Not being massively confident of the geography, I deliberately chose the day that MWIS said would be the nicest, to avoid cloud on the tops. That had a slight side effect, it was bloody boiling most of the day.
I parked up in Keswick at 7:20 after a 6am start, some breakfast and coffee and a short drive. I was outside Geo. Fisher's and ready to go at about 7:40. A quick photo, fiddle with the handheld gps, start the watch and off we go.
There were a number of early morning 'pre work' runners around on the run out along the beck, and a few early walkers as I climbed up Catbells. It was nice and fresh for this part of the run, and very clear.
Dropping down into the Newlands Valley I headed up towards Robinson. This was steady going after the initial steep climb up onto the ridge, before dropping down the RoW along the fence line to the right into Buttermere. This descent isn't much fun, it's steep and involves picking your way. It was very sheltered, starting to get warm and there were horse flies trying to drink my blood. I was glad to get down to the lakeside, although the road was busy-ish, and got more so as I neared the car park.
Along the lakeside path, then up the clear path before leaving it for a lightly trodden route up High Stile. Contouring under a crag on a sheep trod then up a dry-ish stream bed to a stile, then soon after joining a more distinct path. I was starting to feel the ascent a little and wondering if I really had 4000m in my legs, this soon after the Pennine Barrier (and I didn't exactly stop and rest after that either). But I was fine for the moment, so on and up to the top of High Stile then on to Red Pike. Red Pike was heaving with people (it was lunchtime) and I rolled rapidly on to the right, down the nasty scree then the rocky steps to the tarn.
Then more (and more) rocky steps down to Buttermere, and into the village. The village was also packed. I'd tentatively decided to buy some water and crisps here, but it was just too busy and I thought (wrongly) that I had plenty of water left.
The next section up Whiteless Pike I was starting to feel a bit better. I passed a woman who seemed to be making good going of the climb, but as I was running the flats I slowly pulled ahead. I saw her a couple of times later I think.
From Whiteless Pike the route goes over Hobcarton Crag, and up to Grizedale Pike. Coming back the same way, I realised that the route went up the craggy slope of Eel Crag. Arse.
Pushing my way up the scree and rocks, I think the same walker I'd passed earlier was just behind me. Once I got clear of the crag and ran on to Crag Hill I thought the worst was done. Maybe it would all be wide clear paths and slogging up hills for the rest of the day.
Oh dear no.
The descent onto Sail was OK, and the zig-zagging paths on the other side, but then came Scar Crags and Causey Pike. Clambering up and down, up and down. Causey Pike led to an outbreak of swearing until I spotted the route off. The narrow sheep trod onto Rowling End was tough to run on, just because it was narrow and overgrown.
Coming back, I initially thought the route would follow the clear path off to the right. Nope, that goes much too far down Stoneycroft Ghyll. The GPX route involved climbing halfway back up Causey Pike before taking a vague sheep trod off to the right. The descent is moderately steep heather bashing, no sign of a path that I could see. The path up the other side of the beck is clearly visible though, and as it got closer there was a dry stream bed to follow.
The last climb up to Barrow was the point where I ran out of water. I was already a very little bit dehydrated, and didn't think it mattered with only 8km to go, but it was very warm.
Running down from Barrow to the main road, then along the side of the A591 for a couple of km I was getting drier and more baked. Through Portinscale, and a kindly bloke in a van filled up my bottle with orange and water which made the remainder of the run a lot more bearable. I charged back through the square in Keswick and reached the end point just 6 minutes short of ten hours. About half an hour slower than I'd aimed for, but that was probably attributable to dehydration (when I went to the loo in Rheged a couple of hours later I realised just how dehydrated I was).
90 minutes of guzzling water, fish and chips, coffee and crisps and I was about ready to head off. Except that my thighs were completely knackered. After a very slow and gruelling drive home, including several leg stretching stops, I now have a new rule: more than 2000m of ascent and more than an hour from home, and I book a campsite.
As a long-ish route to get to know some of the local geography it was absolutely perfect, and I had a good day for it. I definitely need more Lakes running for the ascent training though.
https://www.strava.com/activities/5512368979
Kit list:
- Montane gecko VP12
- Raidlight performer top
- Omm flash 0.5 shorts
- drymax socks
- Altra King MT 2.0 running shoes
- Montane coda hat
- buffs (2)
- 2 squeezy snackers of instant mash/tartex/walnut oil mix
- 2 500ml montane water bottles
- 2l platypus
- exped drysack containing:
- Inov8 AT/C thermoshell
- montane minimus smock waterproof
- regatta waterproof trousers
- SOL emergency survival bag
- OL4 OS map (waterproof)
- silva ranger compass
- Garmin 20x handheld GPS
- Suunto Ambit 3 peak
- Samsung xcover 4 rugged phone
- Goodr sunglasses
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