Ali Nash reports …
It’s entirely Tim’s fault. He made me enter. It’s only 2 weeks until my target race – The Pennine Barrier (‘50ish’ miles). It’ll be a good test of kit, strategy, fuelling and on similar terrain he said. It’ll be a laugh he said……(mental note…..must unfriend Tim on facebook ??)
Friday night and we’re travelling up to Keswick, Saturday dawns and its roasting hot, ambling around the Mountain Festival site signing up to websites, multiple visits to the ‘Wines of new Zealand’ stand, some tomfoolery on the canoeing stand and getting a stack full of freebies – after all what fool doesn’t want a ‘Visit Andorra’ sweatband set or an Arnold Clarke yellow plastic poncho & sunglasses combo?
Watching the open water swimmers drag themselves through the shoreline mud (aka mostly goose poop) and then cheering the 5k and 25k trail runners as they set off like the clappers – we made a promise that neither Tim or me would set off on the 50k at that pace……
Saturday night – final kit check, lay everything out in the order it goes on (including the vaseline), set 3 alarm clocks.
Sunday morning, 5am, fuelled by the previous night’s excellent scampi (the food of champions), dressed and greased, its off on the 5 minute easy stroll across to the festival site at Crow Park…..and the realisation its 5.30am and its bloody roasting hot. The mountains in the distance sat in a tropical haze and not a breath of wind. The race briefing was thankfully very short (i.e. put lots of suncream on. Now!). The race countdown started, 1 minute left, so I go a rock up on the front row of the starting grid with the big boys (Tim sensibly stayed in mid pack) and ‘cus the official photographer was taking snaps. (Media tart moment) I think we made a promise that neither Tim or me would set off on the 50k at 5k pace…… well, I’d had a change of plan…… go out like a tw*t with the really fast lads whilst it’s still cool and avoid the worst of the days heat. Well that worked for the first 1½ miles and 1000ft, til I was on top of Walla Crag in full sun. Unfortunately the race photographers were there as well, drone filming – following me for several hundred metres, so had to put some effort in for the camera. (Media tart).
Ashness Bridge (another media tart moment) , Surprise view, and the riverside path (aka loose collection of boulders and outcrops) to Watendlath brought up the first 10k then up and over Grange fell, heading for Checkpoint 1 at Rosthwaite in Borrowdale, with the chance to refill with another litre of water/some red sport drink to get me to Honister Pass. Given the heat, the plan was to get at least a litre down between checkpoints, given I was estimating to be running at 30mpg (ie 150ml of sweat per mile) at the same time slurping in a gel.
Up Borrowdale was lovely – in the shade of the oakwoods with cuckoos cuckooing and green woodpeckers yaffling. The pleasure before the pain (part 1)…all too soon and it’s the biggy, climbing up Honister Pass to the slate mine and checkpoint 2 (banana and another litre of some red). The 1500ft climb continued straight up onto the shoulder of Fleetwith Pike (media tart moment), with astounding views of Great Gable and Haystacks to the west. Coming off Fleetwith, the path may drop 1000ft down, but given that’s in the space of under ½ mile you get an idea how steep it really is….its slower than going up. After not dying on the descent, Buttermere and Crummack water shimmered away in front – the next part of the race through to mile 20ish and checkpoint 3. Wham! The heat on this section was incredible, with waves of hot air descending off the fell and sun reflecting off the lake and not a breeze or any shade to be had. Talking with runners afterwards – this was the section that really started to soften you up big time. Checkpoint 3 – another litre of red stuff and fresh orange wedges (heaven!!) before heading off towards Rannerdale . At this point I could see Tim on the opposite side of the lake, running through hell and getting properly softened up! Checkpoint 4 at the bottom of Rannerdale – another litre of red please! They did mention that there was a deep pool in Mill Beck coming up. I was straight in up to my waist and plunged head in, ready for the 1500ft climb up to the col below the mountains of Sail and Crag Hill at 26 miles – that’s called putting the boot in!
At this point with the heat and climb the last thing anyone needed was for horsefly swarms. After swatting, flapping, swiping, and thwacking to no effect, I resorted to giving them a stern talking to. ‘Look you worthless f*****s I need all this blood, it’s inside me for a good reason’. I may have become delirious.
Checkpoint 5 marshall….‘what do you need?’ ‘Ali waves arm in the general direction of drinks table whilst staggering sideways’ as it turned out it was another litre of red.
Half a mile of tarmac over to Little Town at the foot of Catbells felt so nice. At least from here you can see Dewentwater, Portinscale and Keswick in the distance, and just 2 parkruns left….. pick up the pace and try and keep up with the tail enders of the 10k run, as the two races converged as I rounded Catbells, over the river, into Keswick, come on come on keep going, I can hear the announcer at the finish line – there’s Louise!! 100 yards left! (uphill!) and finish line in just over 6 hours, 14th overall and 3rd V45 (finish line media tart moment) before my last litre of red for the day.
Ali Nash 6:04:53
Tim Forster 6:58:42
What a day – superbly organised, marshalled and flagged. Get out there and go fell running. Other shorter races are available.