width of wall to stretch out and tackle on many fine days. Just the smell of the grit on a sunny day or clink/clank of climbing equipment continues to take me back to those happy long days of cramming in as many routes as possible before the midges come down and forcing us to the pub.

So on a good hot day, setting out at the warmest part of the day, I decided to take on running back and forth along the Edge until I had completed a marathon. With a little route planning and a few recces I was able to come up with an interesting route that brought in all of the interesting quirks of Stanage and would mean completing 3 out and backs along it, or completing it 6 times.

 Check back for more details....