Race Report
Dear Competitor,
After last years event, we realised that as organisers we were stretching ourselves too thin, and to provide the best service we could to you as competitors, we needed to share out some of the work. The transport section was taken over by Kevin Bradd, checkpoints and marshals by Ken Atkin. Thanks to you both, it certainly left us more time to spend with competitors. Thanks also to Doris and her crew in the canteen, who as usual did a marvellous job.
A few people went astray between checkpoints 6 and 7, we do put signs out around the course, but we have noticed that some signs seem to disappear. Because we can’t guarantee that all the signs remain in place, we do advise that you carry the route description and a map.
Biggleswade AC have brought two medals for us to award to anybody we believe has done something out of the ordinary. One of the medals is being awarded to Jenny and Judy Briant, who although a certain male relative of theirs reckoned they would retire at Castleton, they didn’t. Whether it was that or the sponsorship money that kept them going we don’t know, but they managed to go through the next checkpoints just after they were due to close. We would have kept the checkpoints open and allowed them to finish, but they decided to retire at checkpoint 10. It takes courage to walk that far knowing that there are no other competitors anywhere near. The other medal is to be awarded to Alex Muller and his dog, as one of the competitors said in a letter to us “As I passed the passage control at the summit of Mam Tor in the freezing cold, driving wind and what felt like horizontal sleet, knowing that I was not even half way and that the joy (!) of Cave Dale was yet to come, the laughter and apparent pleasure in his task of the man checking our numbers kept me going for many a mile as did the realisation that although I had a long way still to run, I would soon be down in the valley whereas that poor man was stuck up on top for many hours to come.” Or as another competitor put it “He’s either a hero, or a b***** idiot! I couldn’t believe anyone would linger there in the conditions.” Also awarded by Biggleswade AC, was a big bouquet of flowers which Lou Myers eloquently handed over to Doris in warm appreciation of the work done by herself and the canteen staff. Incidentally Lou himself deserves some kind of award, last year during the event he fractured his right toe, this year he fractured his left toe at Cave Dale, and still managed to finish.
We have enclosed next years entry form to give you the best chance of entering next year. This year we have had to turn away approximately 150 applications. The entry for 1991 will be £7.50, we have kept the price at £6.00 for the last three years, but unfortunately due to inflation we have had to increase it. We will however endeavour to give you value for money.
Although the event appears to be developing into a race, we would like to assure people that walkers are equally as welcome as the runners, we show no preference. The first entries in are the ones that get the places.
After 5 years of organising the event we find that an elite group of 14 have now completed all 5. How many will we have after 10 years?
As always we would be pleased to hear from you if you have any constructive criticism which would help us to improve the event in future years.
Best wishes,
Geoff and Helen
Results Files
Google Sheets Link: High Peak 40 – 1990 – Results and Checkpoint Timings
1990-results-booklet.pdf