“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done, than the things I haven’t done”
– Lucille Ball
So, it’s been a while…… I’ve been running, but racing went to hell last year, I’d signed up for Ring of Steall, The Goat and then Tour De Helvellyn, but my head and heart weren’t in them and I pulled the plug on all three in the end. And so ended 2018, probably the most turbulent year of my life. 2019 has started slowly, I ran only three days in December and I gradually started to get back in the saddle in January with the pressure of the Bob Graham starting to loom large!
So what have I been up to? I started the year with a short sprint uphill to Castle Crag at the King of the Castle time trial, I hit the war monument at the top with quite the curse before jogging back on my thoroughly jellied legs. I followed up with High Cup Nick fell race in February which saw me as (unusually!) first DFR lady home, I’m not sure where I managed to pull such a good run from given it was baking hot which usually floors me! It was a truly beautiful day though and the nick itself looked phenomenal (before I had to hit it hard on the down hill I had a brief peek!). I followed the week after HCN with a big week in the fells, I covered 65 miles taking in Leg 1 of the BGR (after a shockingly bad bit of navigation on my last attempt at it that saw my legs shredded by heather!) then the following day I headed out to Garrigill to conquer the remote and mighty Cross Fell on a gorgeous 20 mile loop. The rest of the week involved a few laps of my usual Hamsterley training routes.
I’ve taken over the reigns of Durham Fell Runners to become the first female chair so I hope I can work to build the profile of fell running amongst the local female running community over the next couple of years. I’ve also started a PhD in upland peat hydrology (the easy explanation) so I’m essentially living in the hills!!
Finally, on the last weekend in March came The Lakes Mountain 42 organised by Nav4. This was somewhere between a fell race and an ultra, it was long like and ultra but runners were free to choose their own lines. I’d actually forgotten I was doing the race so had to cancel a double booked lunch and sort myself a last minute Air BnB in Penrith! I pulled all of my stuff together and marked all of the checkpoints onto my big the map the day before so it was certainly a laid back approach (a bit different to my BGR which has been in the making since roughly July!!). It was an early start for the race so I slipped out of the BnB bright and early to get to the registration (15 mins to spare, plenty!) had a chat with Andy and Martin from DFR – who came in 3rd and 4th respectively after smashing runs – about routes, including whether Place Fell was a good idea, I can confirm, definitely a bad idea! Then it was a quick shuffle to the start line and off. First up was High Street by Loadpot hill and the views were beautiful, the cloud inversion and snowy summits gave everything a distinctly alpine appearance. I rarely take photos but the view from High Street was spectacular, although as I took my camera out the cloud covered it over so I might as well have not bothered!! There was a bit of an orienteering angle as at 6 unmanned checkpoints you were required to stamp your card, and I must admit I nearly missed the one at Angle Tarn were it not for the group of runners who peeled off the path I’d definitely have gone straight ahead! It was surprising how easily the miles ticked along, the beautiful climb up Grisedale valley in the clag was a definite highlight! I’d fallen in with a small group of runners on the descent from the tarn and inspite of a few slightly dicey route choices on our way to Dunmail Raise we were soon refuelling at the Wythburn church (I had never realised that there was a church there in all these years!!). Then came the long grind up Helvellyn, I was feeling a little bit tired by the descent and I was getting a tad ticked off on the tarmac road to Patterdale which seemed to go on forever! Out of Patterdale there was a choice to go straight up Place Fell or take the slightly longer route to the summit via a gentler gradient. I decided to go straight up on the basis that in a few weeks time I’d be climbing out of Wasdale up Yewbarrow with 40 ish miles in my legs, so this would be a decent approximation of that feeling. It definitely cost me a lot of time, and was far worse than the slog up Yewbarrow even as there was no path whatsoever! It was at this point I must’ve managed to pick up a little parasitic hitcher as well which I later discovered poking out of my arm :o/ After Place Fell it was pretty much home and dry, I met a couple of great folks on the way back including a guy preparing to climb K2, which basically beats every other story I have or am likely to hear during an ultra!! If you’re reading this dude, Goodluck!
So that’s where I am at now, I’ll try not to go MIA for as long next time and I’ll write up the BGR ASAP – I actually wrote this blog a few weeks back and hadn’t got around to publishing it, so I’ll work on the BGR over the next few days!
Jess the Running Lynx 