It seems that lockdown in bringing out the creativity in the running community and I’ve seen some amazing and unique challenges being completed by runners all over the world. I was inspired by Angela Mudge’s three peaks on her staircase to try something similar of my own – fitting it around working from home and looking after two small children. I decided to try my own three peaks challenge split up across the week in the hills closest to my house.
Day 1: Ben Nevis on Mount Maw – 10 x reps of 135m (400m contour to summit trig)
Day 2: Scafell Pike on Mendick Hill – 7 x reps of 140m (310m contour to summit trig)
Day 3: Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon on Byrehope Mount – 8 x reps of 136m (400m contour to summit)
I ran to and from the start point of each “peak”, between 4 and 5km each way and the “peaks” themselves took between an hour and a half (for Scafell Pike) up to almost three hours (Ben Nevis). I checked the start height of each “peak” with my watch, 2 phone apps and map and compass to ensure I was covering the correct height each time as Strava seems fairly inaccurate at working this out! In keeping with Covid-19 advice I stuck to hills that are familiar to me and don’t involve any difficult navigation or terrain – they are all straightforward grassy paths directly up and down.
My running motivation had been slightly lacking since this all started, with races being cancelled and being unable to go on my usual social runs. Having a challenge to focus on really helped with this and open up possibilities for new adventures close to home – I highly recommend it! Of course the possibility for the future is to do all five of the UK peaks in a week, including Slieve Donnard and Carrauntoohill. Watch this space.
Strava links to each “peak”:
Ben Nevis: https://www.strava.com/activities/3299962086
Scafell Pike: https://www.strava.com/activities/3309274000
Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon: https://www.strava.com/activities/3318679592
Stay safe and keep running!
Ross Christie