Well they might well do, but there was no chance of seeing them on Harter Fell in all that clag! My first attempt at running solo and therefore being responsible for my own navigation EEK! Chose this event as having done the Kentmere Horseshoe recently I knew second half of route. This being said I poured over the maps, instructions, plotted the whole thing on memory map and fretted over ever getting out of Burneside.
So on the day? Stuck to the Toyota school of map reading (following the one in front) out of Burneside, however beyond Potter Tarn felt confident with the preparation and got to first checkpoint, in fact picked a better route than FSS when comparing map traces. Over to Mardale and up to Nan Bield not even I could have gone wrong, slight hiccup induced by following two blokes along the contour path under Harter Fell, but realised that they were intending to bypass summit so struck out and up to cairn and passed them on the run off to Kentmere Pike.
Up to Nan Bield Jenny (Chorley H) and I had been running together more or less but she pulled away from me on the climb to Harter where I had a few agonising bursts of cramp in my right calf. Not fully recovered from last week’s exertions then! Thank goodness I’d stuffed a Clif bar in my rucksack as an afterthought back home, I managed to swallow this and wash it down with a full bottle of water and the cramp eased off.
Following route instructions, but reluctant to get map out in appalling conditions coming off Kentmere Pike, followed another two blokes to ‘Ladder stile’. Turned out to be a different ladder stile anyway in right direction but managed to miss out Shipman’s Knotts, traversing on path below. This bit didn’t feel just right but as all four blokes were now following me, I thought it must be OK (not just me then). Got to vicinity of Mag’s How but couldn’t find the blessed place. Ran up and down village knowing I was within 100yds of it as I’d found the path away from the checkpoint! AAARGH! Then saw Jenny – she’d had a couple of mishaps coming off Shipman’s and so had been delayed. Trotted last leg together Jenny doing most of the route finding on the bridleways/tracks/footpaths, which all looked the same to me. But I did find the path by the river and did feel I knew the general direction we were going in due to the preparation and at one point corrected the wrong turn on the road. So feel reasonably good about fulfilling the objectives 7/10.
The last leg from Kentmere didn’t just prove confusing to me - FSS missed a gate and put an extra four miles on his route missing out on 2nd man home which he had been up until that point (still about an hour ahead of me).
Lessons learnt – not difficult but much more practice required. Looking forward to Navigation weekend on 25th.
Including my run down to Kentmere Church and all the way back up to Green Quarter looking for the checkpoint, I clocked 26.75miles and 5,839ft of climbing. This is one of the toughest LDWA events I’ve done, reflected in the time of just under seven hours which neither Jenny or I could believe. Getting back ‘though, only one other woman was ahead of us, so we weren’t as slow as you might think. And it wasn’t Britta (Fellrunner Editor) in fact there were a number of women who at the start I didn’t think I would see again, which I didn’t but for a different reason if you see what I mean.
Good to see EtU and TF at the start (rucksack now ordered – thanks for info TF) – how was it for you?
NLN
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