This month's hut meet in Little Langdale unfortunately coincided with a rainy weekend, so the planned climbing went out the window and floated off down the road.
So I checked the internet and found that there was a fell race on Saturday that started almost on our doorstep. We've got a mountain marathon coming up next weekend and haven't done any running or even hill walking since the Bowland in July, so it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.
An impressive 297 runners started in heavy rain, but the cloud was above the tops and the wind non-existent so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Most people started quickly, across the river near the Fylde hut and along farm tracks to the intake wall, so we were soon both overtaken by most of the field before the first killer climb, 550m straight up up the side of Wetherlam. In an ideal world, I'd have overtaken them back again when they got tired, but unfortunately when they got tired I got even tireder. The section from Wetherlam to the Three Shires stone was actually good fun at the time – the rest had to wait for a good dose of hindsight. On the final ascent of Lingmoor Fell both legs cramped badly, so just getting to the finish was an achievement.
The winning time was a few seconds over 2 hours. Out of 288 finishers, I was 257th in a time of 3.52.12, Carmen 279th in 3.44.12.
After this, the sensible course of action was a rest day on the Sunday.
So we were up at 7 and off to Cartmel for the Cartmel Three Peaks Outing (C3PO, geddit?). There are 3 routes – a 4/5 mile family walk, a 13 mile walk/run, and a 22 mile walk/run. So naturally we went for the 22 mile option. This took in all three of the 'peaks' – How Barrow (170m), Hampsfell (222m) and Humphrey Head (53m – sic!). There was the option this year of omitting Humphrey Head as the routes both there and back were flooded, but we did it anyway, 2 feet deep on the outward leg, just a foot deep on the road on the way back.
We finished in 7 hours dead, with the emphasis being on 'dead' (though it would have been slightly quicker without a short stop to pick some rose hips).
A good little event, hopefully it'll be more popular in future years, it deserves it. The 13 mile route is possibly the best choice (it's the same as the 22 miler for the first 11 miles), as there's too much road running/walking on the longer route. On the other hand, the long route includes the fine peninsula of Humphrey Head, and also a stroll along the prom prom prom of Grange-over-Sands.
Not sure exactly what everyone else did during the weekend. On Saturday, Alan had a fine run along Crinkle Crags and Bowfell to Scafell Pike, then back via Eskdale and Mosedale. Andrew went biking, Gordon went drinking, most of the others walked over the hills to the pub in Elterwater and back. Sunday, some more walking was done, and Peter and Annie badly miscalculated their biking route and didn't have time for a cafe stop.