Helvellyn & the Dodds

This was marked down as the pre-Duddon warm up on my calendar. It was also going to help decide the all too critical footwear choice for the following week.

My Salomon Fellraisers had seen me through some 5hr + runs on the GL3day with out too many issues. My preferred 'racing' shoe though is my mudclaws, but the current pair are fairly new and the longest time on my feet has been just under 3hrs, when they were starting to give me a bit of gyp towards the end of the run. So given that Duddon could be anything between 5-6hrs (likely to be closer to 6!) then a 'tester' event was required.

My previous attempt at this race was in 2012 when I'd taken 4:15. So ideal for the job. The forecast for the day was for cloud (above summits) and a breeze from the NW. Great for the going out bit but not so good for the coming back!

Nice to see TYJ looking fresh from his BG success and ready to attack the route at a slightly faster pace than was required a couple of weeks before. My memory of the route up Clough Head had long faded, forgetting how long the stretch of Tarmac was but its steep slope did allow me to pass a few who'd stopped to take in the view.

I cleared the 2hr cut-off at the cp on Raise with 15mins to spare which was about 10mins up on 2012 (squeaked through last time) but still had the headwind to deal with on the return.

As it happens I didn't loose any further time and came in just 47secs over 4hrs. I was last to reach the fell on the way out so gained 11 places and nearly 45mins on the last finisher by the end. Going to have to run it a lot quicker in future if I want to share in any post-race food though.

The mudclaws? Well not too bad, starting to ache a bit on the last climb back up Clough Head, was grateful for the grip down the other side but don't think they're quite ready just yet for anything much longer. So I think I'll sacrifice a bit of grip for a bit of comfort next week.

TF