Lakeland 100
25th-27th July
2014

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Official Result

Richard Beard 34.25.16

 

Failing to learn sense from my previous two UTLD circuits in 2012/3, the 25th July found me back at Coniston for this 105 mile/22,500ft tour of the Lake District.   It was baking hot for Friday's 18.00 start from Coniston as we left to the strains of a tenor singing 'Nessun Dorma', and the clear moonless night failed to bring hoped for relief from the heat as we wended our way  from Wasdale round towards Keswick.  Just a few cooler minutes to enjoy around dawn before the furnace was stoked again with sunrise.

Just a case of taking it slowly and drinking my way towards the finish one checkpoint/hill at a time, taking the opportunity to take in the stunning views.   An unusual 'running injury' - a very sore tongue resulted from trying to drink too many cups of hot tea too quickly at checkpoints.  Five minutes sitting in the river at Pooley Bridge revived my legs, but only for ten minutes or so.

The breeze which arose in the afternoon during the ascent of Fusedale felt like  moving into a fan oven, but relief came at last Saturday evening with an unforecast deluge while heading from Troutbeck to Ambleside.  A downside was wearing a pair of Salomon Fellraiser shoes which are famously skittish on wet rock.  With the cooler conditions I was able to up my speed a bit and started to claw back time I'd lost earlier on my expected schedule.

Things continued to go well as the night progressed and I was steadily passing other competitors for the rest of the event.  A speedy last leg from Tilberthwaite to Coniston included the exhilarating descent through the quarries (possibly not the view of everybody!) and finished off with a sprint to the finish line (only 23seconds slower than the race winner for this leg!).  Then a quick shower before heading to my tent for a couple of hours kip.

If I'd been asked during the ascent to the Gatesgarth pass (when I was expecting to finish up with a time at least half an hour slower than last year) I'd have been emphatic that this was the last time, but with my subsequent revival leading to a PB by 65min and the prospect of their being room for further improvement I'm not sure I won't be sitting at the computer when the entries for 2015 open on Sept 1st!

Richard Beard