Grimwith Blast

The route

Starting and finishing in Skipton, this route heads north into Wharfedale, climbing steadily through the farmland and drystone-walled fields that give the Dales their character before reaching Grimwith Reservoir, tucked between Grassington and Pateley Bridge. A well-surfaced path circles the reservoir itself, a rare stretch of properly flat, fast running in the middle of a long day, before the route turns back south to retrace its way to Skipton.

Grimwith itself

Grimwith is the largest reservoir Yorkshire Water owns by storage, and the loop around it is popular with walkers and the local sailing club rather than runners, so expect a change of pace and company partway through this route. It's a good psychological marker too - reaching the reservoir means you're roughly at the turnaround point of a genuinely long day out.

The ground between

The connecting sections between Skipton and Grimwith mix quiet lanes, farm tracks and open moorland edges, with a few boggy stretches where the path crosses rough pasture. None of it is technical, but 56km with 773m of climbing spread thinly across that distance is a different kind of demanding to a shorter route with a single big hill - it's about sustained effort and fuelling rather than one hard climb.

Why runners come back to it

Grimwith Blast rewards anyone training for a bigger event later in the year - a hilly ultra or a multi-day stage race - because it forces you to manage pace and fuelling over real distance without the added complication of technical ground. It's a route to learn about your own limits on rather than one to chase a fast time on.

Getting it right

This is long enough that weather, light and navigation all matter more than they would on a shorter loop. Carry more kit than the modest climbing figure might suggest, and treat the reservoir path as a good place to check your pace and refuel before the return leg back into Wharfedale and down to Skipton.