First Half Marathon Distance

Coming out of the open water swimming I recognised my cold would probably need to rest so I spent the rest of Saturday knitting and doing very little. Sunday, TSK was still on his rest week so he accompanied me on my epic half-marathon distance attempt.

After a swift lunch he dropped me off at Yorkshire Bridge and I ran around the ladybower reservoir - lovely and flat, up to the top of the ridge on Bamford side before dropping back down to the A57, the Hagg Farm centre and back up onto the torrs above Derwent. I ran through a few rainstorms but in the shelter of the trees I wasn't too exposed.

Up at the very head of the valley, the footpath crossed the river and I paused to enjoy the sunshine before continuing down the valley.


I passed a few mountain biker groups hiding under the trees from the heaviest rain and no sooner had I started to enjoy the sun, the tree cover dropped away and the wind whipped up and the rain started to fall horizontally. At 18.5km the knees began to freeze and the legs started to cramp. Eventually, as I limped along I decided I'd be best off putting on my waterproofs if nothing else, to keep the wind off my body.


I reached the gate at the head of the reservoir and two women acompanied me on the rest of my journey. The sun came out again and the reservoir looked like a beach.



They chatted me through the last 4km of the run. By the time I reached the dam I skipped across the 22.5km boundary without even knowing it and jogged with my hands in the air when I checked my watch at 22.7km.

Relieved I had achieved something, I had time to enjoy nature and attempt to capture this photo of the pheasant chick wandering through the grass with his mommy. It didn't work.