Quote Originally Posted by bestathlete View Post
T'other day my mate Popsy says to me
'I'm thinking of doing the Borrowdale Bash in August, do you fancy it?'
Now i had considered doing it but was of a mind to leave it until 2008 as this
is my first year on the fells and i regard Borrowdale as a pretty heavyweight event.
Popsy has much less experience of fellracing than I do so I was suprised to learn he was considering doing it and wondered if he knew exactly what it entailed.
Anyway, the upshot is that I now intend to enter. I would love to get a recce in beforehand but this Saturday I'm racing my bike at Keswick then am going to recce The Rydal Round (again) for Thursday.
I hope to recce Borrowdale the following weekend which is just the week before the race - would that be OK do you reckon, or is the severity of the course likely to leave me too broken to repeat 7 days later?
It's not a case of being 'too broken', more will you have the necessary 'mountaincraft' to get round in crap weather using a map and compass, rather than relying on following someone or having reccied it in perfect weather.
Borrowdale does seem to have the image of being a soft touch long race but I can assure you it isn't. Some very experienced runners at the front of the field, including a local (who will remain nameless), got lost last year.
It will only take a day with weather like we've had today to happen and there will be much bigger problems.
It is <highly> likely that in future years you will be asked to pre-enter giving previous experience of long races to be eligible to run at Borrowdale.
There have in the past been some complete numpties (no personal offence to you intended) turning up on the day.
If you have any doubts about your ability could I suggest that you do a few more medium category races and approach it with the confidence of being happy you'll get round rather than having a nightmare and being put off for life.