Race report by Shutters:
Date & time: Wed 25 Mar 2026 at 19:30
Category: BSDistance: 9.2 km / 5.7 miles
Climb: 350 m / 1148 ft
Venue: Barley Village Hall, BB12 9J
I had seen this race advertised on the Fellrunner website for a number of years but I never really made any effort to go to this race, don’t know why cos I like running on Pendle Hill, perhaps it was the £11 entry fee? this is on the top end of midweek fell race prices but this is a fundraiser for Mountain Rescue so going to a good cause. A colleague at work mentioned the race last week and suddenly I took interest, I looked at the route and realised I had run most of the course in different bits of the Stan Bradshaw and Tour of Pendle fell races so knew most of the course and that it would be a hard slog up the tourist path to the Trig and then down the flags to Ogden Clough and round to the Ogden reservoirs (ToP finish route) and finish at the village hall.
I have been nursing my knee for the past 5 or so weeks trying not to overdo it so decided to see how I went on at Heptonstall before entering. Last Sunday we finished the Heptonstall race and I was bushed but felt ok on Monday with no knee pain and the same again Tuesday so it was game on for an entry on the day for the Dark Dash. All we need now is some good weather for Wednesday.
I work next to Cutacre Country Park and this seems to have its own micro climate, its very open and it seems every cloud that comes over the Irish sea ends up over my works and Wednesday was a whopper with deluge after deluge with hail and wind. I basically work in a tin can and the noise of weather amplifies when it hits the tin roof, however I was shocked when I surfaced at dinner to the ground outside white with the hail that had been put down. My mate asked if they would call it off, Andy is a road runner who has run a few Trail races so I enlightened him and told him that they won’t call it off and I’m going no matter what the weather is. He looked a bit concerned but I think he took it well.
The forecast was always for the weather to improve and so it did and by 6 o’clock I was parked up in dry Pendle in daylight, although it was windy and chilly, def not a shorts day for me. I was 2nd to enter on the day no.67 and promptly went for a quick warm-up, initially I didn’t know anyone around the hall but later saw a few senior well known fell runners Nick Harris, Ken Taylor. Andy bagged entry no.99 and we were ready to start. Its a mass start along the road for approx. 400m before turning left up narrow paths to the base of Pendle Hill and the start of the steps up the tourist path, Andy somewhere up ahead. It was a surprisingly clear night and the sight of the runners higher up the hill in a diagonal line was brilliant to see – shame the camera didn’t pick it up. At the top the path met the wall that we climb over on the last climb on the ToP and we turned left and headed to the Trig Point then a right turn and followed the path down to Ogden Clough (where I managed to pass a few runners including Andy).
We followed Ogden Clough south and east on what can only be described as a very treacherous trod which weaved up and down jinking left and right with rocks and small boulders absolutely everywhere. I thought my headtorch was ok and it is on leisurely training runs up Winter Hill but for fast running in Ogden Clough it just wasn’t powerful enough. I could just see 6ft in front of me but the path was forever changing and trip hazards absolutely everywhere, furthermore I had a runner right up my derriere so to speak with no room for overtaking he was pressuring me to keep what was a fast pace going. Turns out it was Andy. Sod. Should have a bit of empathy for older runners.
We passed the Geronimo descent on our right and continued east along the narrow trods where I half stumbled and went for a combat roll off the side into some long grass and lost a few places and momentum, I was struggling a bit and lost ground to the group I was with but kept a good pace going along the road with the 2 Ogden reservoirs on the right and came in on my own in 1:02:19.
What a great race, a fast start on the road, a tough climb up to the top, a stone flagged downhill section and then a very hazardous trod in Ogden Clough before a fast road section to the finish. I was super pleased to have run very well for me and actually feel like I had raced. A well organised and marshalled race by the Mountain Rescue crew, I would run this again but I def need a better headtorch.
43 Mark Shuttleworth M50 Lostock AC 62:19
85 runners
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