The Peak Way - my Fastest Known Time attempt
Post One (of Three): Ultra-light packing for a multi-day running, hiking and camping adventure
On Sunday 28 July, at 9.33am, I set off running, hiking and camping along a new 160-mile long-distance footpath called The Peak Way - and I set a Fastest Known Time in the process! (I think, I hope. It needs to be verified.)
The Peak Way was devised by Ken Reece, from Stockport, as a lockdown project in 2021, and it was launched the following year. On the 70th anniversary of the Peak District National Park, Reece set out to create ‘a walking route that would offer some of the most spectacular views and showcase some of the most interesting heritage/points of interest in the stunning 555 square miles of the Peak District’. As Reece describes, the resulting footpath is a ‘best of’ compilation of the Dark Peak and White Peak areas, and the idea of running it continuously hugely appealed to me. I’d only dipped my toes into the Peak District beforehand, and I mainly associated it with the Kinder Scout right-to-roam protests of the 1930s, but I knew th…