Occasionally, we have done an LDWA (or similar) route at a time when there wasnt an official event being run. Here are some of our experiences.
The advantages of supported events are obvious – you get food and drink at checkpoints, so you do not have to carry it around with you; and if you get tired / injured / fed up you can get a lift to the finish. However, it gradually dawned on us that it ought to be possible to do a 25 mile "jog" without any support; and, in fact, some of Derek Esmond’s "Kanter" events are just that. Having got completely lost on Hutton Roof (near Kirkby Lonsdale, Lancs.) on Derek’s Mid-March Kanter one year, we decided to go and investigate it for ourselves. Hutton Roof is a maze of copses and scrubland over well-developed limestone pavement. We spent an interesting day investigating the route up to the trig point and down the other side, and I think we have got it sorted out now.
Our first proper unsupported event was a bit of a disaster. We had entered the Teesdale Marathon (run by St Joseph’s Rambling Club) but the event was cancelled due to a combination of a late entry in Strider and organisational problems. We decided to go and do it anyway, with the concession of a later start time. We arrived in Middleton-in-Teesdale at around 9 a.m. on the due date and sat in the car for an hour or two hoping it would stop raining. Eventually, at a break in the clouds, we set off confident that we could remember the route from the previous year. But things are different when you do not have a stream of people to follow, so we were soon poring over the map in the wind and rain, trying to work out where to go. We eventually located "checkpoint" 1 and, from there, the navigation got a bit easier. It was at "checkpoint" 2 that I noticed that my bumbag was open and the car keys were missing. We retraced our steps, walking slowly and scanning the ground. With much relief, we found the keys lying in the mud back at checkpoint 1 and then we decided we’d had enough, and made our way home. It was clear that my bumbag being open was co-incidental – the keys had fallen out when I pulled my map out. What a stroke of luck that the bumbag had been left open, and had alerted me to the loss. Imagine the situation if we had completed the full 20 miles, soaked to the skin, only to find that we could not get into the car and that, even if we broke in, we would not be able to turn the car alarm off!
On most events, both of us now carry a set of car-keys, although after one event we managed to place our bumbags in the boot of the car at the same time and then shut it. Fortunately, the man at the local garage was an expert with a screwdriver and coathanger.
Last autumn we did a "reverse unsupported Blubberhouses Moor marathon". This traverses Beamsley Beacon and Rocking Moor in North Yorkshire and does not have too much ascent. We did it in reverse for a bit of variation, and it was surprising how different the route seemed with the down hills converted to uphils and vice versa. For refreshment, we counted on the Pavilion Cafe being open, which it was (but expensive!). This was more successful than our attempt at an unsupported Trollers Trot the year before. We had to trim it considerably to make it feasible, and it turned into search of several villages for somewhere to buy some food.
Yesterday (25th Jan.) we ran our own proto-event – the Weets Top Wander. (Well, the title has to be alliterative – actually "wobble" might be more appropriate). It was a beautiful sunny day, surprisingly warm and full of spring smells. Our 15 mile route starts in Gargrave, North Yorkshire and aims for Weets Top, near Malham where there are marvellous views, and the possibility of adding an extension to Goredale Scar. In fact, with a checkpoint at Weets Top (it’s accessible by 4WD from the north), you could construct an excellent 25 mile figure-of-eight event!
Weets Top Way: From Gargrave, follow Pennine Way north along river Aire to Airton. Take road to Calton, & then b/w over Calton Moor to Weets Top at 925632. (From here, we are considering adding a loop to take in Goredale Scar, Malham Tarn, Mastiles Lane & Bordley). From Weets Top, take b/w SSE to Hetton Common Head & on down to Winterburn Reservoir. Cross footbridge to Moor Lane at 950607. Turn SSW taking b/w through Alans Plantation to Hills Lane (Winterburn to Hetton Road). Cross, & take b/w to meet road at Friars Head. Turn left on road & then take track (b/w) ahead via Brockabank Bridge to road. Over & on south through parkland & woods to meet Eshton Road on outskirts of Gargrave.
Of course, it is also possible to do an "unsupported" event by creating your own food dumps along the way. We did this a few years ago when we were supporting some friends of ours who were reconnoitring the Bob Graham Round – a 24-hour traverse of 42 peaks in the Lake District. It is not possible for one support vehicle to get to all the "checkpoints" in time, so we had secreted plastic boxes of food at various points along the route. This was to be a two-day practice, so the runners were given some money and told to "find somewhere to stay at Wasdale Head". One of the food dumps was, I recall, at Honister Pass and another was on the central reservation of the dual carriageway at Dunmail Raise. In fact, if you drive past this point in the early morning, close to midsummer's day, you are likely to see a vast number of support vehicles, and runners crossing the road. But I’ll leave a description of our Bob Graham antics for another time.