Elvet Striders

32nd Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon, Wet Sleddale, 3rd July

24 miles as the crow flies, but we didn't...

Shaun Roberts

Goodness me - where to start. Well, you can't beat a good cliche, so how about: "It was a game of two halves"? A very warm sunny Saturday, followed by howling wind and rain on the Sunday. Which, to be fair, was pretty much what was forecast, but driving horizontal sleety rain on the top of Harter Fell was still a bit of a shock considering it was the third of July.

There's a lot of information here on the website about mountain marathons, but for those unfamiliar, the basic deal is for teams of two to navigate from the event start to a midway campsite on the Saturday, then back again on the Sunday, via two different sets of checkpoints, each supplied at the last minute. Oh, and you have to carry everything you need on your back - tent, food, clothes, waterproofs - except, helpfully in the case of the SLMM, beer and milk. This was my first attempt at one of these, and I was glad to be going along with Nigel, who'd done three. I found it quite difficult, in packing, to try and get the right balance between comfort and risk. For every single item you're tempted to put in your pack, you have to think: "Can I do without this?" If you put a lot in, you'll end up safer, and more comfy - but you're not going to move very fast. If you head for the riskier end of the range, you might end up a bit hungry / thirsty / cold ... but you'll do more actual running.

On the Saturday, with very warm weather and apparently dry hills, the issue of water was on everyone's mind - Nigel decided on two litres, and I decided to go for about 1.2l, or two medium bottles, hoping to be able to pick some more up from streams or else just end up a bit dehydrated. I had an interesting chat with two elite competitors just before the start. Worryingly, they said that in the sun each person would need to drink about four litres each! So how much were they taking, I asked? "None" came the rather surprising reply. "You don't want slowing down going up that first hill, do you?" They were relying on collecting water all day, dry hills or not ...

We had a good start, quickly picking up the first checkpoint, going slightly adrift on the second, but recovering pretty quickly, and then all our navigational decisions seemed to be right on the money - our route was close to the optimal one put on display later at the campsite, which was gratifying. Over the weekend, we seemed to use every navigational trick in the book - bearings, aiming-off, handrails, contouring - all sorts. I hadn't done any of this stuff since going on an FRA navigation course a couple of year's back, which I can thoroughly recommend and which was a damned good crack. Despite not going wrong though, we weren't covering the ground with any degree of speed - it was pretty hot at times, and the packs seemed to weigh us down - so we didn't break any records for the day. Crucially, though, we made the campsite in plenty of time to pick up some milk and a couple of beers each - they ran out mid-afternoon.

Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon

Gorgeous spot for the campsite at the head of Longsleddale, east of Kentmere Pike. An absolute delight to just spread out, relax in the sun, and work our way through the food supplies we'd lugged around the hills all day. The menu for the evening meal:

... washed down with a cool Stella Artois. Not too bad, eh? Thanks for organising the catering Nigel!

A predictably sleep-free night snuggled up in the tent (thanks Graham!), then we arose to find that the rain hadn't yet arrived, so breakfast and packing up were pretty civilised. We marked up the maps, to show that we were to start the day with an ascent straight up the side of Kentmere Pike, or about 1700 feet of climb. As we remarked as we climbed hand over hand up the tussocky track, at least we'd get most of the vertical stuff out of the way early on. Emerging on the ridge, though, the rain came in, and by nine o'clock it was really chucking it down, or rather chucking it sideways. Would have preferred to have had my waterproof trousers on along here rather than shorts, but there was no shelter of any sort, so after collecting the first two checkpoints, we just legged it all the way along the ridge, over Harter Fell, and down to Gatescarth Pass as fast as we could to keep warm and get down out of the wind. The running seemed much easier today, as the packs felt a lot lighter.

We were glad to have all this wet stuff coming at us from behind, now, as we started to head east - again no major navigational problems. In fact, after joining a small gaggle of other pairs, we gained ten minutes on the lot of them by a cunning ruse - i.e. taking a "short cut" over a hill directly to the checkpoint. As we walked down a stream we saw the group approaching ...

Me: "We've got ten seconds to think of something witty to say to them."
Nigel: "How about: 'It's not up here'."
Me: "Excellent!"

So as the lead woman approached, of say Jan's age, but without the sense of humour ...

Woman: "Is it up here?"
Me: "What?"
Woman: "The checkpoint?"
Me: "Checkpoint? Oh there's no checkpoint up here ..."
Woman: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" ... she wailed horribly, as if she'd removed a finger whilst chopping onions.

After a moment I cheered the poor woman up by telling her she was still on course, but this exchange had me laughing uncontrollably for a good five minutes.

Bog, bog, and more bog for the rest of the course (where had all the "very dry hills" gone?), and we were more than delighted to get back to the start for a novel combination of veg stew, coleslaw and pitta bread. Runners kept on coming in out of the wind and rain as we ate - the marquee felt like it was going to take off at one stage...

A bloody good crack!

Postscript from the organisers:

Good morning to you all, and just like to inform you that the Marquee survived the Summer Breeze, and casual shower on Sunday. We did however have to anchor the Marquee to the ground with a Camper Van and Land Rover, the metal pegs 1" diameter and 2ft long were just being pulled out of the ground. We had everyone safe, and off the hill by 5.00pm on Sunday, a big congratulations to you the competitors for your navigation and common sense which helped achieve this.

Results

Carrock Fell

98 starters, 83 finishers.