Old County Tops

Never has the phrase 'been there, got the T shirt' come laden with so much meaning! Yesterday saw my first running of the Old County Tops fell race, 37 miles, over 10,000 feet of ascent and, for me and running partner Rae, 11 hours on the fells. The weather was none too kind to us either, with a sodden accumulation turning the entire run into a muddy sponge (except for the treacherously slippery rocks on the Scafell range, that is) and, for the first half, another few thousand gallons dropped on our heads. Oddly, I could already see myself tackling this brute again another day, even as we ran the last few miles back to soup, sarnies, a sit down and of course that hard won T shirt which only finishers are given.
The race links the highest peaks of the old counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, being Helvellyn, Scafell Pike and Coniston Old Man respectively. The route is an excellent one: from the start at the New Dungeon Gyll, up and over to Grasmere, Tongue Gill, Grisedale Tarn, Helvellyn, Wythburn Church, up Wythburn, round High Raise and over to Angle Tarn, on to Scafell Pike, down Rough Crag to Great Moss, over to Mosedale, and down to Cockley Beck, up Grey Friar and on and up to the Old Man, back to the Three Shires Stone on Wrynose Pass, down to Blea Tarn and back to Langdale. I was tired by the time I got to Grasmere!
Rae and I struck a good line most of the way round with only one or two route doubts but no howlers, which was lucky as the rain and clag were down for the whole morning, and parts of the afternoon were also obscured ... getting lost would have been easy. We linked up with my friend Simon for significant stages and he came with an expert guide who'd run this half a dozen times: the route off Scafell down Rough Crag would not have been the same without him for sure! With the conditions, our aim of 10 hours turned into 11 but I was not disappointed, I'm just chuffed we had such a big day out and didn't get timed out at the stingey cut off point at Cockley Beck. Certainly another good training run in the bank.

1000 miles up

I passed the 1000 mile mark for BG training at the weekend somewhere across  Langdale. The second 500 miles of this has taken twelve and a half weeks at an average 40 miles a week, much better than the first 500 which was run at roughly half that average!
Longest run: 61 miles (Fellsman)
Highest milage week: 84 miles
Highest milage month: 240 miles

Dress rehearsal

Well that was revealing: a dozen or more hours in the rain, sleet, wind, gradients and endless mud rock and challenges of legs 3 and 4. Supporting someone else's Round was a privilege and an excellent indication of how I might manage in around six weeks' time. I had answered a call for supporters on the FRA forums for a guy called Andy and said I'd do legs 3 and 4 as I was planning to do a double leg recce this weekend anyway. Andy had a bad time overnight over the Dodds and Helvellyn ridge and he arrived at Dunmail having dropped about two hours over the leg. The central section was steady but we lost a bit of time again and by Wasdale the 24 hour cut off was looking beyond reach. Undaunted, Andy decided to complete the Round anyway, so I joined him again for leg 4 before letting him finish from Honister with others. For myself, I enjoyed the double, had a bad patch of exhaustion on Scafell and Great Gable, but got through still moving well enough. Cold and tired towards the end of leg 3 after a serious battering from the weather, I had seriously considered calling off my own efforts at Wasdale but once Andy decided to carry on I thought I would be letting him down and I'm glad I set off again for leg 4. Lessons to be learned from the day: leg 2 navigation at night can be deceptively tricky and you can lose serious time getting it wrong; you are very likely to have a bad patch, so just get on with it and get over it; and being knackered after two legs on someone else's Round means you may or may not be able to do the whole Round when your time comes ... but there's only one way to find out! Lastly, barring total collapse or injury, I will complete the Round even if the time is under threat.

Alternate

Well this has been the laziest week for a very long time and a sorry excuse for a weekend long run to finish ... week's total 23 miles with a long run of 10 miles! However, BG wisdom courtesy of Barnesy says 'quiet week, busy week' is good for this stage of the game; alternate. So I'm alternating in ernest ... sofa, warmth, TV, glass of shiraz, lazily reading over my BG route notes .....