The Three Peaks Race – some stories behind the stats #2
Story #1 was about the club with the most awards for finishing 21/15 times at the Three Peaks Race. This second ‘story behind the stats’ is about the household that can lay claim to the most number of wins at the race.
Whilst researching my book on the history of the Three Peaks Race I was invited to visit two elite athletes living in a quiet corner of Haworth to hear about their backgrounds, and their stories about competing in the iconic Yorkshire race. Pulling in to park, I was welcomed in by Sarah Rowell, with Andy Peace turning up a bit later. Sarah had arranged for partner Andy’s cousin Ian Ferguson, and Victoria Wilkinson (both multiple 3P winners), to be there to for a chat as well. The four of them have won the race a fabulous combined total of 16 times.
Story #2 is based on the fact that Sarah and Andy’s 8 wins gives them the (completely pointless) distinction of living in the house with the most Three Peaks Race wins. [A later story will highlight the two families that have race winners across two generations.]
I spoke first to Sarah, who ran through her 3P experiences, with her usual self-critical analysis being helped by referring to her training diaries.
Sarah had an emphatic win in 1991 in her first 3P race, taking an incredible sixteen minutes off the women’s record (with her 3-16-29). Sarah turns to an entry from her training/racing diary for that year and gives a fascinating reading from it from the entry for that race:
Conditions good. Nearly too good as it was hard underfoot. I wore a pair of unstudded Walsh PBs. Felt OK, but a bit heavy-legged the whole way round. Led the whole way. 2-mile road stretch was a bit unpleasant but survived. Ate Dextrosol on the run between Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside. Probably ate too much for the amount of fluid drunk. Felt out of it and dead-legged over last couple of miles. Not sure if bonk or dehydration. Ended up 22nd after being in the top 20. Feel there is more to come, especially as I had no zip at the end.
In 1992 there were gale force winds and heavy ground conditions for the race, although the summits were clear and there was no rain on the day. Interestingly, Sarah Rowell says that she feels that this Three Peaks Race win was her best performance at the race, despite it not being a course record. She explains.
I would always look at my time relative to the men’s winner, and ideally aim for between 108-112% of the winning men’s time. While I certainly did not achieve that all the time, the percentage gap I had that year behind Fergy [Ian Ferguson], a great athlete, was a really good one – plus I made the top 20 overall.
Sarah Rowell was back again in 1994, winning convincingly despite fading somewhat on the run-in. She finished in 34th place overall, in the slowest of her four wins – in 3-21-50. Sarah said at the time that she was running quite well that year, ‘but unfortunately, I had a cough earlier in the week. I knew going up Pen-y-Ghent that it wasn’t going to be my day. So, it became just a case of getting round.’ Sarah’s diary for the event read:
Weather good, but still wet and boggy underfoot. Quite a breeze. Felt OK warming up. Cough seems to have been tackled. OK early on sitting in main bunch. Once climbing Pen-y-Ghent it was a case of let’s get round. Mixed feelings. At least I ran. No high on finishing, but a feeling of ‘if only’, given the shape I was in a couple of weeks ago.
Sarah Rowell achieved her fourth win in six years in 1996, with a second course record. She thus matched Vanessa Brindle as a four-time winner, and it was Vanessa whom she beat into second place that day by a staggering 19 minutes, shaving 12 seconds off her own record from 1991. Sarah again finished high up the field, this time in 20th position.
Some athletes have prepared so well that they expect to win when they race. Fell icon Billy Bland had that in his armoury and rivals would be going to the start line thinking they were running for second place. Sarah Rowell says now that she had that expectation – to an extent. ‘A lot of my self-belief came from good training. Then what I wasn’t able to always do was take that self-belief and use it as well as I could have done.’
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Andy Peace made us coffee as we exchanged backgrounds. He had no training diary to hand, but had an exceptional memory for in-race detail. He first explains that if you ran in Bingley [Harriers] everyone seemed to do Burnsall and Ben Nevis, and also run the Three Peaks. You felt like you had to run the Three Peaks. ‘I wasn’t really aware of the history of the race then. I was aware that Fergy had won it a few times as I had seen him do it.’
Andy Peace had a seemingly easy 3P win in 1994, by a margin of almost four minutes, from Mark Rigby. Andy’s win was his first crack at the Three Peaks Race. He says he had no idea how he would get on that day because he had never run that far before. He hadn’t been doing long training runs and doesn’t think he had recced the course by then. Tellingly, he did do some recceing after winning.
There was a clash with a British Champs race in 1995 which affected the overall quality of the men’s field, but the front of the race was still very strong. The Bingley athletes, Andy Peace and Ian Holmes, ran through Ribblehead together and appeared to be on for a new record. Still inseparable at Whernside summit, Peace opened up a gap on the Hill Inn approach which he increased to seven minutes on Ingleborough and over ten minutes by the finish. However, perhaps through the lack of a challenge in the latter part of the race, he missed the record by just over a minute. Holmes agrees now that they were chasing the record. Andy Peace animatedly says:
Holmsey was on fire, but I was not going to let him get away. I was thinking this is harsh. It was a lovely day. I expected to gap him on Whernside as I am a better climber than him and he is a better descender. The fact that I didn’t drop him on Whernside had me thinking this could be a bit close. Then he dropped his bumbag on the ridge of Whernside as he was fumbling about trying to get something out of it. No way I was going to wait for him! I never saw him again after that, which was bonus really. I think the fact that he set off so hard cost us the record on that day, because I was tying up and cramping by the end.
1996 saw a stunning men’s new course record, set by Andy Peace (alongside Sarah Rowell’s for the women). The fact that both these records were set when underfoot conditions were firm just emphasised what effect that, and the weather, can have. Andy Peace set off as though he was aiming to do some damage to his cousin Ian Ferguson’s course record from five years previously. Andy recalls that the year before Ian Ferguson had called out “You’ll never beat my record!”, which of course just added to his determination to do so this year. Andy Peace then quietly mentions that he can recall the splits from that record time from the top of his head: ‘28.5 on Pen-y-Ghent, 72 something to Ribblehead, 1-40 on Whernside, 1-55 at the Hill Inn, 2-20 at Ingleborough, and 2-46 at the finish’. He then gives a full resume of his approach and how it had gone.
I knew I was going well and was in good shape. I was in my late 20s and confident. I stood on the start line and Mark Roberts had the times on his wrist to run 2-52. I said to him, “well you are not going to win then are you” [laughs]. I had run in the National 12-stage the day before and we had won it. I had run a short leg and I was a bit disappointed in my time really. We had a massive lead and subconsciously I was probably taking it a bit easy and didn’t push like I could have done.
[Andy’s 3P record has never been beaten, and now never will be, as the course change in 223 and is now over 1km longer than it was in Andy’s era.]
Andy Peace came back again to win in 2004, eight years after his last win. Andy claims that Simon Booth had been favourite to win that year and get his treble. Simon responds to me: ‘It is a fair reflection to say I was favourite because that is what I thought. I heard some people saying that Andy was the favourite which kind of got me more motivated. I was thinking Andy was a has-been! [He laughs at this, as Andy is younger than him]. But he certainly reminded me of his class that day.’
When I later spoke to Ian Holmes he added his take on that race. ‘I think that year [2004] was Andy Peace’s best run there really. Nobody had him down to win that one. Simon Booth may have been the favourite to win having won in 2000 and 2002. But Andy knew how to run the Three Peaks by then.’
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These stories are from my Three Peaks Race book, which is being published to tie-in with the 70th Anniversary of the race, which takes place this year on Sat 27 April. I will be there at the event to launch the book, and hopefully sell and sign some copies to participants and spectators (and have some of my other books at discount too).
The book is published on 16 April and is available to pre-order right now – direct from the publishers, at: https://www.gnbooks.co.uk/?s=Three+Peaks.
IT'S A HILL, GET OVER IT 