Well, What a great race!!

I had been a little nervous about navigation in the cloud before the start of the race but once we were off I felt pretty happy MOST of the way around with just an element of (needless) uncertainty when contouring Great Carrs.

I managed to pick up a passager from Wetherlam, a lady from CFR who, on the way UP wetherlam, was suggesting the climb was "worse than child birth". I had tried to give her a little encouragement on the climb but by that point I needed to save some for myself.

Coming off Swirl How I felt I was on the right line, and I was or there abouts, but I can see how it would be so easy to end up off route when the clagg is in. A good strong run down to the three shires stone though and my main worry of getting to the cut-off in time was needless as I made it in 1:50.

I knew we weren't too far from the back but when I looked behind me on the ascent up to Blisco it seemed strange that there were so many runners behind me, but then I started to hear others talking about losing time with a bad route choice off Swirl How (Unlucky guys).

We kept going, offering each other encouragement all the way down off Blisco and I came out right on the Stile leading through the bracken to Blea Tarn and saw Daztheslug just heading down the right hand side of the wall. I chose to stick to the normal path and the slippy well trodden (by now) route down.

As we approched Blea Tarn, just coming through the woods I took a tumble and at EXACTLY the same time, few meters behind me so did my new running mate! I tried to get my footing (imagine something akin to a cartoon character sliding on ice with arms and legs flying all over the place) but in the end I hit the deck (My first proper fall in fell running). My body not being content with a little pain from the fall, it decided to cramp up my right leg also. So there I lay in the woods, my leg in spasm, my other leg now stinging, wondering "...what the F*** was I doing" when suddenly the spasm eased and a friendly hand helped my up to my feet and off we trotted as if it hadn't happened.

As we crossed the road though after Blea Tarn there was a wonderful sign, something like "Drink station ahead". I crossed the cattle grid to find..... an empty road

My climb up Lingmoor was slow and I ran out of water just after the start of the climb, despite bringing about 1 1/2 litres with me, and my pace dropped. I think this was more fatigue that the water and I started to flag behind now, thankfully though one of the marshalls on Lingmoor gave me some water and with potentially no more climbing left I managed to pickup my pace just a tad on the descent to the finish.

We crossed the line in 3hr 39 mins and I was very happy with that time and was happy to collapse beside the finish line. I was just looking forward to one of the pasties I had been told about, only to be told when I got to the table that they had just run out.

Thanks to all for organising and marshalling, and for the bottle of wine I got as a spot prize. Also thanks to the girl from the pub who appeared about 10 mins after the presentation finished with about 10 pasties on a tray. But most of all thanks to Al Fowlup for bringing me 4 BIG bags of Peanut M&M's, for giving him a lift to the race!

Well done everyone, see you next time!