We got to Consiton a little later than planned thanks to a screw in one of my car tyres and called the pre arranged Mr Taxi driver to pick us up and drop us at our start point in Kentmere. We started running at around 1045 in the torrential rain and climbed up and over to Ambleside. This was our first introduction to what we'd actually bitten off. We knew it would be hilly (obviously) but our plan was that we'd walk up the steep hills and run the down hills and flats. What we didn't know was how rocky the paths would be, which shouldn't change the uphill speed but does mean that you pretty much come down the other side at not much quicker than walking speed for fear of breaking your ankle/neck, especially if wet with studded trail shoes on! The other observation is that ther isn't much flat. it's mostly up or down.
Frank & Gaz making hard work of a little hill :o)
A rocky downhill path, typical of those across most of route
Pause for a quick product review from Frank:
Karrimor Trail shoes, bought from Sports Direct for £35 and a bargain at half price:
"Probably a perfectly good item for use in the dry. In the wet, however, these trainers have the potential to perform as well as Bambi on ice!" Thankfully Frank bounces quite well!
By the time we got to Ambleside, around 1215, we were ready for a fuel stop and dived into the nearest cafe, avoiding the fifth or sixth downpour of the day (the sun did come out later, long enough to give me a red neck - a typical 'can't make your mind up' British summers day). Pints of tea and jam crumpets were the prefered choice of champions! Half an hour later and a quick pint in the Queens (wishful thinking!) we were off again, up and over, in the direction of Skelwith Bridge.
A cup of tea and a slice of cake - proper job!
No pub stop = sad faces
From Skelwith Bridge it was the very indirect route through to Coniston via the middle of nowhere. See map below. It tooks us about 6hrs 40 mins and as such we are looking at a predicted full course time of approximately 16 hours (give or take an hour or 4).
On the way up to
the top of the world
Here's a link to the route of the full 50 miles, which is split over 2
seperate pages for some reason? http://goo.gl/maps/sjsm
So what did we learn:
* Most of our kit (with the exception of Franks trainers) is good for the job
* We are of an acceptable level fitness and none of us had too many niggles at the finish
* It's going to be hard
* We're all going to really ache the day after
* We're not going to sign up for the 100 mile event next year - definately!
* The next 4 weeks of training is going to focus on running up & down from Pots and Pans (very steep hill in Saddleworth)
* Gaz is pretty good at map reading
* & it's going to be hard - again!
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Cheers
Mick
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