So, school holidays. The first weekend of which, we went back up to the Lake District. Had the best drive up there ever, and discovered the fantastic Tebay services. Great place. Anyways, the reason we had such a good run was that it was Sunday,and we left early. Why leave early? The Helvellyn and the Dodds fell race kicked off at 12, and we were banking on a 4 hour trip up. It took just over 3, so, we had a bit of time sitting in the sun and getting ready for the race. Looks a bit of a beast on paper, 15m and 4300ft of climb.
After getting everything sorted and myself ready and kit-checked and waiting in the starting pen, I noticed my legs felt a bit "off", feeling a bit flat. First up is a flattish run out to the road, along the road, through a gently inclining boggy section, then straight up the side (literally) of Clough Head. Went up there better than I usually climb, and felt alright up the top. Unfortunately, my legs didn't have anything much on the flats, and I was pretty pathetic on the downs, usually the strongest part of my race. It's surprisingly lumpy along the top from this end, I was expecting something like it is from the other end.
It's an out and back race, so heading towards Helvellyn, and popping up to the checkpoints on each of the Dodds, slowly shedding places on the flats and downs, and gaining a couple every now and again on the ups. Completely the opposite of how my race usually goes. Hit the top checkpoint, then the long plod back. No-one passed me on the way back to Clough Head, but I managed to reel a few in - including one bloke who was bright enough not to take any food with him, took pity on him and threw him a gel. Then, sadly, on the steep charge down the side of Clough Head, which I was looking forward to as I usually pick up loads of places, my legs failed me and I had to mince down them, with people closing on me from behind. Not normal at all. Then onto the boggy bit, down the road, past the bloke from Isle of Man, and into the finish in 28th place, in 2:52. Winner was Carl Bell in 2:09ish.
Food afterwards was the best spread I have come across in a fell race, and I've been to a few. Amazing. Mel had taken the girls into Keswick and discovered the park and the ice-cream shop, so they were happy, even if I was a bit depressed.
Monday. In complete contrast to Sunday, the weather on Monday was a bit grim. Absolutely tipping it down, and windy. Not too cold though. My plan was to run from Buttermere to Dalemain, to check out that part of the Lakeland 100 course. Mel was taking the girls to the wildlife park by Bassenthwaite. I drove us to Buttermere, over Honister Pass (last time I went over here was way back in 2008, my first long distance event, the A-class OMM. It was rained off, and we were faced with a long trudge over here back to base camp. Fortunately, a bus rolled up, and I had some money. We were bussed up and over, past past loads of miserable looking OMMers. Fantastic) with Mel cursing me most of the way over. Jumped out at Buttermere and was promptly soaked. Stood round for a few minutes waiting for my Garmin to find some satellites, got saturated, gave up and just started running, hoping it would connect.
Really nice run up to Sail Pass, mostly nicely runnable until the last grunt up to the pass. It was here I started really enjoying myself, having a bit of a laugh and feeling about a million times better than the previous day. Nearly blown over the pass the wind was that strong, then a nice run down to Barrow Door. My only bit of route confusion happened here, with which footpath to take off the main path. Turned out the both led to the same place anyway. Another nice run down into Braithwaite, into where the checkpoint is at the Church. 1:14, and felt easy - hopefully the same pace on race day! From there, it's along the A66 to keswick, a fiddle through the up and around the side of Latrigg, picking up the footpath to Skiddaw Ho. There is a compulsory checkpoint along here, where the path crosses to the other side of the valley. Found where it should be, than back down to the Blencathra Centre. 1:26 for that section, still feeling really good and taking it easy. Then it was down to the old disused railway, and along there until the old coach road, with the next checkpoint at the end of it.
Well, it would have been if I didn't start getting a little bored at that point. Just before I was to leave the old railway, I decided enough was enough, got the phone out and called Mel, saying I was coming back. A bit of an emergency happened over her end (toilet for the oldest), and ensuing no-signal meant we played phone tag until I hit Keswick, then we arrange to meet up back at the YHA. Just beat them back. Cracking day out, despite the weather, and a fantastic test out to see how the Hoka's would handle the terrain - they were great, no slips even on the wet grassy bits. I reckon traction has a lot more to do with technique and foot placement than what is actually on your feet (Mudclaws excluded).
Also, target time for the L100 looking good!
