This race unlike the Scottish and Welsh flagship events (Ben Nevis and Snowdon) is very low key, to such extents that to find out where to send the entry cheque to, you need to have a copy of the Fell Runners Association handbook for the organisers address!
120 runners lined up at the head of Wasdale for the short 8km out and back pull up to the summit and back via Lingmell nose and Lingmell col, gaining about 950 meters of climbing in total.
The race started abruptly with a sharp Cumbrian "right off you go then!" and we were straight into the steep banks of Lingmell gaining about 600 meters of height in little under 1.5k.
Andy was sitting well within the top ten from the off and I could see him for the duration of the climb about 50 meters in front of me.
As we crossed the col and hit the tourist path for the last 250 meters of climbing, it was then all about route choice and a sneaky line saw me catch Andy as we hit the cloud base and into the thick blanket that shrouded the tops. We hit the summit together inside the top ten with what I thought was a good enough gap behind us to stay there until the end…. Was I wrong….
We ran together and made good progress on the rocky drops back down and out of the cloud and across to Lingmell together. When we crossed the col I looked back to the cloud base and I couldn't see anyone chasing at this point.
Andy put a bit of a gap into me as we started the steep drop down Lingmell nose and at was with about 1k to go a couple of runners came past at what I would probably call "all or nothing" speed including the flying Gregor Davidson from Lochaber who was moving at such a pace he took half the scree off the hillside with him and bagged himself a few Strava Crowns off some famous locals to go with it!
A fast finish into the field saw Andy come home in 12th with a new PB of 1.03.17 and myself in 14th at 1.03.51.
The race was won by John Yells from Lochaber AC in 55.01. John had come second the weekend before at the Ben race and 15th at Snowdon in July which was plenty to take the triple crown of king of the mountains. This is a low key event made up of those runners who have competed in all the big 3 (The Ben, Scafell Pike and Snowdon) in the same year.
Andy Cox placed well in this competition having competed in the series too and claimed a very creditable 4th place in the series - big congratulations.
Results here: https://www.cfra.co.uk/results/Scafell2019.pdf
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| Andy and Marty |
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| Race route can be seen in the middle with the cloud topped pike and Lingmell on the left |
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