The 3 Peaks of Yorkshire

Well after running the 3 Peaks of Wharfedale last weekend, yesterday it was the turn of the "proper" 3 Peaks of Yorkshire and, as it turned out, me, Hes and Haz couldn't have had a more gloriously sunny day to trot round them in. In fact ever since Hester agreed to our move to Horton in Ribblesdale she's always had a teeny weeny bit of a nagging concern over the weather for some reason - apparently the western side of the Pennines can be a bit wet! Well all I can say to that is 'boooo'sheeeeit'. In fact the climate in Ribblesdale is positively (nearly always) sub-tropica,l as yesterday's wall to wall sunshine clearly proves. Mind you the weather wasn't exactly as nice the last time I ran round with Gavin and Harry in February - never mind sub-tropical, that day the weather was positively biblical! But that was obviously a one off blip.....

Given that the starting point of the whole 21 mile circuit is our now home village of Horton it was no great shakes to get to the start line - we just smugly opened the front door and er... off we went. As is usual for pretty much every Saturday between now and September there were plenty of walkers trundling (and later in the day staggering) around the 3 Peaks yesterday and there must have been at least three large mass charity walks giving it a go too, most of whom had set off a few hours before us. This made the whole run for us even more fun as we gradually reeled in and overtook all of these 3 Peakeroos. Unfortunately, as I suavely trotted up to one keen charity walker who, about a mile from the finish,  was hoping to be the first home of his group, I managed to trip on a rock and somersault past him which, apart from anything else, made me feel a darn site less smug about things and I'm sure the chap was doing his very best to stifle a belly laugh at my expense. Mind you his legs were shot and he was well and truly running trudging on empty so, given that I hadn't broken any bones, I could still feel just a little bit smug after all.

A truly fabulous run followed by a lovely swim in the river at the end. Job done.

Hester about to start with Pen y Ghent waiting on the horizon

H and H now not far from the top of PyG

Me bringing up the rear

One peak down and two to go

Hester starting to question my 'off piste' route

Ribblehead and Whernside ahead

Looking towards peak 3, Ingleborough, from the very bottom of the climb up peak 2, Whernside

Hester just seconds before being half swallowed by a bog

The climb up Whernside goes on a bit

And gets a tad steep towards the end....

Hester at the busy top of Whernside

Ingleborough ahoy!

The H team in full flow

Hester on all fours going up Ingleborough

Harry acting nonch and Hester stumbling on

Uh oh, the six packs looking flabby!

Peak 3 in the bag.... and just 5 miles to go

Pen y Ghent ahead - second lap anyone?

Hester cools down

Me bobbing

Harry cruising

Ze route