On Sat 2nd April 2022, I will hopefully be starting my journey across the country as a participant of the 'Northern Traverse' - a 190 mile ultra-marathon which will follow the classic Coast to Coast route as devised by Alfred Wainwright. As part of the preparation, I have recce'd much of the route, but the last 50 miles across the North York Moors remained to be visited, and I deemed it very important to recce this section given how tired I am likely to be by the time I reach this point in the race.
Challenge aside, it would also prove an extremely useful opportunity to recce the route in case we have clients looking for guides along this superb route!
With a glorious forecast, and wanting to savour the crossing, I split my recce into 3 days. On the first day, I ran 22miles from Ingleby-Arncliffe to the Lion Inn. I had visited some of this section once before, and it is a superb section of the route. Mostly following the Cleveland Way, the path hugs the edge of a vast moorland plateau, with the hills sloping down to a flat expanse. The views are simply stunning, with excellent conditions underfoot. There are quite a few ups and downs meaning for over 1,100m of ascent, but the final 8 miles brought me onto the moors proper, following a large track to the Lion Inn - the Tan Hill of the North York Moors. Steph had driven in to here before running in to meet me, allowing me to do my run as a linear run as opposed to 'there and back'.
We had a very nice meal in the Lion Inn - traditional pub grub, but large portions, just how I like it!! :-)
The next day was a short 14 miles to Grosmont. The first few miles involved easy progress along the road to begin with, and then large tracks across the moorland with again fine views. The latter 4 miles was down in the valley bottom, alongside scenic rivers, and within woodland areas - a contrast to the bleak moorland above!
The final 15 mile day was more varied, with a mixture of moorland, valley and woodland before arriving at the east coast. One particularly nice section was Littlebeck Nature Reserve, which had a lovely waterfall (Falling Foss), a remarkable shelter carved out of a large gritstone boulder - The Hermitage - and a huge variety of tree and bird species. Once at the east coast, a lovely path hugged the coastline to Robin Hoods Bay. I always enjoy running by the sea - there is something very relaxing and soothing about the sound of the sea and waves rolling in against the rock.
I had visited Robins Hoods Bay as a kid, and had forgotten how interesting it was. We enjoyed exploring the village, which had a labyrinth of tiny alleys between many of the houses, themselves highly varied and built on a incredibly steep slope straight down to the sea.
It was a great 3 days, and with simple navigation this shouldn't be too much of a problem on race day. 50 miles over 3 days also allowed for some nice but gentle 'back-to-back' training and time on feet. When preparing for ultra-marathons people often worry that they have to do really long days of 20-30miles+, which can be useful depending on your chosen distance, but there is definitely a lot to be said about bringing the miles down a little and doing multiple days of shorter mileage instead.
A cracking few days exploring a beautiful part of the country! :-)
