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It's looking pretty wild for this Saturday and the RO has sent out an email advising the probable need for extra kit.I'm now questioning whether the 500 mile round trip will be worth it to spend a few hours pootling about in the clag trying not to drown! Of course, just booked a bloody non-refundable B&B for two nights haven't I!!!
It was wet, windy and misty but kudos to Dan Duxberry and Ambleside AC for allowing the full route to go ahead. It is fell running after all and allowing us as competitors to exercise our sound mountain judgement is as much (if not more) a part of the sport as the physical side.
Many thanks to the hardy marshals. Many were in the cols off the summits - ironically of course the tops weren't too bad and the wind funnelled through the cols! - and the deployment of tents, bivvys and ponchos was impressive.
I've heard the strava flybys will be entertaining, with Duddon and 3 shires routes being recce'd by several. I personally saw bits of Bowfell and the Crinkles few but the herdwicks have seen!
I so nearly didn't make the effort to come across for yesterday, but I'm so glad I did. I've snuck inside 3 hours in the past, but yesterday was 3.47 and every bit of it felt hard won...looking at the splits goodness only knows how the front runners did those times. It wasn't as apocalyptic weather-wise as the OMM in 2008, and I suppose could probably be viewed as just a fairly typical wet and windy Lakes day, but it all had quite an epic feel, from Dungeon Ghyll crashing past us on the first climb, to wind strong enough to blow me off my feet a couple of time (the perils of being tall and skinny) and rain heavy enough I couldn't actually see properly at times. From Esk Hause through to clearing the clag down towards Red Tarn I seemed switch between seeing small groups of runners to being completely in my own grey little bubble of wind and driving rain and rock, and the bits all on my own (even though I was probably quite close to other runners but didn't know it) were the most exhilarating of all. Like you say ba-ba there were some interesting route choices being taken but what a testament to everyone who set out that all made it safely back. I managed to keep it together except for the trod from Three Tarns to Long Top, where my fear of finding myself wandering around in upper Eskdale meant I cut left and up a Crinkle and a half early, but no major harm done. I also had a bit of a moment on the descent off Blisco before having a stern word with myself and picking up the right direction again. I've seen plenty of similar comments already on facebook, but it's hard to speak too highly of the RO and the whole team involved. I'm lucky enough to be on the fells and racing a lot, but yesterday will live long in the memory and it's hard to put a price on that. Hats off and sincere thanks to them all. And the kind gentlemen looking after the pies in the bar afterwards did actually give me two......to be more specific , two of the finest pies I've had in many a month.
Hats off to you guys and anyone else who did it - absolute legends! I Drove for nearly 8 hours on the Friday, then sat in the car park near the start for best part of an hour. Conditions were so atrocious I thought it would be, at best 3 hours of misery and, at worst, several more hours lost in the clag or drowned in one of the rivers in spate!!! So, 20 mins before the start, I finally decide to live another day. In some ways, I'm glad I did as I ran part of the route in reverse and conditions on top of Blisco were extreme to say the least - I really felt for the marshall I met at the top who had several hours to endure! Still don't know how, but I also managed to erroneously end up taking the three shires recce route off Blisco ba-ba, so was bloody glad I'd only run a few miles beforehand, not the 11 and 100's more feet of ascent anyone else going that way had! My regret in not doing it is slightly tempered by the fact that it meant I had the legs to do a longish route on the Sunday afternoon in glorious sunshine!