Coope's Dozen... Again!

Having never done Coope's Dozen before May this year, I have now done it three times (one of which was the 'baker's' dozen).

Not many of us today, just me, Ed, John and Kev, although Kev wasn't going to be with us for the whole duration.

The first few summits (Noon Hill, Rivington Pike, Two Lads, Whinberry Hill and Egg Hillock) seemed to go by quite quickly and were easy running (save for the first hill up through the plantation onto George's Lane, which we walked).  Getting from Egg Hillock to Counting Hill was ridiculous though!  The bracken was really high and we could really have done with a machete each to chop our way though it all, it was like being in a jungle.  Legs cut to ribbons (well mine at least), we finally got through it all and made our way to Counting Hill.  For me, that's the worst part of the run over with and the biggest climbs too.

We then made our way up from Counting Hill to the trig point on Winter Hill but, on the way up, I went over on my right ankle a couple of times.  It hurt a little but wore off as I kept on running and didn't bother me again.

After the trig point, we went down to Hordern Stoops where Ed, as usual, had left us a stash of water, bananas and cereal bars.

A little rest later, we headed off to Old Adams.  Kev left us at this point and continued along the flagging, probably towards Great Hill.

Again, going down the dip before the climb to Old Adams, the tussocks were really high and it was hard going, each of us making our own way through different routes, with Ed and myself reaching the fencing before the summit first and finding a little gate to climb over so we didn't need to battle with the barbed wire fence.  No cows in the field this time so we didn't need to send Ed over on his own to risk life and limb (interestingly, on the cows point, there is actually an article about the dangers of cows in the most recent Fellrunner Magazine, so I'm not being daft being afraid of them).

From Old Adams we made our way back up, through yet more tussocks and bracken, to Spitlers Edge and from there to Great Hill where Ed had left us another stash.

On leaving Great Hill we made our way across to Round Loaf and then there was only one summit left.  I'm not sure how, but on the way from Round Loaf to White Coppice, we seem to have got onto the wrong side of the gully and again found ourselves fighting our way through the bracken.  I don't think I'll be wearing short skirts for a while as my legs are in tatters!

We got to the bottom and crossed onto the right side and then made our way into White Coppice where we were very tempted to stop and watch the cricket with a cold beer.  We resisted the temptation though and made our way along towards Healey Nab.

On nearing Healey Nab, the final summit, my right ankle started to hurt.  It had been about 12 miles since I went over on it and it had been pain free up until this point but the more I ran (or even just walked), the more it hurt.  I'm really angry with myself now for carrying on when it was hurting so much as I'll have only made it worse, but we were still four miles from the car and there was nobody I could have rang to pick me up so I had no choice but to keep going.

Apologies for those of a nervous disposition but a disgusting foot picture is about to follow, my feet are pretty grim at the best of times.  As you can see, the right one is red and swollen compared with the left one (you can't see the veins and bones in it so it actually improves it to be honest!!!).

I've had ice on it every couple of hours and a compression bandage but it's still quite swollen and painful (I'm typing this and took this photo 24 hours after the run).  Feeling really annoyed with myself for letting it get like this but I just didn't know until the last few miles that I had hurt it.

Really enjoyed the run itself though, as usual.  We seem to have done half a mile more this time than in May which is probably due to a difference in route in a couple of places.  In May, we did the off-road route from the Pike to Two Lads and this time John and I took the George's Lane route.  Also, in May we took the Shaly Dingle route from Egg Hillock to Counting Hill which we didn't do this time.

Below is the timing for each hill, although I might not be 100% accurate as I just worked this out from my Garmin Connect map so might have got some of the summits in the wrong place.

I'm not sure about the moving time to Counting Hill as 19 minutes seems way too fast to here - perhaps Garmin mistook our incredibly slow pace through the bracken for us being stopped altogether.


Total Distance - 19 miles

http://www.strava.com/activities/178258908/overview