“I’ve got a spare place in the SLMM” says Dan, part way into an off road run around Ashover, which was organised by Zach. “When is it”? I replied… “1st and 2nd July” came the answer.
Mmmmm….that’s exactly 3 weeks notice to one of the toughest navigation events in the calendar (so I’m told, but I hadn’t known much about the event before this). Ok I’m not in bad shape, but post-London I’ve porked up a bit and let the training slide. BUT I haven’t got some of the minimum kit requirements, not used a compass in 30 years and (as last years Borrowdale trip confirmed) I’m not too great with off-path running in the Lakes. So what on earth was I agreeing to?
Clearly Dan can be a persuasive bugger…
Ok, so the premise is there are 6 classes of courses for teams of 2 and two classes of solo courses for nutters, each course getting progressively harder due to a combination of greater distance, greater elevation and more tricky navigation between compulsory checkpoints. The competition starts on Saturday morning and finishes on Sunday afternoon after an overnight camp. The event location is only known a week or so before the start and the route and checkpoints only known at the start of the event…so no preparation allowed!
Dan had originally signed up for the Wansfell Class (easiest) but on press-ganging me decided the harder Harter Fell class was in order. All your gear – full wet weather gear/food for 2 days + emergency/warm clothes/tent (for over night camp) and cooking stuff – had to be carried over both days. This amounted to about 8kg in a 30 litre pack in my case…Dan carried the tent so his was heavier…haha
So my intensive preparation consisted of a few runs with a light pack over the Chevin and Crich Chase and some You Tube-based navigation lessons.
We found out the start location – Kirkland on the edge of the western lakes – and so booked B&B in Whitehaven 20min down the road for a bit of luxury the night before. Mmmm interesting place Whitehaven is and luxury is only a relative concept..…anyway pre-race prep consisted of a session in Weatherspoons (beer and whiskey) and chips/curry sauce on the walk back…so business as usual.
Up to now I’d been relaxed about the whole thing but on Saturday morning was a nervous wreck. We had an early start time (8:12) and so the drive to the carpark and the 4km walk from the carpark to the start was frantic and not the best start to the event at all.
The start was on the shores of Ennerdale Water and we got off to a running start to the first checkpoint, after that it was a constant trudge up and up and up. Sometimes on paths and feint trods, but generally off path through heather, bracken and rocky terrain. The highest point amongst a series of fell summits was 2,600ft at High Stile before contouring across and descending to run along the shores of Crummock Water and finally finishing at the overnight camp nears Loweswater village. Luckily the weather was bright and breezy so the temperatures were perfect. As we had finished before 2:30pm there was a fair bit of sitting around the tent drinking warm beer (that had been pre-ordered and delivered to the camp site) and eating a luke-warm crunchy pasta meal. We also met up with Helen who was in good spirits having had a good run in the harder Carrock Fell class (Ed was still in the tent so didn’t see him!).
So after Day 1 we’d travelled 13.7 miles between 9 checkpoints and covered 3,900ft of climb. We were 62nd out of 98 starters – didn’t get lost, injured and hadn’t cried (not outwardly anyway)….so not too bad.
Day 2 dawned and was dry (if a bit drizzly at times) with some low cloud. With all the gear packed away we headed off on the course, which started straight up the slopes of Mellbreak. After traversing more bracken and heather moorland, boggy marsh, streams and summiting several fells we descended towards the finishing tape near Kirkland for a ‘sprint’ finish to the sounds of ‘Come on Belper!’ from Helen and Ed. Clearly they had been at the finish some time before us. Which was even more surprising when we found out Ed had ran the last 3 miles minus one of his shoes…what a legend!!!
Day 2 stats were 10.1 miles, 9 checkpoints and 3,100ft of climb. Finishing 45th meant we had made up a lot of time and this gave us a credible 52nd place overall out of 98 starting teams. 18 teams DNF’d or were disqualified for not getting all the checkpoints. Not bad for a couple of aging amateurs!!
Overall time was 10hrs 24min, adjusted to 10hrs 3min for being old and in the veterans class!
How did we celebrate?……pie, chips, mushy peas and gravy in a Keswick chippy…how else?
On reflection, this was so far out my comfort zone and there were many, many times during the 3 weeks build-up and during the navigation on the unforgiving terrain that I was questioning what I was doing…but in the end this was an achievement I’m very proud of. This was by far the toughest running challenge I’ve faced and has given me confidence to do more of the same. The scenery was wonderful in a corner of the Lakes which was previously unknown to me and consequently was not overrun with visitors.
Dan was great company and I relied on him a lot to make the navigation easier. This made the p*ss- taking and general abuse that he gave in return bearable. On the way back we discussed what class we’d enter next year – Wansfell for a good placing, Harter Fell to beat this years place or Carrock Fell to really test ourselves……..yeah right, dream on.
But Dan’s a persuasive bugger….