Originally Posted by
Travs
1 - its a pretty easy route to get to grips with generally. It's mostly on good footpaths. May be slightly tricky picking the best path up onto Loadpot Hill at the start, if in poor weather and unfamiliar with the route, but other than that, if you're a competent fellrunner (whatever that means!) then it's nothing out of the ordinary for navigation.
2 - you can pick your own route between checkpoints, but there's little scope really for going off the 'established' route. Picking a good line onto Loadpot Hill/High Street, then down from Grisedale Tarn to the car park at thirlmere, and how you negotiate your way on and off Place Fell are probably the only areas where different lines could come into play.
3 - Plenty of water available to fill your bottles. Food is plentiful... bits of cake, chocolate bars, savoury stuff, tea & coffee. But probably need something more substantial, it's a long way! The stocked checkpoints are at Patterdale outbound (15 miles), Thirlmere car park, Patterdale inbound (30ish miles)... you also go past Glenridding shop, and the inn at Howtown is only a couple of hundred yards off route.
It's a fantastic race. Keep an eye on entry numbers as there's around a 100 limit and it's in the Runfurther series again this year, so will probably end up full. The views are unbelieveable... particularly on a clear morning from the High Street range over towards Helvellyn.