This saturday was the race I'd been looking forward to/dreading all year - the langdale fell race. I call it a race but after the first ten minutes all thoughts of racing had left my mind and been replaced with trying not to die a wheezing snot flecked death.
The very start was ok, but extremely busy - there were nearly 400 runners running.
After the first climb at Stickle Tarn, by this point I was knackered and a little concerned there was still almost all of the race to go.
The very start was ok, but extremely busy - there were nearly 400 runners running.
After the first climb at Stickle Tarn, by this point I was knackered and a little concerned there was still almost all of the race to go.
The steep gully up Thunakar Knott, how could there possibly be this much up in the first few miles I thought. I would soon be delighted to learn that the whole race consisted of up, I'm not sure how I didn't finish several thousand feet above the start.
In between these two photos was about 8 miles of beautiful scenery which I almost completely ignored because I was concentrating on not stopping. This was harder than it sounds as I'd slowed to a pace almost indistinguisable from actually being stopped, so was in constant danger of becoming a permenant feature of the countryside (maps of the area would start including me as pile of fellrunner and people would take bearings from the top of my head).
This is the bad step on crinkle crags, it was nice having a rest waiting for the people in front to climb down. After this all that was left was a nice run down to and over Pike O Blisco (cramp again, note to self no more pre-race flapjacks). I had a gel at this point and it made me feel much better and I overtook a few. Then all there was left was downhill to Old Dungeon ghyll. I didn't care that it was a great deal of down, it was all down. Feelings of relief and released tension washed over me as I bounded down through the heather and mud.
Crossing the line I couldn't do much aside from stare into the middle distance. Alex and her Mum were there at the finish and asked how it had gone. I couldn't seem to formulate a coherent reply but managed to say "buh" or something similar, so they got the idea.
Here's some more pictures
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/alun.williams/20101011?authkey=Gv1sRgCNSAy8Wd34vERw&feat=directlink
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