National Trail Guides UK

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NATIONAL TRAIL GUIDES
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Footpath Guides :: Pennine Way :: Introduction
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  Contents : PENNINE WAY
 

 
 
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Pennine Way map
 

THE PENNINE WAY STRETCHES FROM DERBYSHIRE TO SCOTLAND

 
 
NATIONAL TRAILS GUIDES UK - DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS & GALLERIES
 
     
  Introduction  
     
 

One fine spring day, whilst on holiday in the Derbyshire Pennines with my family, I decided to run the Pennine Way.  It was not a definite commitment but more a careless expression of desire made without first thinking it through.  I am an ardent squash player and a countryside rambler but never a runner.  The desire was vocalised to my wife, and being a goal-orientated person that desire was later penned.

This is the story of how I ran 276 miles, the length of the Pennine Way, first in weekend sections starting from Edale and working up to Kirk Yetholm, and then again, all at once, from Kirk Yetholm to Edale, accompanied by my sister for the first 8 days (almost one-half of the journey) and completing the rest of the run alone. 

In the early stages the amount of planning and physical preparation had not been remotely imagined; had it been, the run would almost certainly have never taken place.  “Line upon line, precept upon precept” is the way this goal was achieved.  Each time it was reviewed it was more carefully refined and added to, and eventually the enormity of it all struck home, but it was by then too late to recant;  I was hooked.

  
     
 

My sister, Carol, was unaware of my preparations for more than 6 months after they had begun, although she had been running regularly each week where she lives in Oxford (a considerable distance from the Pennines).

As soon as she found out that I was looking for a partner to run with she jumped at the opportunity, rather rashly if I may say so, but then my own decision to run was just as rash. Perhaps it is in the genes

Preparations began.  It was spring 1997 and a 16-month plan was made.  This was to include running the whole of the Pennine Way in sections so that I would be familiar with the route and be aware of any possible snags – particularly with route finding, and also to acclimatise myself to long distance running. I would run, whatever the weather, all year round and would be certain to experience every type of weather that I could experience on the main run.

  
Roy McKee - author
   
The Author on King Commons Rough
     
 
 

The purchase of Pennine Way maps and guides and more detailed Ordnance Survey maps was also required, together with the correct running clothes and equipment.  In this respect I was not very informed but thanks to several friends who went out of their way to advise me, notably Nick Lindesay and John Ryder Jones, themselves ardent long-distance runners, I was soon put on the right track.

I was further encouraged after reading a book kindly donated to me by Nick, a biography written by his brother William who had run the Great Wall of China – a staggering 2,500 miles or thereabouts, just 9 years earlier ( William Lindesay – Alone on the Great Wall [Hodder & Stoughton 1989).

Many, many times while out running, even during the earlier months of 1998 I doubted my ability to complete the run, which had been planned for the first 3 weeks of August 1998.  I was concerned for my sister, who was then recovering from a minor knee injury – if anything would exacerbate such an injury it would be running in the Pennines.

I soon discovered that running in the Pennines was not like running on roads, not even steep roads.  The cloying, deep mud made balancing an arduous exercise especially when running downhill.  The green ways, with their deep but narrow ruts were difficult to negotiate and seemed to exercise parts of the legs that orthodox running never did; the bogs were often a nightmare to traverse and the sheer steepness of some of the mountains made running very difficult and discouraging.

But there were also less difficult runs and the staggering beauty and splendour of the scenery in the Pennines more than made up for the difficult times.

The majority of the preparatory runs were run in the direction of Edale (the southernmost point of the Pennine Way) to Kirk Yetholm  (the northernmost point), at first in sequence, but as time progressed the runs became more and more out of sequence.   Several of the preparatory runs were run twice as the first time around they were run in the drought of 1997.  It soon became obvious that there would be no recurrence of a drought in 1998 and I thought it necessary to run some of the wetter areas in mist and rain.   The main run was to be run from Kirk Yetholm to Edale so that I would be running in the direction of my home.

I attempted to find books written by others who had run the Pennine Way but I could not discover them.  It was after the frustrations of trying to find such a book that I decided to write this one.  I had also become increasingly aware that the guides and maps I had seen did not contain sufficient photographs of the actual route and that people in my position would desire a more generous store of them.  I concluded that this book would contain many, many photographs of the Pennine Way.  I also decided that my book would double up as a guide book for future runners and walkers of the Pennine Way and that I would provide detail of footpath junctions and ground conditions.

Before describing the main run I briefly describe the equipment and preparations needed. After describing the main run I describe the preparatory runs, for those who want to read more.

 
     
   
 
 
Author - Roy McKee
Copyright © Roy McKee 2006