This weekend saw Jan and I make the pilgrimage to the Lake District for the 1st Lakeland 50 recce. The agenda for the weekend included a talk in Ambleside on Saturday night and the 15 mile or so run between Ambleside and Coniston on Sunday. We arrived in Coniston on Friday night at the Black Bull (thanks to Terry for the recommendation)
Saturday was spent shopping, avoiding the rain and drinking tea in Ambleside. In the midst of the downpours we did manage to find the final missing bits of our mandatory kit. We then headed off for the evening talks with the rest of the recce attendees.
Terry Gilpin (one of the two event directors) welcomed us all and gave us some interesting statistics about the event. While the Lakeland events have had pretty impressive growth year on year perhaps more interesting were the starters and finishers ratios. It turns out that only 1 in 2 finish the 100. We were in the room with many undertaking the 100 for the 1st time, that must have been a little daunting to hear.
Marc Laithwaite and Andy Mouncey were our speakers for the evening. Both had very different styles and both gave very engaging talks. Marc talked about Ultra Running and the effects it has on the body’s physiology. Andy shared what he felt was important to get right when undertaking an Ultra and then answered some questions making use of his own extensive experiences.
Sunday arrived and the recce began. We all left from outside the Lakes Runner in Ambleside, climbed up to Loughrigg and then headed off towards Chapel Stile. Full details of the 1st leg can be found here.
Leg 2 left took us from Chapel Stile to Tilberthwaite. We ran along the Cumbria Way towards Great Langdale, up Side Pike (where the poles came out) and then on past Blea Tarn. Full details of leg 2 can be found here.
The final leg from Tilberthwaite to Coniston started with a long climb that ended up being a tad troublesome for me. My calves cramped every time I started to run or lift my legs up for a large step during a climb. On the long steep descent down the side of Coniston fell I took a big tumble. Full details of leg 3 can be found here.
Over the course of the entire recce we covered 15.3 miles in 3 hours and 40 minutes. We had a total elevation gain of 2585 feet and a total elevation loss of 2619 feet. The weather was pretty grim with a mix of rain and very strong winds. In some gusts I have no doubt that the winds were gale force and at one point we even had a brief hail storm.
My personal objective for the weekend was to not be the last person to finish and I am pleased to report that this was achieved. Chatting with Jan in the car on the drive home we both agreed we need to train more for the hills. My guess is that we will make more visits to the Lakes before the next recce.
Well done to Marc, Terry and the team for hosting a great weekend.
December 5th, 2011 → 10:20 pm
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