Good Athletic Practice

It’s been a while but this weekend we are heading up the Lakes with the boys, the tent and the running shoes. L picks me up from work and I manage to get out at 4:30pm to aid with any M6 hold ups..

When we get to the Langdale Campsite it is deserted which isn’t normal. Even at the most obscure times of the year they’ll be a dozen nutters camping at least. There are a few campervans, which L is eyeing up naturally, but no tents.

This is probably because of the near gale force winds... which we certainly didn’t have back in Nottingham. No matter, we find a safe, sheltered spot and pitch the tent. Another tent does quickly join us which makes us feel a bit better. Then we head for an Old Peculiar at the Old Dungeon Ghyll.

The next morning the campsite attendant is shaking his head at us pitching at all and revealing that he had considered closing the site. I’m not sure what we’d have done had he done that.

The wind has now lessened a touch, so he has no problem with us stopping Saturday night. Which is a good job because the main reason we are here is for a race that we have run many times before, Saturday's Great Langdale Christmas Pudding 10K run which is under new management this year.

The Brathay Trust, who are based in Ambleside, have taken over the running of this race along with the Langdale Half and Full Marathon. The youth charity already organises the Windermere Marathon.

This year it is the 30th running of the event and the new organiser has invited the long time previous organiser, Rod, to start it.

Then a thousand of us, less those who have wimped out because of the high winds and cold wet weather, set out from outside the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel at 12.10 once the local bus has been let through.

This year there is a new course which I was a little worried about, and I wasn't only one. Rather than being the practically out and back run of old the route now takes us around the back of Elterwater village and back to Langdale via Baysbrown Farm which must surely have off-roads sections? Apparently not, it turns out that due to some excellent footpathing, it doesn't.

It isn’t easy though and it was at Elterwater that it started to get serious with a climb that went on far longer than I recall from when we've walked it. There was a reward for completely this part though and I could smell the drinks station probably half a km before I reached it. Yep, smells like mulled wine to me. It's not really good athletic practice to stop for such things but I wasn't going to pass up on this.

That sort of spurs you on to the finish which is in the muddy swamp that used to be the field in front of the New Dungeon Ghyll. I then rush to get some clothes on and to warm up, just as the rain starts again with poor L still out there.

The other change the organisers have made is to downsize the Christmas pudding. It is no longer one you can feed your whole family off on Christmas Day but a tiny individual one. Which for us is probably better, it might actually get eaten, and we already have one for Christmas Day from the Heanor run.

Some folk resorted to fancy dress to keep warm. 

Then we have a pleasant evening in the Sticklebarn. I'm still not overstruck with the food or the beer there but I think all four us deemed it too far to walk to the Wainwright's in Chapel Stile.

On Sunday morning we pack up camp but before heading home we go for a hearty breakfast back at the New Dungeon Ghyll before some early Christmas shopping at the legendary Co-Op in Chapel Stile.

(Sunday 9th December)

New Year Round Up

I’m also at work on the Thursday and in the evening we have the annual squash club meal, which is again held at Chakh Le India on Trent Bridge. For some reason the menu doesn’t seem adventurous as it did last year. Well, I assume they’ve changed it. The food is again good but because of the unexciting menu, not spectacular.

Then on Friday we head up to the Lakes. We have a cottage booked in Staveley, somewhere we’ve always wanted to stay, on a late deal. Finding it is the first problem. It’s dark, the directions aren’t great and there’s an inch of snow on the ground. After trying to break in to several properties we finally find the right one.

We have a great first night in the Hawkshead Brewery, where we’ve never been able to manage a session before due to having to drive, with the dogs at our feet. Things start to go a bit wrong on the Saturday. First we head up to Keswick parkrun which goes ok until I badly twist my ankle on a rock and have to hobble over half the distance much to MD’s frustration. He was running with me.

Then Doggo has a funny turn and passes out on the pavement outside the cottage, I have to carry him inside thinking that this is surely the end. Then to add to our woes MD starts vomiting everywhere.

Doggo then seems to quickly recover but we don’t know whether this is just temporary and this, along with MD’s illness, somewhat ruins our Saturday night out.

We had booked a table at the Eagle & Child, which is always hard to get into and they also have Snecklifter on the bar but we are so worried about both dogs that we end up driving the very short distance there so that we can have the unwell pair close to us in the car.

The stress destroys my appetite but enhances L’s. Must be a girl thing. To be honest we also realise that the menu isn’t that great at Eagle & Child anyway, not sure we’ll be back. It does mean there are some leftovers to tempt the dogs to eat and that does work.

Sunday is New Year’s Eve and both dogs have recovered a bit more. We take them on the park in Kendal and go buy L a new walking jacket from Ambleside. I even manage to eat a full meal when we have Sunday lunch in the Watermill at Ings, then we go back to the Hawkshead Brewery for the evening.

It’s £3 to get in which is reasonable, this I assume pays for the disco which we escape from by going upstairs. We have been brave enough to leave the dogs back at the cottage, in the car parked outside, although this is still only a short stroll away.

It’s still a slightly subdued evening and we don’t stay until midnight but I’m not sure we would have done anyway. As is tradition we spend it with Jools Holland on the TV and with the dogs.

Monday we head back down the M6 as I want to be back for the New Year’s Day match but first we stop off near Wigan so that L can do a parkrun and which has a convenient 10:30 start. Sadly after my mishap in Keswick I’m unable to join her.

(Monday 1^st January)

The Sound Of The Rain

It had started raining as we headed back from the Old Dungeon Ghyll last night and I don’t think it has stopped since. The clocks have now gone back, so we get an extra hour in the tent to savour the sound of the rain. It’s very pleasant actually.

Eventually we have to be brave and decamp, taking the tent down in the rain. Doggo isn’t keen to emerge from his comfy and dry cocoon at all and at one stage it looked as if we might have to roll him up inside it.

You wouldn’t catch him doing a runner away from his home comforts, as one dog on the campsite did on Friday evening. The dog finally reappeared at around 2am the next morning.

We take lunch in Windermere because Ambleside is full, well at least every car park is, and then we head home. I did mean to pick some bottles of the illusive Snecklifter but I even forget to do that, so it stays illusive.

I console myself with a blow out curry and couple of bottles of OP from the Co-Op.

(Sunday 28th October)

An Early Christmas Drink

We get up, pack up and head back south via a trouble free M6, for once. That is after we’re found a rather nice breakfast in Ambleside. At Daisy’s Cafe I think it was. We’ll be back.

L also splashes the cash on a rather nice puffer jacket, which I am convinced she will never take off, even in the summer but we’ll see.

Once back home L heads out with the girls she usually runs with on a Monday night, although they’re not running, simply noshing and drinking in a restaurant in Derby instead.

MD has dog training or at least he was supposed to have. When we get there the arena has no lights but the owners haven’t bothered to tell anyone so we all turn up anyway. Someone suggests as we’ve all travelled some distance to be here... yeah like from Cumbria, we might as well go to the pub for an early Christmas drink. Sound idea.

(Monday 12th December)

Hell-vellyn. The Clue's In The Name.

Today is the first of our two races, known collectively as the ‘Dirty Double’. My little treat for my girl with mileage on her mind. She needs five hundred of them before May. First up it’s the 15km Helvellyn Trail race which starts and finishes at Jenkins Field in Glenridding.

We drive there via the scenic route over the road they call ‘The Struggle’ which runs up from the back of Ambleside to the Kirkstone Inn at the top of the pass. It’s an entertaining route. L refuses to drive us back.

They hand over the race t-shirt before we start and it’s a tasteful little black number. The Helvellyn Trail race doesn’t actually, thankfully, go up Helvellyn but the t-shirt is nicely ambiguous on this. So I can pretend it did. Although it’s still sure to be tough, Hell-vellyn the clue's in the name.

There are two races. L has chosen the less serious ‘Challenge’ race at 1pm, whilst I’m in the main ‘Trail’ race at 2pm. Both nicely late in the day starts. We hit a cafe for a bacon sarnie and a cuppa before we start. Continuing our involuntary quest to break every pre-race rule in the book.

At quite a few races that I do, they like to worry you by introducing the opposition. Today is no exception as they announce current GB Marathon runner Susan Partridge and former Olympic marathoner Jon Brown, who won the race the last time it was held in 2008. The organisers don’t elaborate on why it’s not been held since. I wonder how many runners they lost three years? Too late to google it now.

I start near the back because I know that most of the other runners will do the nasty rocky bits faster than me and will just want to push past. Then they throw in a few miles of Tarmac through Glenridding and up the first climb. Terrain I excel on and I overtake a lot of them. Then, as predicted, they thunder past me when it gets difficult.

It beats me how parts of the course passed a Health and Safety inspection and let's face it, they're not good at making paths up here. They just throw a few boulders in a random pattern and be done with it. There you go, walk on that or in our case run on that. Treacherous.

I’m not complaining really, I was expecting this. It is a ‘Fell Race’ after all. ‘Fell’ as in you’ll probably fall a lot and people do. The course keeps the medics busy. I twist my old war wound of a dodgy ankle and hobble through three quarters of it.

The course runs down two valleys. First the Glenridding Valley and as we turn at the end it is with a nod to the peaks of Catstye Cam and above it the great Helvellyn him/herself. Then we pop into the Grisedale valley, with Helvellyn now on our right as we head out towards the likes of Dollywagon Pike.

Finally we’re off the rocky bridleways and the mud, on to much more substantial hard packed gravel tracks and finally another section of my beloved tarmac at the end.

As I head back in to Glenridding it is odd to see L there cheering me on but it’s very welcome. Although I’m a little gutted I didn't catch her, as I did at Cartmel last year on our last Lakeland Trails expedition. When she did assist by taking a wrong turn.

1:17:56 is an adequate time and 151th out of 366 is a more than adequate position for a non-fell runner who steps around all the rocks rather than plummeting over the top of them like the experts do.

I tuck into the Kendal Mint Cake at the finish and wait for the spot prize draw, which neither of us have any luck with.

Well done Lakeland Trails. I consider their motto ‘Inspiring Races in Beautiful Places’ as I look at a woman at the finish holding a bloody hanky to her forehead and asking someone to text a photo of her before the bleeding stops... Nutters these fell runners but yep, I’m inspired. Where’s the next ROAD race? Ah, that’s after I’ve negotiated tomorrow.

We sit in the Old Dungeon Ghyll in our stylist black Hell-vellyn t-shirts, dodging the Guy Fawkes Night displays for Doggos sake. L looks wiped out although it doesn't quell her appetite for the pre-race chilli again. Less beer all round though and an earlier night, despite a few late interruptions for fireworks and noisy neighbours.

(Saturday 5th November)

Amble

I’m struggling a bit with a tight calf at the moment, not another injury I hope but all the same I’m avoiding running on it. I do get the bike out today though, which doesn’t seem to aggravate it too much.

Later, after training MD for a bit, we head onto the park. That is after giving both dogs twenty minutes or so to recover. For some reason, Doggo who hasn’t been training, is more creased than MD.

L is out at a Jane Austen evening, whatever that is. She does explain but it’s still not clear, at least to me.

We have a long amble around the park, possibly our last before it shuts for the film making. We check out the assorted bit of equipment, tents and fencing that have appeared everywhere. None of which gives much away. I just hope they're getting lots of money for loaning the park out and that they’ll be reinvesting it in the place. Ha ha.

(Tuesday 21st June)

Great North Swim

A day off today and a drive up the M6 to Cumbria. A drive that is largely uneventful, which by M6 standards is exactly how you want it. As we drive past the Low Wood Bay Hotel and Marina near Ambleside at around 1.30pm it is clear that the Great North Swim is Blue Green Algae free and going ahead, as preparations seems to be in full swing and folks are even heading to the start already for the first two mile swim at 3pm. We pitch camp in our usual spot on the Great Langdale National Trust campsite and head back to Low Wood Bay, a very nervous looking L is off at 4pm. She’ll be fine.



There are just three waves today in the two mile event totalling around 600 swimmers, so it’s much more relaxed than it usually is on a Saturday or a Sunday when they’ll be around 3000 each day.

‘Typical’ Lake District weather of sunshine and showers with a gusting wind has been predicted. Waterproofs are recommended, for those who aren’t donning a wetsuit for a dip in the choppy looking lake.



Actually, the weather stays fine and I get to spectate in my shirt sleeves, my Great North Swim 2010 T-shirt, kindly donated to me by L. Well no one can say I didn’t do it because the whole race was cancelled so no one did. The boys and I settle into watch from the veranda of the Low Wood Bay bar.



Disappointingly there’s no ale in the main bar but I dig a bit deeper and find the local Hawkshead Bitter in the hotel lounge, that’s better. A snip at £3.90 a pint, ouch. That’s for a 3.7% ale. So I won’t be having a second.



An hour and half later, L surfaces from the water with part one of her three part weekend challenge complete but with only two miles added to her total for 90 minutes effort. She should get a bike, it would help her clock up her 500 miles in a much quicker time.

We head back to base camp and the Sticklebarn Inn, where the Snecklifter is a reasonable £3.30 a pint, which for a 5.1% ale is much better value.

(Friday 17th June)

The Room At The Top

Our room is on the top floor and not only can we hear the wind howling outside the window but we can hear the rain being thrown against it as well. Time for another hour in bed I think.

Daughter emails to say that she and her friends are having pizza for breakfast. We are appalled at the decadence of Daughter but not too appalled to tuck into our full English, courtesy of our friends who we gave the 'lesser' bedroom to. We’re really riding our luck this holiday.

Some sheep brave the weather and sit outside our window. Neither dog notices, well not yet but the whole village will know when they do. Ah, now MD has.

Eventually we go out for a walk in the elements. Leaving our base in Chapel Stile to head out along the edge of Rydal Water to Rydal itself before taking the Coffin Route to Grasmere. The Coffin Route was originally used to transport the dead from Grasmere to Ambleside for burial. Though apparently not since 1821. Then it’s around Grasmere Lake, through Grasmere itself before heading up Red Bank and back to Chapel Stile. A distance of around fourteen soggy kilometres. The rain did stop briefly on a couple of occasions but only very briefly.



At one point MD fell into a lake. Not that the lake should have been there. We were theoretically on a path and the edge of Rydal Water should have been about 20 metres away but the weather had built a huge watery extension to the lake. This caused us to shin up a rocky outcrop in order to circumnavigate it. MD lost his footing and... splash. We had to fish him out.

We head back to the cottage and attempt to dry and de-mud two very dirty canines. I consider hanging MD on the washing line to dry but the RSPCA might not approve. So a good towelling down has to do instead.

Did I mention we also have the better of the two bathrooms? So we make use of the only bath in the cottage to warm ourselves up after our soaking.

The evening follows a similar pattern to the previous night. The pub has another dark ale on the bar, from Ulverston, although the Snecklifter is still better but these things have to be tried. Then its home for another dose of bottled reindeer from the selection pack.

(Saturday 15th January)