Well I'd heard all sorts of horror stories about this race - the amount of climb, the tough descents, rocky under foot - and it certainly lived up to the feedback I'd received. Even with Kendal mint cake at the finish, if you've not tried it then the only way I can describe this Cumbrian delicacy is 'minty tasting shit.'
24 kilometres of tough racing, gruelling climbs (over 1200m in total) and mentally tough descents. I'd decided to start off quickly, run the full way up the Garburn Pass and see what I had left after that - my goal was to finish in the top 50 and also try and beat Brian Holland and Tony Lee (I've never beaten Tony in anything more than 5 miles before) - teh start was fine, even had Bashir Hussein in sight until 5km, felt strong going up the Garburn pass and even after 9 miles going down the rocky descent I was able to knock out sub 7min miles. Fuel wise I took one gel about 9 miles and should have maybe had it 10 mins earlier; I ran a bad mile at 11 miles and suspect this is when Tony got sight of me and started to wind me in, eventually passing me with about 2 miles to go.
I finished in 2h:02m (52nd), just a minute behind Tony but nearly 15mins ahead of Brian who was a little disappointed with his race.
The races are perfectly directed, managed and delivered by Graham and Claire at Lakeland Trails with admirable support by a team too numerous to mention but they know who they are !
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