Huge thanks to Jennie Waters for sending us this account of the Stiperstones Time Trial!
On the last Sunday in November, Darren and I took part in the Little Stretton to Stiperstones Time Trial. The object of this time trial is to travel point-to-point on foot, unaided, between the villages of Little Stretton and Stiperstones in the shortest time. The route is not prescribed, but is subject to Fell Running rules and local knowledge is a distinct advantage.
The event started for us by picking up a bus from the finish to registration, where we picked up our starting time slot. We were lucky enough to be able to start soon thereafter, as it was cold and damp, so not appealing to be hanging around for long. We all set off in short intervals up Ashes Hollow before heading off in different directions.
Darren chose to join me for an easy run in the hills so we entered as a pair and headed up Long Synalds. Of course, a nice leisurely run for Darren is a hard run for me. Well, I say run, but as you all know, I am not particularly strong on the ups and therefore I switched to brisk walking at this point and was pleasantly surprised to only be overtaken by 2 solo men. With it being foggy, I didn’t choose the best line – note to self to learn the line for next time – so we lost a bit of time. But we were then able to get the legs moving well on the next section across Wild Moor and down to the Bridges. During this it was interesting to see people coming from all angles due to differing route choices.
From here we headed up over the Stiperstones where we got overtaken by someone who had previously overtaken us – not sure which way he went, but it clearly wasn’t the best route choice. We then headed down Perkins Beach to the finish.
Our route ended up being 8.9 miles with a total of 1,871ft and it took us 1:44:26 (22 minutes quicker than when we did it last year). We finished 3rd mixed pair and 58th out of 119.
Newport & District Running Club 