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Hi EGG,

 I'm still in it!  Caught you on another thread, Manchester was wild (and my first marathon) and I'm also in Sunderland this weekend.  Then I have Leeds HM the week after.  I've no ultras planned after that until The Wall.  I did the Haworth Hobble back in March, I think it was you that put me on to that so thanks.  That was an enjoyable but somewhat painful experience.

Has anyone had problems with hip flexors?  Mine gave out (rightside) on the hobble at 20 miles leaving me walking the the remaining 12 miles and both tightened up in Manchester around 16 miles.  Thankfully with it being flat I could continue running but I don't fancy having to walk the best part of 50 miles if I can avoid it.

Well I popped my ultra cherry yesterday at the Haworth Hobble (Wuthering Hike).  32 miles (51.48km) with 4400ft (1341m) of ascent and descent.  That was brutal!  It took me 8 hours and 50 minutes (the winner took about 4h 20min).  I made it too the 20 mile mark (Stoodley Pike) in about 5 hours (may be a little bit over) but somewhere between there and Hebden Bridge (~22 miles) I pulled my right hip flexor and was unable to run the rest.  Walking was tolerably uncomfortable at first but that got progressively worse as I went along.  I certainly lived up to it's name though as I'm definately hobbling about the place today.

A quick tot up of the ascents/descents for The Wall suggests 1510m of ascent and 1515m descent over the entire course.  I strongly advise getting some hill (and I mean proper hills!) training in as I was very under prepared for this aspect yesterday.

I thoroughly enjoyed it overall, although those last 10 mles were a slog. There was a lot of bottle-necking with styles and gates at the start, I thought I was making good time when we hit Bronte Bridge in 25 minutes.  I hit the first control in about 1h 30min (7 miles) and the third (13 miles) at around 2h 15-20min.  I lost track after that, just giving my watch a cursory look every now and again. The climb too Stoodley Pike was epic, they sent us up the steepest side but I'm not sure how much of it's 400 metres we climbed from Mankinholes.  It was enough I'll tell you that. By the time I reached Hebden Bridge, like I mentioned, I'd pulled my hip flexor and couldn't lift my knee more than a couple of inches.  This made the remaining climbs arduous.  The support at the control points was great considering it was £11 to enter.  There was water and squash at most of the manned (7 of 10) checkpoints along with a mix of doughnuts, hot dogs, hot cross buns, biscuits and scones.  There was even a bottle of whisky at Mankinholes.  Also a hot meal at the end.

 Today I'm in alright nick, the legs are aching a bit, mostly my quads.  The soles of my feet feel like they've been beaten with lump hammers and my hip flexor is giving me the most grief of all.  I'm going to give it a weeks rest (kind of) before I think about running and see how it goes from there.  Got to start Marathon training for the end of April now.

I get your disappointment Rocker but I don't think Hadrian's Wall Heritage would have ever signed off on 500+ people traipsing along a world heritage site en masse.  The route isn't finalised although I don't see it changing greatly.

I suppose if people are vocal enough on their facebook page then the potential for dissuading others may change their minds to make it more rural/trail where they can.  It will be a fine balance between keeping it accesible to people who can't/don't want to navigate and making it "off the beaten path" enough to please the more adventurous.