Fastpacking. Lily Dyu

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      Typical terrain on the northern sections of the Pennine Way (Photo credit: Jasmin Paris and Konrad Rawlik collection)

      Keld appeared to be abandoned for winter. This was the intersection of the Coast-to-Coast and Pennine Way, where the guidebook had painted a picture of a bustling village – but this was a ghost town. They were starting to feel cold, walking beneath moonlight through dark, silent lanes. Turning a corner, they saw a house with lights on. Konrad knocked on the door and explained to the owner that they needed somewhere to stay. She invited the pair in and made calls to friends, further and further away before a guesthouse was eventually found.

      It was November 2015 and Jasmin Paris and her husband, Konrad Rawlik, were at the end of their fourth day of running the Pennine Way. Both are well known for their running achievements: Jasmin has been national fell running champion; she’s the fastest woman over the Bob Graham and Paddy Buckley rounds and holds the overall record for the Charlie Ramsay – all achieved in an astonishing six months in 2016. Konrad has won the Fellsman race and also placed third in the Dragon’s Back. The couple have twice raced the multi-day Transalpine together.

      For both, this was simply to be a week’s holiday to celebrate Jasmin’s birthday, following the route that starts at Kirk Yetholm, close to their home in Scotland, and finishes at Edale near her parents’ place in Derbyshire. ‘When she first suggested it,’ laughs Konrad, ‘I said that taking the TransPennine Express to her parents for her birthday was a great idea!’

      That evening they ran two extra miles from Keld to their eventual bed for the night. ‘It was a really nice family-run B&B,’ recalls Jasmin. ‘They weren’t expecting anyone and their boiler was being repaired, so they put the kettle on and gave us bowls of water to wash our muddy legs. We’d expected to eat in the pub so we asked if we could have our cooked breakfast for tea instead. We had a fry-up in the evening and cereal and toast the next morning!’

      Their journey so far had been a joy, taking them over the Cheviot hills floating on a sea of cloud, where they had met a herd of wild goats – a highlight for Konrad as a fan of those much-maligned creatures, and for Jasmin a trigger for an unexpected craving for goat’s cheese.

      ‘We loved the first day,’ says Konrad. ‘The Cheviots were the wildest section, with the most fell running. On the second day Hadrian’s Wall was really special – running alongside it towards an amazing sunset. Everything was orange and pink. There was a lovely autumn light. It was spectacular.’

      Spectacular autumn sunset at Hadrian’s wall on day two (Photo credit: Jasmin Paris and Konrad Rawlik collection)

      On Cross Fell, the highest point of the route, they were chased along a ridge by wind, rain and hail before dropping to Dufton. This was followed by a perfect day above the rift of High Cup Nick and passing High Force.

      High Force in Teesdale on day four, one of many sights along the way (Photo credit: Jasmin Paris and Konrad Rawlik collection)

      ‘Each day had its own special moment,’ says Konrad, ‘like getting to the Tan Hill Inn, having a hot chocolate and then running in the dark down to Keld. The sky was clear and all the stars were out. It was beautiful.’

      Knowing few people would be walking the route at that time of year, they had decided against pre-booking accommodation. ‘Planning a 270-odd-mile run in Britain during November is no easy task,’ Konrad jokes, ‘so I decided to largely avoid any planning!’

      Finding rooms wasn’t to be easy, though. On their second night they ran an extra three miles, from Greenhead to Gilsland, for somewhere to stay, and the following night they trudged through Dufton until they stumbled across a farmhouse B&B on the outskirts of the village. Here, however, the local pub wasn’t serving meals and Jasmin’s pleas to buy some bread and cheese didn’t yield any success. Thankfully, their B&B host came to the rescue, with the drive to collect her daughter from badminton being diverted to the nearest fish and chip shop.

      Jasmin and Konrad weren’t carrying much food apart from some flapjack, along with essentials, in their 15-litre packs. Instead of taking extra shoes they’d opted for the mountain marathon trick of plastic bags on their feet to keep their socks dry in the evening. Each had only one set of running gear.