Hey thanks for the tip. I'll check that out next time I'm in the area.
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From my performance (or more accurately, lack of performance) in this year's race you would never suspect that the OCR was a bad habit of mine about 20 years ago, and that I once held the record for it at a fairly pedestrian 4hrs and 1 minute. The route at that time involved Carrock, Great Cockup, Skiddaw and Blencathra. A group of us spent many days trying route and starting point/direction variations. Eventually I favoured anti clockwise, starting with Carrock from the top of Swineside. I did a short climb out and then a long diagonal, not too steep climb to Carrock Summit. I've descended the same way, which is more or less SW from the summit, and found it not too bad. In fact I used that route the only other time I've run this as an organised event and found it reasonably quick.
This year's race was a disaster for me - I've spent many more hours kayaking than running over the summer and I don't run at all well in the heat. I got to Carrock in last place and decided I didn't fancy another 5 hours or so in the heat so slinked back to the start with my tail between my legs.