Old man of Coniston

I still haven't found any results for the Coniston Fell Race (I bet TF has found them) so there is not much to report other than to say that from the word go there was a distinct lack of energy. From early on I was among the tail enders and still losing places.

The climb up Wetherlam took a totally different line to our recce and was difficult to follow as the field thinned out. The line down to the bottom of Prison Band virtually ignored the path and I used the grassy detour for the last bit of descent. Using the route up as reccied last week ground was gained on those ahead but the gap opened up again to Levers Hause.

By this time the forecast rain had arrived and I recalled the conversation with NLN that the route down the back of the Old Man might be a bit tricky in the wet. At the last summit the ground was turning white with hailstones and creating something of a dilemma. With a Clayton runner in company we opted for the alternative route as reccied. I was soon left behind as the rocks turned greasy but then found some good running to the point where the trod was obvious.

The short cuts we reccied lower down were excellent and easy to find and I ran in with half a dozen behind me in a time of 2hrs 40 mins.


My split time were (last week's times in parentheses): Wetherlam 59.16 (80.25); Swirl Howe
28.05 (35.52); OM to finish 43.09 (67.47).

PS: I will be UTUPing next Saturday starting with a warmup lap at around 7 o'clock as I now need to get in some runs where the emphasis is on distance rather than speed. If I can't keep up with the squad I'll have to part company.