Blimey Will - pace wise - if you want to lead from the front be my guest - I'll probably be bringing up the rear or alternatively aiming to be a hill wise plodder. Seriously being a 5hr 3 Peaks man will give you an indication of my pace. If I do the race I daresay I will be out for 6.5 to 7 hrs.
Doubt there'll be a lot of leading from the front from myself. Apart from sprinting towards the cake stop.Originally Posted by Manhar
5 hour 3 Peaks is about my pace at the moment.
Cake shops were shut when we finished!! The Shepherds was open, but i was in bother with our lass and was in a rush!!
if anyone else fancies it we're looking at a 9:00 ish start this Thursday.
Weather looks like it may be not too bad.
Leaving tomorrow for a recce of Wasdale on Saturday followed by Ennerdale on Sunday... Trying to convince myself it's just a long walk
Will write up anything I think's worth knowing.
Camping at Wasdale Head if anyone fancies saying hello. Look out for the weary looking man praying outside his tent for cloud-free tops!
Cheers.
Great day out getting lost in Ennerdale yesterday. Manhar and myself went wrong from the off and ended up hopping over walls and scrambling up on hands and knees before we found the correct path to the top of Great Borne. Looking at the map I think we took the wrong direction on the road, we went right instead of left and missed the path. Soon as we got onto the fells thick mist descended and it was difficult to plot a way through the rocks from Red Pike across to Blackbeck Tarn. We ended up taking a high route over High Stile and High Crag and at one point the fog was so thick we started descending towards Buttermere, luckily it cleared briefly and we turned back.
By Haystacks we were well behind schedule so we decided to go as far as Green gable and drop down into the valley
Agee with the others on the thread, Red Pike to Blakcbeck tarn needs a pre race recce. With the strict cut offs it'd be easy for your race to be finished very early on.
Despite not doing the whole recce it was a good day out. Think we did 21 miles and I'd estaimate 4500 ft climbing.
Nice to meet you Manhar and thanks for the driving, despite the puncture !
Not another flat tyre Manhar!!
Will, at the start you do turn right at the road and as it heads up the side of Ennerdale Water you turn left just before the road gets to the wooded area. You then follow the wall / beck NE for 50 metres or so then the wall heads north and the trod starts of more or less north North east from here rising and countouring aroundthe rough stuff to approach the summit for the west.
You can see the trod bearing NNE from the wall on Google Earth.
Glad you had a good day guys and wish I'd been able to join you.
Anybody on the start line for this race has my utmost admiration. Anybody unfortunate to be timed out, especially at Green gable has my total respect because I know for the likes of I,* won't be able to bask in the warm glow of completing 1 of the classic long races and in my heart of hearts I know that I will be timed out if I was to enter the race & it is a looooong way back from there- nice run down onto the valley floor tho'.
Sure as Will has mentioned we didn't take the best lines but perhaps it's time for me to realise my limitations / capabilities re the long stuff and for me 1 of life's great mysteries is - why can some people keep going like duracell batteries at stuff such as this race, today's OCT- have a good 'un folks, the Fellsman and so on whereas for the likes of I it is a struggle-after all we're made of the same flesh & blood.
Thank you to Will for patiently waiting whilst I staggered back to the car park- as mentioned it a v long way back. I have had the tyre replaced.
*I know the above isn't gramatically correct but you should see the general gist of what i'm trying to articulate.
Thanks WP, have had a look on google earth. Not sure how we managed to miss it.
A recce should always go at the pace of the slowest and so I'm sure Will is fine.
I know what you mean Manhar. I had a go last year. I thought I'd done the 3 peaks, a bit less climb but a few more miles and thought my 4:45 in the PPP would convert in to a 5:30 - 6:00 Ennerdale.
How wrong I was.
It is on a different level for a runner like me (I nearly used the word athlete but it's inappropriate) and I took the sensible decision to drop out at CP3 the tarn, much to the surprise of the marshalls.
But I knew I would have raw feet and might even need carrying off the mountains if I carried on. And yes the run back took me almost 2 hours down the valley.
But I do want to get round it and I think it is doable and here's why.
I've survived on a training base of 20 - 30 miles per week for 6 years and with little climbing. I'm a stone at least overweight. So rather than throw myself back in, my plan is to up my mileage this summer to be 40+ and to make sure I get some climbing in each week.
I'm now logging my ascent for the first time.
I also plan to take in some more sensible shorter runs, but I'm doing Duddon this year as I know it's a good transition from PPP type races to Ennerdale and I'll be back at Sedbergh Hills again and then have a winter geared to a better PPP.
So Manhar, don't give up. It's not about speed. It's about getting a bit more mileage and a bit more climb than you currently get and perhaps we can both go to the 2013 Ennerdale and keep each other company around the race - run (and walk a bit of course) as a pair.
NB. They cut you a bit of slack at CP 1 & 2 as there were quite a few of us that were outside the time. Funnily enough I was back inside by CP3 where I dropped out!
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