Ennerdale Horseshoe 22.9m/7513ft Sat 8th June

In a nutshell, it was warm, unable to sustain a fast enough pace and officially timed-out on Kirk Fell.

Lovely to see loads of familiar faces at the start. Well done to Ian, Albert and Mark's mate Chris for completing the race. For NLN and Mark for their support and gallant effort by Tony Marlow for making it to Pillar but then deciding to retire.

The stats (cut off times in brackets)

Check Point	Distance	Ascent	Time
Gt Bourne	3m	510m	57mins              (1hr:15)
Red Pike	5.4m	731m	1hr39mins        (1hr:45)
Black Beck Tarn	8.7m	975m	2hrs47mins      (2hr:45)
Green Gable	10.4m	1276m	3hrs32mins      (3hr:30)
Kirk Fell	11.6m	1453m	4hrs17mins      (4hrs)

Last one up to Gt Bourne. At Red Pike I collected a couple of Denby Dale runners (Jo and Richard) who then followed my contouring lines around High Stile, Seat and Haystacks.

I'd have quite happily turned back at Black Beck Tarn if told to do so, but was allowed to carry on. Given the visibility it seemed to good an opportunity not to miss out on a recce of the next section for future(?) reference. Again reached the control marshalls who told me I was out by a couple of mins but you can carry on if you'd like. (On the way up I'd passed a clockwise BG group, one of the support had checked I was ok for food, how nice was that!)

Jo and Richard were a fair bit further behind having taken a longer stop at the tarn and had been joined by Manhar (Calder Valley). As I dropped down the path from Windy Gap I realised that officially I'd only have 15mins to make it onto Kirk Fell and would not make it. Assuming that the others would have been told to turn back by the Green Gable marshalls I decided that I'd wait for them and head back in a group to the finish.

Greeted with the news that they were carrying on. As I'd not been up Kirk Fell and it was such a nice day, I joined them. A steady pace was maintained and we met the checkpoint marshall on his way home as we drew level with the tarn some 300m short of the summit. We were now officially timed out. We headed off to find Black Sail Pass, on reaching the gully descent we decided it would be best to attempt one at a time, I offered to go first. Reached the bottom to find the other 3 had found an alternative route and less hairy route down! Info stored again for future reference.

It was a tiring run/walk back, as a group we opted for the shorter looking route along the south edge of the Lake, in hindsight we'd have been better to stay on the track and head north round the Lake. Finally back at the Scout Camp some 7.5hrs after I left. Thanks to Jo, Richard and Manhar for dragging me back to the finish, I'd have been a lot slower on my own.

I now have to turn my attention to the next race entered - The Buttermere Horseshoe, and whether it's worth putting myself on the start line. I've included the stats for comparison.

Check Point	Distance	Ascent	Cut Off Time
Whiteside NY 170 220	2.6m	589m
Hopegill Head NY 186 222	3.6m	676m
Grasmoor NY 175 204	5.3m	933m	2hrs15mins
Whiteless Pike NY 180 190	6.9m	994m
Newlands Pass NY 193 176	8.2m	1100m	3hrs
Dale Head NY 223 153	10.9m	1655m
Honister Pass NY 225 136	12m	1656m	4hrs15mins
Innominate Tarn (E end on path) NY 198 130			5hrs
High Stile  NY 167 148			6hrs
Melbreak (South Top) NY 148 186			7hrs

The one good thing about this race is the option of a lift back on the 'Honister Rambler' from Honister Pass and Buttermere.

A couple of options I'm considering are doing the race as far as Whiteless Pike then down to Buttermere and heading part of the way up Red Pike to pick the route up to Melbreak and then to the finish. Or continuing on to Newlands and Dale Head (finding the contouring route round Robinson) and getting the Bus back from Honister. If the hills are clag bound, then I don't think it'd be worth the trip. If the weather is nice it would be a shame to miss out on the recce potential. There are still plenty of places left if any one would like to join me. I'd be aiming to beat the cut-off at Grasmoor and take it from there.

TF
(trying to look on the +ve after a DNF)