From Andrew Merrick…

Jane McCarthy, Helen Waddington and I set out from Ilkley at 7am on Saturday morning for a Lakeland adventure, Jane having very kindly offered to drive us across to Ambleside in time for our staggered starts. We had located a car park close to the start by 9am, giving us plenty of essential pre-race faffing time.

We were set off in groups of 10 or so at various time slots from 9:30 onwards, having been required to show a negative covid test result before we were allowed into registration, which included a very thorough kit check on a very warm and humid morning.

I had the opportunity to maintain my reputation for bumping into people in random places as I found an ex-colleague from Sheffield and his wife were also doing the race…. I was the last of our merry band to set off, and near the back of the field, having been the slowest to respond to the email to book a starting slot, so I was able to cheer on Helen and then Jane before my final pre race faffing…..

I had been having trouble with my Garmin all week (mainly on the golf course), but had made sure that it was fully charged on Friday night. I was somewhat surprised to find it had 28% of battery left as I switched it into running mode just before I started (it had clearly been running some function overnight without telling me or the watch face it had continued to show). Fortunately the route was very well marked and supported by marshalls, so watch failure was more of a mental than navigational challenge as I set off in our 10:43 gang of about 8 up to Kirkstone Pass. I was glad, however, I had printed out the “route card” which gave me distances between the various checkpoints.

The steady climb up to Kirkstone pass was incident free and I stopped long enough at the first CP to grab a banana (I still haven’t worked out nutrition on hot days), and a water bottle refill. The weather was by this time sunnier than we had expected from the very cloudy start but it was certainly very muggy, the compulsory extra top and waterproof trousers (not to mention the head torch) were feeling a little surplus to requirements.

I don’t recall much about leg 2 (a slight concern!) other than when I arrived at Glenridding Village Hall, there was a long refuelling queue so I took a bit of a risk and decided to crack on for the longest (only 12km) leg featuring our toughest climb over Grisedale, concluding I could manage that distance with my remaining 0.7 litre of tailwind/water, knowing I would be over halfway by then, and that I had food supplies with me.   

This plan largely worked, although my current long distance food of choice (nakd bars) I found were materially harder to consume on hot days and needed more liquid accompaniment than I was expecting. I had four bottles with me, with extra tailwind supplies, which I was glad of, and filled 3 of the 4 when I made it into Grasmere and a much smaller water queue. So I was soon on my way again, feeling in reasonably good shape. The dynamic of staggered starts is an interesting one in that there are always people in front of you that you feel you can/should chase down – on balance I think it is helpful although there is a risk that you go off too quickly and it does add to the traffic on narrow sections of the route. Personally on the long climbs I found it useful to have a target to aim for, and, of course, in my case it did help a little with navigation… My watch finally gave up on me a short while after Grasmere, but I knew from here it was only 6-7km to each of the next three checkpoints and an 8km final leg.  

So my focus for the remainder of the race switched to ensuring I drank regularly, whilst staying upright and counting down the checkpoints. I only tripped over twice which is probably about par for me over that distance, and provided entertainment for those sensibly following me at a safe distance. I don’t recall much about the remaining legs other than I was conscious I was close to cramping up on a couple of climbs and that I was pleasantly surprised to find the penultimate check point slightly sooner than I was expecting. I grabbed some cramp avoidance peanuts and crisps at the final checkpoint and set off for the final climb (actually two, I had forgotten about the second one, having done the same route a few years ago) before dropping down to the finish. As I exited the final CP, the black skies finally let go of the burden they had been carrying for some time, and we were absolutely drenched over the final 5 miles, which was largely a very pleasant experience! The only challenge was having to guess how deep the puddles were that had formed very quickly in the downpour. 

By the time I arrived at the finish the rain had largely abated and I made a token sprint for the line for the supporting crowds who were kindly cheering us all on. 

Needless to say Jane, who was the first lady, had already finished well before me in yet another impressive run, and was looking as if she had been out for a morning stroll, as I adopted my post-race waddle back the van. And Helen wasn’t far behind having smashed her previous time from a couple of years ago in a testament to her commitment to her CCC training. 

To round off our outing Jane very kindly went into Ambleside to acquire fish & chips, washed down in my case by the compulsory post race Saltaire Blonde.

A friendly, very popular, well organised race in beautiful surroundings within relatively easy access, strongly recommended for anyone wanting to do a short distance ultra in the Lakes. The punk panther races are also recommended for those wanting an outing closer to home.

Results: Here

1. Julian Hood (Skipton AC) 5:39:20

13. Jane McCarthy 6:54:29 (1st lady)

32. Andrew Merrick 7:31:03 (1st MV60)

109. Helen Waddington 8:49:03