The Lakeland 100 – Yee-Haw!

I’ve done the Lakeland 100 – twice. I’ve finished it – twice. I’ve said ‘never again’ – twice. So it probably surprised no-one when I signed up for my third (and definitely final) time for 2023. After two previous trips to the Lake District, Sharon took the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ approach and signed up for the Lakeland 50. As usual there was a small Essex contingent – most notably Jackie Stretton, a seven time LL100 finisher who wasn’t going to be stopped by the fact she had broken her foot a few weeks before and it had only just healed…

Sharon doesn’t do camping. I only pretend I’ll do camping, safe in the knowledge I’m never going to have to because Sharon doesn’t. As a result we were booked into a B&B that had been ‘Holly Howe’ in the 1974 ‘Swallows and Amazons’ film. It was less than a mile from the race HQ – if you could walk on water. it was about two by road so still not too far away.

The Lakeland races have a theme each year. I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of ‘Yellowstone’ and the idea of two thousand people in cowboy hats shouting ‘yee-haw’ filled me with a kind of existential dread – or I’m just grumpy and don’t join in very well. Anyway the theme was ‘Cowboy’ and from the Facebook group it looked like everyone was very excited about it.

When we went to Race HQ to check in I was surprised to see that – apart from the volunteers, who appeared to have been given compulsory hats – only around 20% of people were in cowboy gear and most were keeping the ‘yee-haws’ under control.

Check-in consisted of kit-check, number collection and tracker fitting. As I’m being a bit grumpy it’s here I have to voice a small amount of criticism of the event. Not the check-in, that all went very smoothly, but the kit list. The Spine Races are the gold standard for a kit list and Lindley Chambers is always available to answer any queries. The Lakeland races have (at least) two different locations on the website for the kit list, and they are slightly different. To make things worse, all the emails appear to point to the less detailed list. As a result there was some confusion as to whether emergency money was a compulsory item, did the emergency food have to be 400 calories or was that advisory? I’ve been through enough kit checks that I can generally work it all out but, again from the Facebook posts, it seemed to cause some anxiety among some of the runners. I also got the impression it may have lead to a few inconsistencies among the kit checkers. The lady that checked my kit was brilliant, she recognised my waterproofs and knew they met the standard, she spotted items of kit as I was finding others and she didn’t ask for emergency money or check my calories – it would just be nice next year if there was one single fully explained kit list.

Anyway I stopped being grumpy for long enough to smile for my tracker photo.

After kit check, Sharon and I went back to our B&B for lunch. The evening start for the Lakeland 100 is unusual but I think I quite like it. It means that even the fastest runners have to go through one full night and, whilst Black Sail Pass in the dark is hugely challenging, the ‘lines of light’ are stunning to see. However the later start time creates certain ‘admin’ challenges like eating – enough but not too much – and sleeping – should I and if so for how long? Whilst returning to the B&B rather than having a tent in the event village and soaking up the atmosphere may also seem like grumpiness on my part, it had some major advantages. The B&B did lunch so we didn’t have the challenge of finding somewhere to eat in Coniston. The event village does have food stalls but some of my friends waited over an hour for pizza in the town. I had Shepherd’s Pie with baby carrots and broccoli, not my normal pre-race food but it seemed to work. I could also rest comfortably on a bed in relative peace through the afternoon and have a shower just before returning for the briefing.

There were a lot of yee-haws at the briefing, although fewer cowboy hats than I expected. From the show of hands, it looked like somewhere between a third and a half of the runners were first timers so I will excuse Marc for reusing most of the jokes from the 2022 and 2023 briefings. Uncle Terry did the serious bit, which basically told us that the route was exactly as it had been last year, close gates and don’t wake people up if you are passing their house at 3am – all good and sensible stuff. I was particularly pleased that there were no route changes as I had spent some time creating my own custom route files, including using last years track from my watch to pinpoint the checkpoints and make my watch give me the distance to each of them as I ran.

I engaged in a bit of creative queue jumping to visit the toilet (go to the ones in the corner where people haven’t quite organised themselves into a queue) and went to the start line. I was with my fellow Little Baddow Ridge Runner, Alan Anderson, at this point. Alan was a bit nervous as, whilst he has a huge amount of 100 mile experience (9 of them), he had never taken on anything quite as challenging as Lakeland 100 before. I was fairly sure he’d finish as he has the tenacity to keep going. I was hoping to finish ahead of him simply based on our Fellsman times – which was probably the best comparison for this event – but nothing can be taken for granted.

We had the traditional rendition of ‘Nessun Dorma’ and then we were off! The start of the LL100 is always quite exciting as you run past hundreds of cheering supporters as you leave Coniston.

Sharon was cheering as loudly as anyone and I gave her a wave as I passed by.

As the overarching theme of my blog is ‘The Spine Race’, it would be a good time to mention a couple of Spine people I met on the way to the first checkpoint. I saw the runner ahead of me was called ‘Mick’. As I ran past him I heard his voice and realised it wasn’t just ‘Mick’ but Mick Browne, a Spine Legend. I had briefly run with Mick on the 2022 Summer Spine to the Alston Checkpoint and more recently he had looked after Sharon and myself at the end of the Spine Sprint. Sadly he didn’t complete LL100 but it was great to have a quick chat with him on the race.

A little further on another runner asked if I had been at the Summer Spine Sprint. This was Vidur, a young guy who had been around a similar pace to us and who I had tried to help out by describing the later stages of the Spine Sprint as it was his first time on the course. We were in Nicky’s Food Bar together, after which he put his new found knowledge to good use and finished about 30 minutes ahead of us. He would finish LL100 about an hour and forty minutes behind me so I guess we are one all now! He recognised me from my running top – the colours of Little Baddow are quite distinctive!

The first leg is actually quite a nice introduction. It has a decent amount of climb but nothing too technical and the path is fairly good.

You would think that if part of the route terrified me I’d know exactly where it was but no, I think it’s between Seathwaite and Boot – I’m fairly sure it was still daylight – but I’m not sure exactly where. Basically it’s a steep rocky descent with a wire fence on the right hand side of the path. This year it was made more exciting with the addition of wetness. However I must be getting better as this year I was prepared to let go of the fence and pick the best path down, rather than attach myself to the fence with a death-grip and slip, slide and bounce to the bottom. Anyway I made it to Boot unscathed.

Last year I learned from my mistakes of the previous year and taped my blisters up at Boot. This year I had consciously tried to descend less on my heels to help avoid blisters. I’d also smothered my feet in ‘Trenchfoot Cream’ and so far all seemed to be going well. The next section would be a bit wet and boggy and I was pleased to be starting it with my feet in good shape.

Boot to Wasdale Head was a fairly unremarkable leg. It was boggy and it got dark, I think that was about it.

Wasdale Head to Buttermere was always going to be one of the more ‘exciting’ legs. It involves going up Black Sail Pass – a tricky, rock ascent, down Black Sail Pass – an even trickier rockier descent, and over Scarth Gap Pass – tricky, rocky, but not as bad as Black Sail. Despite the technical and demanding nature of Black Sail, there is always one thing that is well worth looking at, the seemingly endless line of light that marks the train of runners climbing up the pass.

The Black Sail Pass photo was taken by Jackie, who I first saw on the race as we were approaching Buttermere. I think we were both surprised that she came up from behind me, especially as she had started in front of me and I hadn’t been aware of passing her, but she had had to hop into a bush to answer a call of nature so so I guess I passed her then.

We arrived at Buttermere together. I was very happy with this as, since Jackie had seven previous finishes under her belt, I didn’t have to worry too much about navigation – apart from when we left the checkpoint and after a few metres she said ‘there’s the path, up there’ and we had a short scramble up a bank to get onto the real path. Apart from that everything went very well and we arrived at Braithwaite in the dark. I wasn’t keeping to much track of time but I was aware that I had never left Braithwaite in complete darkness before so I was obviously ahead of previous attempts.

I left Jackie at Braithwaite. This wasn’t because we had fallen out or anything, she is just a much faster runner than me but also likes to spend a little more time at the checkpoints. If I had waited for her she would have had to either leave me behind or run slower than she was capable of. I was fairly confident I would see her again on the next section.

The next section follows a road for a while before becoming quite a pleasant run – apart from it started raining, a lot. Jackie caught me up, then she stopped to put on her jacket, then, eventually, I had to admit it was raining and put mine on. This wasn’t as easy as it should have been as by this time I was very wet and the jacket decided to stick to my arms and be generally annoying.

Once again I didn’t even see the alleged shortcut at Lonscale Fell and hence had no issue at all with getting to the virtual checkpoint, designed to prevent those more observant than I from gaining an advantage. From there it was straightforward to the Blencathra Field Centre, checkpoint 6.

I left Blencathra with Jackie and the combination of early morning sun and showers rewarded us with rainbows, well a rainbow, although given a rainbow is an optical illusion and doesn’t actually exist we can have as many as we like so I’m claiming rainbows, lots of them.

Sadly life isn’t all fun and rainbows and we were soon on the the Old Coach Road. To be honest this wasn’t as bad as I imagined and Jackie soon shot off ahead of me. At the end of the Old Coach Road is the Dockray checkpoint. A mile after the dockray checkpoint is Dockray. To make up for the Old Coach Road, the section around Gowbarrow Park provides stunning views across Ullswater and is around the half way point of the race.

Sadly all good things come to an end and the final push into Dalemain seems to be a never ending road run. The marshals at the entrance to the Dalemain Estate are very nice and supportive but I know its more than a mile to go because my watch is telling me so. Jackie is by now some way ahead but I was on track to get to Dalemain before the start of the Lakeland 50 for the first time ever!

Terry and Claire from the club were in the Lake District supporting us while Terry was training for an event in a few weeks time. I arrived into Dalemain just in time to miss Sharon going into her start area. This didn’t deter Claire, who somehow found her for me.

The Lakeland 50 starts with a four mile loop around the Dalemain Estate. I reckoned it would take Sharon about an hour given the number of people in front of her (even more now she was at the back due to coming out to see me) so I told her if she wanted we could meet as she passed the marquee that was the LL100 checkpoint. I should have time to eat, sort my feet and change batteries while she did her loop.

Sharon and I had deliberately not made any plans to run together as I had no idea what time I would get to Dalemain. Without Jackie’s ‘encouragement’ I doubt I would have made it in time to see her before the start but as it happened things couldn’t have worked out better. However before then I had some admin to do.

The first thing was to get my socks off. Too my surprise my feet were pretty much intact – Trenchfoot Cream seems to be good stuff! I did have a different pair of shoes to change into – Inov8 G280, a more cushioned shoe – but I felt that as I’d got no blisters so far it would be foolish to change an apparently winning combination so I let my feet air, gave them a liberal coating of Trenchfoot Cream and clean socks, and put the Roclites back on. A lovely marshal got me some pasta and a coffee and I changed my torch battery and recharged my watch.

Again with timing that couldn’t have been planned Sharon arrived at the end of the marquee shortly after I went out to wait for her, and just as Jackie came out of the toilet. The three of us set of together and it became immediately clear that Sharon was capable of going much faster than I was. However she slowed down a little and we headed off towards Pooley Bridge.

Down by the river we had a wonderful surprise – Kate and family had set up a LBRR cheering point to support all the Ridge Runners in the LL100 and LL50!

After hugs from Kate we carried on to Howtown. Howtown can be a bit chaotic as it’s the first checkpoint on the LL50 and hence receives a lot of visitors in a very short space of time. however this year it was OK and I picked up some water and some sweets without any problems.

It is unlikely that the leg from Howtown to Mardale Head is anyone’s favourite. It has the biggest climb and is the second longest. It starts of with a lung busting climb up Fusedale, bumbles through some slippery bits over Bampton Common, before dropping down to a seemingly endless march through bracken alongside Haweswater until finally reaching the checkpoint at Mardale Head.

Bizarrely I quite like the climb up Fusedale. It isn’t technical or too steep and so it’s just a case of getting one’s head down and marching up.

This would be a good point to mention the relationship between those doing LL100 and those on LL50. Generally the LL50 people have a huge amount of respect for the LL100 runners as they are aware we have been running for around at least 18 hours before they see us. I’ve always had a great deal of support from LL50 runners and much appreciate it. Because of this when I was head down and powering up Fusedale, shouts of ‘100 runner coming through!’ went up and I was given room to continue my relentless march up the slope. Spare a thought for Sharon, trying desperately to keep up but as she was ‘only’ a 50 runner she had to find her own way round everyone – whilst trying to explain she was with me and really needed to keep up.

Once we had gone up Fusedale and over Bampton Common, we were greeted by the Brewster Support Crew again, Claire, Terry, Emily and Lucy, who had moved on from Dalemain to support us in the rain at Haweswater. This was particularly appreciated since, as I’ve already mentioned, I doubt this is anyone’s favourite leg of the race and it was good to have a bit of support at a very unexpected location. It all got a bit congested along the side of Haweswater and we ended up doing the Lakeland Conga with several dozen other runners. It lasted for what seemed like forever but there was no point trying to overtake, we would just have become very unpopular and not got anywhere anyway as the line was too long to ever get to the front of. Eventually it ended and we arrived at the Mardale Head checkpoint. I had three mugs of tomato soup, some coke, a few sandwiches and filled my bottles again.

Gatesgarth Pass is long but at least it’s fairly wide and it wasn’t too long before we were looking for the almost invisible step stile to the final path into Kentmere. The only slight catch is that when you can see the checkpoint you still have to go round the church to get to it, you can’t cut through the graveyard.

I’d never been at Kentmere in the daylight before, or soon enough to get a smoothie. This year I managed both, and couple of bowls of pasta, life was good!

The Garburn Pass to Troutbeck was fine. Last year I got quite annoyed about the fact that you have to climb up through Troutbeck just to go down again but at this point last year I was getting annoyed by almost everything. This year I had good company and was making good time and I still didn’t have any blisters. We decided against getting lost in Skelghyll Wood and my head torch didn’t fail on me this time so we arrived in Ambleside in time to be cheered on by people on their way home from their Saturday nights out. Ambleside checkpoint also had quiche. I’ve noticed my preferences for food get more savoury as an event goes on and a few slices of quiche were exactly what I wanted – and a couple of sandwiches.

Ambleside to Chapel Stile is a fairly short, relatively flat leg. I don’t remember too much about it so I guess it went OK. At Chapel Stile I had a few sandwiches but I didn’t want to get too comfortable. Looking at my previous years’ timings, I think I’d spent about 30 minutes in there each year. It’s a tempting place to stop as by then it is dark and the marquee is very inviting but I felt I didn’t want to spend too much time there given there was only 10 miles left to go.

Not long after Chapel Stile there are a couple of enormous ‘ladder’ stiles. By now my quads were completely wrecked and I found it incredibly hard to lower myself down the other side of the stiles. Apart from that things were OK until we reached Blea Moss, where there was another short conga whilst we all followed the narrow path across. Every year a very helpful gentleman marks the driest path through the last part of the moss to the road with flags and every year I get wet feet because I think I can see a better path. There is another virtual checkpoint to prevent people cutting the corner, although this would involve going right through the boggy bit so I’m not sure why anyone would want to.

A little further on, the path to Tilberthwaite starts to climb. Some light relief was supplied by someone asking if this was the last climb. I was very aware there was one more decent climb and it was starting to concern me, not the climb but the descent. I knew how much I’d struggled to get down the stiles, I knew there was some slightly technical descent to Coniston, what if I couldn’t manage it? The good news was that I was with Sharon and Jackie and I was sure – well, fairly sure anyway – that they wouldn’t abandon me up there.

Soon we were at Tilberthwaite and it was time to see if I would complete Lakeland 100 2023 or if my race would end embarrassingly stuck on a hill two miles from the end. I stopped and put my extra layer on as I didn’t want to be cold up there and I didn’t want to have to change once I was at the top. Now it was time to follow the green lights up Jacob’s Ladder and start the final leg.

The last technical challenge in an upward direction is a bit of a scramble up the path at some point – I’m not sure exactly where it is but after that its a bit of a stroll along the top. I announced I was feeling a bit Zombie-like so Jackie entertained us with an impromptu rendition of ‘Zombie’ by the Cranberries. All that was left was the technical descent I was so very worried about. Except it wasn’t at all technical really and we were most of the way down without any drama from me, ready to triumphantly jog the last mile or so into Coniston!

We managed on last Essex connection. Darren Coates, another of our Essex running friends, was volunteering at Lakeland, . As it happened he was at the finish to welcome us, take some photos for us and announce our finish, something else we couldn’t possibly have arranged.

So my third Lakeland 100 and by far the best – despite my fears about cowboy hats. Our little group of three supported each other, pulled us through our individual lows and we all achieved our goals. Jackie had been in a boot with a broken foot a few weeks before and was just very happy to have made her eighth finish. for Sharon it was he longest and hardest run so far so she was happy to finish unscathed. For me, well I got to run with a couple of my favourite people, I finished with no blisters and a PB by over three and a half hours – I was happy!

It would be nice to have a few weeks off before another race but next week I’m running the SVP100. Last year I DNFed so this year it’s just going to be a case of not trying anything heroic but just finishing!