Lakes in a day 2018

The mountain weather information service (mwis.org) has a bit of a reputation in some parts of the running community as being the Eeyore of forecasts - taking an average of 3 forecasts, as I often do in the Lakes, MWIS will always be the gloomy outlier, and it's very seldom in my experience as bad as they suggest.  I suppose the day was bound to come when it would be....

MWIS also uses language really nicely, bringing to life it's prophecies of doom in a way I quite appreciate - the two phrases that rang in my ears all day on Saturday were "incessant rain" and "extremely arduous" - as in the conditions for walking.  For once, MWIS was spot on.

There are very few races that I go back to more than once, simply because there are so many on the list (yes, I have a real list) that I want to experience.  The best compliment I can pay to the race, and to James Thurlow at OpenAdventure, the organisers, is that the only other race I've repeated at is UTMB.  It's that good.  

So it was that I was lining up, again, in Caldbeck, into an apocalyptic forecast.  Up and over High Pike, crossing the swollen Caldew where the marshalls had a very welcome hand line set up, and up Mungrisdale onto Blencathra about 15 minutes quicker than last year.  I flew down Halls Fell much quicker than I ever have before, the incomparable Shane Benzie at Running Reborn has totally transformed my downhilling.  

So far, so good - very wet but no real problems.  It was when I poked my head above the summit of Clough Head that things got really interesting.  I can confidently say the conditions on the Dodds and Helvellyn Ridge were the worst I have ever been out in. Driving rain and wind strong enough to blow me off my feet more times than I could count.  It was just very slow going, and we got absolutely battered.  I also started to feel the effects of a rather annoying rookie error - not enough fuel.  

I carried all my own fuel - Mountain Fuel Xtreme Energy and the awesome Sports Jellies, because the checkpoints only really had solid food and I know that doesn't work for me. No outside assistance is allowed in this race.  I just had under calculated, by about a third, the calories I'd need.  Doh.  This dogged me all the way to the end (another 9 hours) and cost me a lot of time.  I could run steady at my 100 mile pace, but I couldn't push when I needed to.

 Off the long descent into Ambleside, we found that the course was closed and the race suspended for 25 minutes as the team tried to find a safe way for us out of a flooded Ambleside.  Pacing around the aid station I had two choices - push on without enough calories and caffeine or eat and suffer the consequences - I went for the latter. 

When we restarted the frustration got the better of me and I raced off from the group that had been held back. The relatively poor first half meant that my A and B goals (top 10 overall and sub 12 hours) were out of the window but my plan to chase people down in the second half was rather spoilt by the fact that the first 15 runners who got through before the course was closed were 25 minutes up the road.  I'm told our times will be adjusted for the period we were held, as yet I don't know what my final time and position was, but the real point was, I ran the next 4 and a half hours alone with no one to push me, knowing I was struggling.  When I asked myself why I was there, I didn't have a compelling answer.  It's a testament to how far I have come in the last few years that I didn't quit, there's no doubt that I would have in the past.  I was definitely complacent, coming off the back of UTMB and a Bob Graham, that this was "only" a 50 miler  - it was turning into one of my toughest days yet.

There was lots of wading through flooded paths, shorts deep in places, and I just kept moving, just focusing on getting to the next visible point. Some coke at the final aid station helped a bit and I picked up in the last few miles as I almost got caught by the runner behind, which was enough to kick me into gear.

In hindsight, once the time is adjusted, I'll have gone faster than last year, in tougher, slower conditions, and finished somewhere in the teens overall (versus 28th last year), so actually, for not a great day, it wasn't too bad.  I learnt a ton about not being complacent and respecting the race.

It seems the list of people to thank gets longer every time I blog, but thanks to (in no particular order):

Hoka  for the awesome kicks

Ian Sharman for getting in me great shape once again

Shane Benzie for continuing to teach me me to teach myself how to run better

David Thunder for keeping my body in great shape and the niggles at bay

Rupert at Mountain Fuel for the best nutrition around

Trekking and Outdoors in Shere for all kinds of support and being the best local outdoor shop anyone could wish for.