That was incredibly tough yesterday, and going to take a while to recover.

Was probably the most beautiful day I've ever seen in the Lakes and was a pleasure to be in the mountains. But boy did it get hot.

Up until Patterdale I was going well, in the same time as last year, but with considerably more left in the tank. Made good progress up to Grisedale Tarn, but then it completely unraveled over the next few hours.

Made a complete mess of getting down to Thirlmere from Grisedale Tarn, think I ended up far too low down next to the tarn looking for the best path, then had to climb back up to 'cut the corner' at the bottom of the fell. Then through lack of concentration I overshot the path down to the car park by well over a mile, and had to drop down to the road and trudge all the way back.

Then I decided to make up some time by going up the Old County Tops descent to Helvellyn which damn near finished me off in the heat. People who left the checkpoint behind me and followed the tourist path all made up time here.

Still moving better than last year, but made another error coming off Place Fell, stayed high for too long and after descending spent a worrying 5 minutes with absolutely no idea where I was, que another backtrack up the road.

Eventually finished 51 minutes slower than last year, which given the course was 2 miles longer and with more climb, the stifling heat, and of course my own mishaps, I'm fairly happy with. The scale of my errors confirmed when I found out I was 36th the first time through Patterdale, but after the Helvellyn loop I'd dropped to 51st. Rallied to finish 49th, but reaching the finish and seeing people that I'd blown away on the climb up Place Fell confirmed how much I'd gone wrong again.

Hello to Britnick, I do apologise for dashing off mid-conversation when we were unexpectedly told to start. And also hello to Karen who demonstrated how to fly through a checkpoint with no fuss, and was out of sight before I'd even started to refill my bottles, never to be seen again until the finish.

Fantastically tough race and I have no doubt I'll be back next year.

Pete