23 October 2010

The Tour Of Pendle recce 22/10/10

17 Miles and 5000ft just wasn't enough! After meeting at the Pendle Inn, it was a toss up between just getting drunk or setting off to recce the Tour of Pendle in the pouring rain!

A few agonising moments of staring out of the car window at the rain and mist, Jarvo and I committed to the Tour, though I think the dogs preferred the pub and fire option.

Hanging about on top of ' Big End' in the mist it proved quite tricky navigating between checkpoint 1 and 2, and what was supposed to be 16.9 miles turned into 20 and a few more feet of ascent! all good training though.

After sliding down ' Jeronimo' in the mud in our trail shoes, and trudging up ridiculously steep inclines aptly named the ' Big Dipper', and for the second time up the back of 'Big End' a near vertical slope, the only thing keeping us going was the thought of a pint of 'Pride of Pendle' at the end.

A few moments(hours) later we staggered into the Pendle Inn. I said to the barman ' what pumps under that tea towel?', to which he replied 'Pride of Pendle, its off!'

So all in all the take home points were, yes the cut off at CP4 would be hard to make and still have the legs left for the big dipper,navigating in the mist can be tricky,  and when visiting Pendle Inn always have a couple of bottles of Pendle with you in case its off!

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