Tag Archive: Lake District
There’s a beautiful section at the start of the Scafell Pike Trail Marathon. You skirt the side of Derwentwater, past jetties glistening in the morning sun, clouds breaking over the hill tops around about. The route undulates along trails and paths, behind Castle Crag and through the ferns into picturesque Borrowdale. If you’re not careful, you could start to think you were in for a fast and pretty trail race. You breeze into Seathwaite, the first drinks station, and feel unstoppable. Smiles all around. Someone asks a marshal if there’s coke, and they’re cheerfully told that’s for the way back down. And so we continue on with the sound of cow bells ringing in our ears. Leaving Seathwaite there’s another mile of gentle undulation before the mask slips and Dr Jekyll transforms suddenly into the evil Mr Hyde. We start to climb steeply into the rocky corridor route and the... View Article
I’d like the record to show there was a moment at the Ennerdale Horseshoe when I overtook Brennan Townshend. Unfortunately it was before the race started—he was jogging his warm up, I was legging it from the car park to try and register and go to the loo. Suffice to say once the race started I never saw him again. The Ennerdale is one of the Lake District Classics, a 37km/23 mile circuit of the fells surrounding one of the most beautiful valleys in the Lakes. It’s been ran for over fifty years and is steeped in the mythos of the sport. The list of winners reads like a who’s who of fell running greats; Joss Naylor, Kenny Stuart, Billy Bland. I was excited to be pulling on the purple and green of Northumberland Fell Runners for the first time, and after so many cancellations in the past eighteen months... View Article
It’s 5:40am and I’ve already been awake for some time. I give up on waiting for the alarm and pick up my phone to check the MWIS forecast. Rain with a side order of cloudy summits. Quelle surprise. The question is; go or no go? The answer was never in doubt. I tumble out of bed and get ready, making a bowl of porridge and chatting to my housemate about the route. He wants to know if I don’t come home which hill I’ll have fallen off. He also wants to know where my life insurance forms are. Unrelated, I assume. A couple of hours later and I’m standing outside the doors of George Fisher, ready to go. After a disastrous day in the fells last July, I have some business to finish with the Abraham’s Tea Round today. The conditions are perfect running out of Keswick, through Portinscale, to Cat Bells. It doesn’t... View Article
October 14, 2019,
by Pete
I’ve often wondered what happens if it’s race day and your body just doesn’t turn up; today, I found out. I left work on Tuesday morning ice cold and aching all over. Having spent two days in bed and one on the sofa, I decided I should return on Friday – not least to prove that I was well enough to run on Saturday. Several people told me this was a silly idea. “You’re not well,” they said, “have a rest day and recover.” I listened and understood that what they were saying was wise. So, needless to say I woke up on Saturday morning and drove to the Lakes for Ambleside AC’s brilliant Langdale Horseshoe. It’s an AL fell race, which means it’s pretty much the best kind, if by best you mean hilliest and longest. It’s known for being brutal underfoot and attracts a good crowd of fell runners. It’s... View Article
There was a moment of joy, in amongst it all. One of those moments where your lungs seem to find an unlimited capacity and your legs float along, leaping over rocks like a mountain goat. There was a moment of joy, but there’s far more to my experiences at the weekend than that. The Turner Landscape is a fiesty little race on paper. It’s a shade over ten miles and a thousand metres of ascent – not to mention giving the opportunity to bag a few Wainwrights en route. The drive down through Wrynose Pass to Turner Hall Farm in the Duddon Valley, where it all starts, is enough to leave you breathless at the beauty. I’m not sure if J M W Turner influenced the naming of the farm, but he certainly spent a fair amount of time in Coniston and the surrounding area. He painted and sketched The Old Man... View Article
There are few things as exhilarating as pushing yourself to your limits. As T.S Eliot wrote, “if you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” For me, fell running is a great way to test those limits. Plan a route that’s going to test you in a way that you’ve not been tested before and go for it. I love the feeling of locking the car door, looking up at the mountains, and getting a healthy sense of awe at the size of the challenge ahead. When I was first getting interested in fell running a friend bought me the classic Feet in the clouds by Richard Askwith. It’s like reading of myths and legends. Giants stride across the landscape with names like Iron Joss, and the challenges those giants rise to are the great rounds. Giants stride across the landscape with names like Iron Joss…... View Article
It seems strange to think that just three years ago I’d never taken part in a race. I was in training for the London Marathon, in a distinctly inadequate manner, and a friend asked me if I’d be interested in running in a trail race in the Lake District a couple of weeks afterwards. That first trail race was the Lakeland Trails event at Staveley and I’ve not looked back since in my love for trail running or the Lake District. These runs have a special place in my heart – there’s a great atmosphere, a variety of events and fantastic scenery. Saturday was my first time at the Hawkshead event and I’d entered the 16km challenge. I started strongly enough and tagged onto the two front runners for a quick first kilometre or so. The route leads around the edge of Hawkshead, starting to climb steeply in the second... View Article
I’d been driving west for about an hour and a half when it happened. The A66 swept round towards Keswick and Blencathra appeared majestically on the right, a healthy dusting of snow on the summit and the ridge lines. I’m not ashamed to say I eased off the accelerator and whooped for joy. That view is like the gateway drug to the Lake District and to see it with just the right amount of snow, on a clear day, is pure joy. It was the Coledale Horseshoe today, one of the classic Lake District fell routes. Having spent the best part of last week reading past race reports, studying the OS map, looking at elevation profiles, and hitting refresh on mountain-forecast.com and the mountain weather information service, I arrived with peak anticipation for what was ahead. The weather was sublime. It felt as though a benevolent creator had designed days... View Article
October 13, 2018,
by Pete
Today was crazy amounts of fun. It was the Helvellyn Lakeland Trails and I entered the 15km Challenge. There is a race too, but I knew that with the challenge I can run close to the front of the pack and stretch myself, and I thought I would stretch myself less if I was further down the field but in the race. The weather was crazy, it’s fairly warm, about fifteen degrees, but there’d been heavy rain yesterday and all day today. Parking was cancelled so we had to park and ride in from Penrith. I don’t like racing in waterproofs as it is so easy to over heat but the rain was absolutely pouring so I decided on my Montane 777 waterproof over a normal technical tee and a trail pack – I put 750ml in the bladder as I’ve had a bit of uvulitis and if I started... View Article
