Winter Spectacular!

11th Jan 2025 and the sun is shining on a cold and crisp morning in the Breamish valley.  It’s been a week since a heavy fall of snow has covered the Cheviots all the way down to Cunyan Crags followed by a week of freezing temperatures.  As the cars rolled in whilst cracking ice onto a solid grass field the sun lit up the blue morning sky and the run was set to be a stunner.  Andy had gone up and marked the course on the Friday and after taking local advice and then seeing the conditions for himself he opted to turn the runners back at Dunmoor rather than trudging on through waste deep snow and ice up to Hedgehope.  A very wise course of action given the treacherous Arctic-like conditions on the high ground.

As soon as the runners set off it became apparent that running conditions would be challenging.  Hitting the long stretch of road through the picturesque valley had people slip-sliding all over as they crossed patches of ice strewn hither and tither.  By the time they made their way to Peggy Bells Bridge everyone was now focussed on the task at hand and attentively looking out for the next hazard.  There was little wind in the valley but that was set to change as runners gained height.  All that was needed was a gentle breeze and a plummeting temperature gauge as they ascended and soon  enough the body was feeling the chill.  The leading pack had the added bonus of being ice breakers and smashing a path through the snow which became over knee deep by the time of reaching the turn around point.

It turned out that heading up was the easy part, coming down and bypassing everyone coming the other way was somewhat of a challenge.  Several people ended up on their faces in the snow with only a rear end sticking up to mark their presence.  Runners danced their way down the craggy rocks whilst clinging on to the wire fence for dear life before having to let go of this safety line and set off cross country back into the valley.  Awaiting the runners was a nice steep climb up Brough Law for a detour around the back of several 3000 year old hill forts.  This was a time to dig in before attempting the high speed but highly sketchy drop back into the edge of Ingram.  The ice right and the bottom sending several people skidding across the road like Bambi.

The only thing standing between the warmth of a soup in Ingram Cafe and the runners was a little river crossing.  The water levels were low so runners were taken over to the far side of the river before having to splodge through the bitingly cold water, hop over the fence and then cross that finish line to be greeted by Drew and Wim with a sense of satisfaction at a job well done.  It was a great way to get peoples shoes cleaned before heading into the cafe and warming up with some of Biddy’s top notch soup.

Hats off to all you amazing people who turned up and made it such a magical day.  Although the route stopped well short of Hedgehope the winning time was a LOT slower than previous years which gives you a good indication of how harsh the deep snow conditions were.  It takes a lot of physical and mental strength to push through so hats off to you all.  We look forward to seeing some you again at the Duergar run.