It was my annual pilgrimage up to the Lakes last weekend for the Old County Tops fell race. The premise of this is to visit the highest peaks of 3 old counties - West Moreland, Lancashire and Cumberland. The race is 37 miles long (if you take the right route!) with approximately 10000 feet of climbing (also route dependant).
This year, I was partnered up with Kieran Davis, a fellow member from Erewash Valley Running Club, and quite excited about the prospect of cracking 9 hours, as he is a far better climber than me and would keep the pressure on. Forecast was typical Lakes weather - rain and wind - so my coat was on from the start. Had a brief chat to Ben Abdelnoor and Paul Tierney at the start who had partnered up (the race is done in pairs) and would be the eventual winners.
Kit check and registration all went very smoothly, then it was just hanging around for the very brief briefing, then the race started at 8.05am. The start is just across the road from the Old Dungeon Ghyll hotel, and follows a bridlepath towards Chapel Stile, before heading up over a hill into Grasmere. Madeitto the top of the hill in second place, just behind the eventual winners, feeling great. From there into Grasmere is an awesome runnable descent, which this year we took a bit easy, making it down in 3rd.
Nice steady trot through Grasmere to the A591, then along there to the turn-off to go up Helvellyn, the first of the Tops. The first part of the climb is mostly runnable, with 2 short sharp climbs just before Grisedale Tarn. After that comes a steep grunt up Dollywagon on the the tops, with an undulating run to Helvellyn itself. Made it there in 1:50, not sure of the position. From there it's a quad-busting descent (the very first year I did this, I was feeling awesome and charged off the top like a complete loony. Quads were ruined, numb, and I struggled massively for the rest of the race. Didn't help that it was about a thousand degrees.) down to Wythburn car park. Very steady down to the bottom and into the second checkpoint, quick cup of tea and some pretty epic fruitcake and we were off again, 12th place and only 17 minutes behind the leader.
From Wythburn to Angle Tarn is tough going. There is some climb, some bog, a bit more bog, and then some deep bog. This is one of the places where you can get bogged (sorry) down and lose a lot of time. We kept a steady pace up through here, but had to hold back a bit as Kieran was on the verge of cramp. Him getting stuck waist deep in a bog, though, was the best bit. Had to pull him out. Quality. Next up is Flour Ghyll. Bit of route choice here - either straight over High Raise, or around. We went around, and for the first time ever went a little bit low. Not disastrous in any way, bit slightly annoying. \then up to Angle Tarn. Halfway in distance, but not in time. About 4 hours in here.
From Angle Tarn, there is a climb up what feels like a million steps to Esk Hause, then along to Scafell Pike. This wouldn't be too bad, but it is extremely rocky, and slippy. Not much to report from here really, except on the final grunt up to Scafell Pike, loads of runners came back past us, taking the soft option off instead of the direct line. We went down the direct line, 4th time I have done it, and the 4th different route down. Really must recce it one day, but this one was definitely the best so far. Still bloody steep though.
After shaking all of the stones out of my shoes, off across Great Moss (boggy) to Mosedale. It's a cracking run down Mosedale to Cockley Beck, or it would be if I had remembered to eat! Bonked out and had to walk and shove in a gel, then catch back up to Kieran who hadn't even noticed I wasn't there. Cheers mate.
Cockley Beck checkpoint is the best checkpoint ever. Cup if tea, egg sandwich, cheese and pickle sandwich, some more epic fruitcake, a refill of my water bottle (only half empty) and a banana for later, and we were off. Up towards Grey Friar. Yay. It's a soul-destroying climb that just goes on. Forever. We got up there, somehow, then its a long slog to Coniston Old Man, pretty sure it gets further every year. Mostly runnable and undulating, covered in clag with a couple of sneaky options to go wrong. Our route choice was pretty spot on, but only because I have done every possible wrong route!
From Coniston, it's back the way we came, then keeping north and down Wet Side Edge to Three Shire Stones. Last checkpoint, then down the road towards Blea Moss. It was going down here we noticed that the pair behind us, one of them looked 70, and was catching. This made Kieran overcome his fear of cramp,and we got a bit of a move on down here, popped some extra gels through Blea Moss (boggy) and then hammered (at least, it felt like we did) past Blea Tarn, catching the pair in front (first mixed pair). We kept pushing the pace right until the end.
Ended up 13th (I have a thing for coming 13th) in 8:50ish (will confirm when results are out), so pretty stoked about that. If I can improve my uphill speed, and Kieran his downhill speed, I reckon next year we could do alright.
Has to be my favourite long fell race, extremely well organised with the most awesome marshals (out in some pretty horrendous weather) and checkpoint food ever. Cheers Achill-Ratti.
