Duddon - the other version.

Thanks to Gordon's generosity I got a lift up to Seathwaite for this outing.  I must admit that my confidence in completing the course was eroding as we drove up Dunnerdale, made worse by the first sight of cut-off times at registration.  Extreme self doubt had now wrapped its cold hands around my confidence and was squeezing the life out of it.  Ed's parting comment of "you'll be looking at the wrong side of 5:30" didn't do much to help.  So a realignment of strategy meant that rather than go steady all the way round I would get my head down and go as fast as I could for 3 Shires Stone within 3 hrs to at least give me some breathing space to make the other cut-off times.  As it turned out my legs were like lead at the start and I was soon as the back with 2 or 3 others, where I was to remain for the duration.

The back was where I stayed all the way up Harter getting there in 59 mins.  Nobody in sight on the descent had me self doubting even more about completing. The down hilling was abissmal but once on reasonable terrain I opened up a bit.  Mark Sammon was on hand to photograph this rather sad slow old geezer as I hit HardKnott pass before the next ascent which was OK.  Navigation was proving easy in the clear weather.

Next came the one everyone had warned me about: Little Stand, which proved to be no worse than anything else on the route.  A slight nav error took me 50m past the control, which was a quick spin round then off north for a decent bit of running, by which time I had collected a few people who were crap at navigating and followed my every word and footstep - fools!  As it turned out we did have a good solid run with no-one in front to follow and arriving at 3 Shires Stone bang on my E.T.A.

Going up to Swirlhow was a cold drag and forced me to put my waterproof on to keep the cold out. On reaching the summit I had lost all but one old chap who stuck to me like a limpet.  All the way along all I heard was what's next? Where do we go? Which is the route?  I learned later he was a proper old fell runner who has no time for maps and route learning!

From Swirlhow on to Dow where the control was not in the right place!  According to the Bland map it was supposed to be 200m west of the Summit but we had to climb back up where it was located 50m from the summit - not best pleased.  Onward to the next and a shock decent down the rock face off White Pike loosing a lot of time due to lack of descending "bottle".

Next was the heartbreaking optical illusion of Caw.  Approaching the lower ridges I was convinced the summit was just above the lower Pikes.  As I came over the ridge and saw the summit was a further 400-500m further on with a small descent in the way; the air instantly turned blue.  Luckily by then the old geezer was out of earshot behind me. Caw achieved bang on the closing time at 4:15pm.  Now just a long careful slow descent to the finish.  Strangely, picking up somebody descending even slower than me!  It was Gordon who had actually climbed part way up to chivvy me along - how's that for thoughtfulness.  I had to leave him behind while I ploughed along the flagged route trying to keep ahead of the few remaining people I had left behind earlier.

5hr 34 mins - the wrong side of 5:30 as Ed had predicted but still finishing.  I was tired all the way round so it was a bit of a slog, the upside was the return of confidence at reaching Swirlhow well within the cut off time.

A very good day in the end with the usual menu of splendid views all the way round.  A big thanks to Gordon for the lift and his encouragement.  Finally a congratulations to Andy and Julie for their fast races and EtU, JTY &T'Y for completing a long tough route.