16 Dallam runners 1COLT 3 Friends 3 Settle runners (joined us at 5miles) and 4 Dogs
As we parked on the New Road car park there was just the Warton 4 and dogs, we thought ok its January but as we walk up to the Scout Hut....... Wow 16 runners all bagged up and ready to run the 23 mile course. We crossed town towards the golf course picking up an advanced party, the first few miles were tricky with a few patches of ice still around the main paths but nothing much to bother us. The first climb was steady re-grouping only once or twice but we lost one of our group pretty early, I didn't get to chat to him he left so early seems no one told him we were doing a 23 miles trail run, hope to see him again soon, we pressed on trimming the corners here and there. towards Underbarrow, where we picked up 3 Settle ladies who were out reccing the race route so they tagged along as they were unsure of the route, it turned out they were only going to do half the route but they had left a car at the wrong spot so they carried on with us for the rest of the day well done girls, our first stop arrived and our fantastic road support team of Adele and Rebecca were waiting with drinks.
After our short break we headed down a narrow farm track covered in ice but this time we had a faller Steve J fresh back from a recent Mountain trek up Aconcagua, at 22,841ft this is the highest mountain outside of Asia, he did well to keep his sore fingers from getting a bash, at the summit of Whittbarrow Helen W phoned ahead for her lift home, we had 1 and a half hours to get to The Gilpin Bridge Hotel, we left Whittbarrow with its stunning views of the snow capped Lakes behind us to start the second half of our route. One or two were starting to slow, we arrived at Witherslack to meet our road support team again, we only stopped briefly as Martin was waiting at the Gilpin for us. Witherslack was the point of our first retirement of the day suffering from an old knee problem. We carried on towards Whittbarrow woods, 3 runners in marathon training taking to the easy flat road section to The Gilpin, everyone else going through the woods.The Gilpin was our lunch stop, our road support were waiting with loads of supplies in the form of tea and flapjack this was well timed, I filled up on home made mushroom soup, tea, flapjack and a caffeine drink hitting the empty spot perfectly, with everyone filled up a re-count was needed as we had more retirements 3 leaving early to Grange and one truck driver recovering from a recent cold.
Levens flats was our next task ,they are so boring dead flat and never ending but they did in the end, we were about 19 miles in and our group was starting to spread out, Brigsteer Church arrived and our last climb in sight, Scout Scar, we soon past the pile of stones and the lead group was down to 8. We dropped onto the old Race course, then the final mile of road. The 3 settle girls taking a few pictures before they left us, saying they had enjoyed the day. We arrived back at the Scout Hut happy with the day everyone coming in within 15 minutes or so of the lead group some catching a lift from the top of town,
A great day out! Well done to everyone and thank you to our road support as well.
Totals 23.4miles 3500ft ascent 4.5mph ave speed
No comments:
Post a Comment