That's Lyth

It was one of those days that gets off to a bad start. The 6 o'clock departure to Kendal for the That's Lyth LDWA event took a turn for the worse when access north to the M6 was closed and I ended up heading south. A quick turn round at Samlesbury put me on the right course and I ended up in Kendal to find all the public toilets closed (don't ask!).

But fortunately from there the day got steadily better. You know immediately you set off what sort of a run its going to be and so it was as I set off through the freezing streets for the first climb and I found myself in company with a lot of fit younger lads and lasses.

The route takes us over the limestone escarpments to the west and south west of Kendal and incorporates 3,300 feet of climbing over a mixture of roads, tracks and fields and a few scrambles down some almost sheer limestone faces off Whitbarrow Scar.

From there we headed for Witherslack and then back into the Lyth Valley which we crossed to Cotes Corner where NLN was dispensing tea and biscuits with her usual charm. The run in headed us back onto the limestone, this time Scout Scar and then back across the old racecourse where I managed to slip on the very last bit of exposed limestone taking a heavy fall and picking up a few bruises in the process - but no injuries of a lasting nature.

As I said the day had gradually got better and as the miles ticked by the watch showed progress that had not revealed itself in training. By the finish I had managed to beat last year's run by 32 minutes in a time that was the fastest for 9 years. Total time for the 23.57 miles was 4hrs 22mins 57secs at an average of 11.09mins per mile. The fastest mile time was 8mins 56secs (twice) and the slowest (descending from Whitbarrow Scar) was 16mins 35secs.