Well that was a toughie!! Good visibility, hot and still. Geoff did 4:36 and placed in the teens - second Vet 45, I think. I twisted my ankle coming off Hay Stacks, but managed to make it round in 5:35.Originally Posted by Grouse
Well that was a toughie!! Good visibility, hot and still. Geoff did 4:36 and placed in the teens - second Vet 45, I think. I twisted my ankle coming off Hay Stacks, but managed to make it round in 5:35.
Grouse
V hard race yesterday, first time for me. I went wrong a few times, struggled on the scree descents as usual and feet blistered badly. Got round in 4:57.
Looking forward to Kinder Trog next week - it will be an amble in comparison.
First I'd like to thank the lovley lady and bloke who stretched my calf and gave me a drink and gel just after Blacksail after I squealed like a pig going down with cramp
After that I took it easy at first going up Pillar but with a few shortcuts caught most of the people who passed my while i was on my back, could still feel my calf tight when I tried to run but waliking hills was ok.
By Iron crag the bloke who was just ahead of me at Blacksail was in my sights so started to go a little bit faster and went down like a sack of spuds when my right hamstring cramped after that it was pure survival just to keep moving.
After the Duddon was expecting to get round in 5:30 but knew it was going to be tough when my legs felt like lead going up Great Bourne(took until Dow Crag in the Duddon)
I don't think the 13 hour day on Wednesday rock climbing and running around Pillar, Gable and Scafell Pike helped mindmanaged 6:03 in the end so its still 20mins faster than I've done before but what an effort!
Bill
Ennerdale was much much tougher than The Ben. Almost twice as much ascent and two and a half times the distance. The exposure got to me a bit, and I was slow on the steep descents, but as I mentioned in my earlier post, I twisted my right ankle on the descent off Hay Stacks on a "paved" section. It's swollen, but not too uncomfortable and so I should be able to keep running. It didn't stop me yesterday, even with 14 miles to go - it would have been almost as far if I had retired and hobbled back. Then I got some blisters when my feet got wet on the ascent of Green Gable, and the cramp started to affect me around Haycock. Dave Tait's notes say "DON'T BE KNACKERED AT PILLER". Well I was, and found even the little rocks over Iron Crag hard work.
Having said all of that, I may well be back next year.
Thanks to everyone who offered water and other drinks along the way. I recon I drank almost a gallon in total!
I have a plot of the route I took (and most of those I could see in front of me) from my Garmin in PDF/TRL/GPX formats if anyone wants a copy. PM me and let me know what format you want.
Well done all!!!
Tao begets one. One begets two. Two begets all things.
well done marvin sounds like a big effort, hope to see you at kinder if your ankles ok
I was out on a reccy of part of the Wasdale Route yesterday and managed to catch part of the race. Saw the first 20/25 coming off Kirk Fell towards Pillar - Pete Vale and Ricky Lightfoot (I think) were a long way clear of the next runners. Goose Fat gave an impressive "Mountain Goat" display on an alternative route off Kirk Fell in around 20th position - hope you finished strong.
We also caught some tail enders at Beck Head after we had traversed around Kirk Fell - there were some very tired legs climbing Kirk Fell. I felt for them - it's a long way back whichever way you go from there.
Respect to all who finished in that heat - I'm not sure if I'm up to Wasdale after a reccy that missed out 3 fairly big hills!!!!
That was really tough - I'm not sure if it was hotter this year or last. I felt as if I was reasonably ok until Iron Crag, then I got cramps at the bottom of Crag Fell and ended up walking virtually all the way to the finish from there. Just about managed a jog for the last few 100 metres when Compo caught me up (again!).
Thanks to everyone who was on the course offering water - there's precious little natural water on route. (Including the marshall at Blackbeck Tarn who pointed to the tarn when asked if he had any water, and said "There's plenty over there"!) Thanks also, of course, to all the marshalls, organisers & the 2 'tea-ladies' - 2 enormous blokes covered in tatoos!
Hope you found the beck from the car park, Marvin, and that your ankle's better for the Trog.
Oh, nearly forgot, it looks like we all need to recce the first quarter mile of the race for next year after nearly everybody ended up going along wrong tracks twice just around the bottom of the lake.
Agreed - that was definitely hard work in the heat. I felt pretty good at Blackbeck Tarn but then struggled over Green Gable, Kirk Fell and Pillar, recovering slightly for the last hour or so.
People were doing a great job on the hills giving out drinks. Particular thanks must go out to the young lady (a Borrowdale supporter?) who gave me a satsuma on the climb up Kirk Fell - delicious!
Hope you have cooler conditions in 2 weeks Geoff...Good luck! There could well be a Holmfirth attempt on the same day too.
There's a Bowland one as well, maybe see you between Wasdale and Keswick!
Bill
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