2017 Championship - Race 4 - Bollington Brewing 3 Peaks fell race

With a record number of online pre entries in the annual “3 Peaks” fell race (held in countryside surroundings of the small, picturesque village of Bollington); entries on the day were limited to just 67, which soon reached capacity after registration had opened at 12:30pm. This meant that there were a lot of disgruntled runners, who having made it to the race in good time were unable to partake – unfortunately including Nicola from our group.

The race is dubbed as "the country's only fell race to start & finish at brewery" (I must admit that this did play a big part in my decision to enter the race!) and all the runners were greeted back at the brewery with a ‘3 Peaks Pale Ale’ and a good serving of chilli & rice – which went down an absolute treat after tackling the 1,200 feet of elevation gain across the 3 local peaks - Kerridge Hill, White Nancy & Nab Hill.

It started 20 minutes later than planned (2pm), due to the lengthy registration queues, coupled with all the chaos of having to turn people away. A small group of us (Steven, David, John and Nigel) made our way up to the starting line / assembly point on the Middlewood way. We were pushed back by the organisers a number of times in order to get the large crowd of runners behind the 'official' starting point. Within seconds of the final push back we were off and away in what felt like the start of the Grand National!

We soon hit a number of bottlenecks before the first and longest climb up to the trig point on top of Kerridge Hill. A steep descent down a field (thankfully rather dry under foot) into the valley was followed by an “easier” ascent to the top of White Nancy (a large white monument built in 1817 to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Waterloo). The ascent, not being as steep as the first, was however made a little more challenging due to the fact that you had to run on a slant, diagonally across the side of the hill for about half a mile.

Another quick sharp descent from the top of White Nancy down into the village was met with a well-positioned water station(for those like me that needed it!) at the 3.5 mile stage. A marshal was also giving out jelly babies, I took a couple from her and tried to eat one before the last steep ascent - I couldn’t even chew it, so quickly spat it out and got my breath back before the final push!

This climb was a tough one and was made even more challenging (mentally) seeing fellow runners on the left-hand side of the hill already on their descent from top. I felt a great sense of achievement / relief in finally reaching the top and prayed that it was the final climb!

The descent down the field led to a short flat road segment before having to cross over a bridge and down some steps on to a rather tight canal towpath for the final 500m. The roars of the crowds at the finish line could be heard in the distance and following a short steep drop down into the park, they were both finally in sight. After crossing the finish line a group of us (all red faced except for Steven who had most likely finished at least 10 – 15 minutes before most of us!) gathered for the post-race photo which we (Dave) actually remembered to do this time. We then wandered over to the brewery to pick up the food / beer tokens and were handed a goody bag which included a can of the 3 Peaks ale, a can of coke, a beer mat and an apple… what more could you ask for!

All in all it was a great afternoon with some challenging, but enjoyable (not quite sure the legs agree) segments taking in the beautiful Cheshire scenery.

Our results were as follows:

1. Steven Henderson (EY Transaction Advisory Services) – 19th – 43:59 – 20 points

2. John Williams (EY Transaction Advisory Services) – 107th – 52:23 – 18 points

3. Tim Hayle (Deloitte) – 112th – 53:03 – 16 points

4. David Simmons (Ballard Evans Corporate Finance) – 170th – 57:20 – 14 points

5. Ben Bradley (Hurst Corporate Finance) – 205th – 58:16 – 12 points

6. Rob Dawes (BDO) – 212th – 1:00:01 – 10 points

7. Nigel Barrett (Hurst Corporate Finance) – 239th – 1:02:02 – 9 points

We even grabbed a photo of some of us – apologies to John and Tim who had both vanished by that point.