Race report – Aggie’s Staircase (Fell Race, Darwen)

On Tuesday 24 June, 5 Harriers took the Amber and Black to Darwen for the annual Aggie’s Staircase Fell Race organised by Darwen Dashers. A total of 101 runners took part this year, including a couple of friends from Billinge Running Club. It’s a 6.4km/4 mile race – 2 miles up, 2 miles down!

Starting on the outskirts of Darwen town centre, it’s hard to imagine that you’re going to be out in the countryside so quickly. The course starts on a narrow tarmac slope, rather slippery after a bit of drizzle, but quickly turning to stony trail. Other than for the fastest runners at the front of the pack, there’s a fair bit of forced walking before the congestion eases.

The uphill doesn’t ease though. With varying gradients, the first climb takes you up to Darwen Tower and while some of the way is runnable, the snaking trail of runners was quickly reduced to a fast walk – that feels like it goes on forever. But the tower is a good visual target, and we were greeted by friendly and encouraging marshals telling us there was a downhill bit to follow. And it was indeed an excellent downhill bit!

While tearing down the stony paths and wondering how on earth you’re going to stop safely, the answer soon comes in the form of the second climb, this time up to Jacob’s Mound. Another long slow climb with lots of fast walking (think lung burning, legs burning, doubled over style walking). The final section needed hands to pull yourself up using the thick tufts of reed-like grasses up on the moors.

The next section was a pleasant flattish section, across the tops of the fells and through some pleasing boggy and muddy bits followed by some more gentle downhill stretches and a fairly sharp right turn (taken too fast, and I half slipped down a ledge), before the final climb.

Aggie’s Staircase is the last peak of the course, a very steep but thankfully shorter section. The kind chap running near me had already advised me to take the right-hand path as the easier route – this still required scrambling, and if I’d tried to stand up I think I’d have fallen backwards so it was definitely a hands and feet climb.

Knowing that the last of the climbing is over, there’s some flat trail back to Darwen Tower to catch your breath before you descend the way you came up – much faster on the way down! The stony paths are quite technical, so you have to watch your step and trust your running shoes have enough of the right kind of grip to keep you safe. If you like this kind of thing though (can you tell that I do?!) it’s a properly exhilarating end to the race, although having to slow down and be extra careful on the final tarmac section was the only let down.

The weather was mixed – quite humid at the start, and cooler higher up with the some welcome breeze and the odd spot of rain. It was cloudy, but we still had good views. The rain kicked in properly at the end, so we all left having had a good soaking. It was perfect midgie weather too, so the little bitey things had a good feed of West Lancs blood from us.

The course is well marked and marshalled, so no navigation skills were needed. The marshals were all friendly and encouraging and mountain rescue were out on the course at key points.

SBH had a good night with Peter and Jamie representing the men, and Nikki, Su and Hamda repping the ladies. Peter, Nikki and Hamda beat their previous course times (Hamda by 8 minutes – well done Hamda!). Jamie was returning from recent injury but still ran an impressive race, and this was Su’s first ever fell race (rewarded with a bottle of wine at the presentations, we’ll all run for wine won’t we, and/or cake?!) and definitely won’t be the last.

All in all, an exciting way to spend a Tuesday night with a real sense of achievement – hopefully we can persuade some more folk to join us next year!