When I found out Katie was doing a 42 mile race in the English Lake District I asked her to tell me how she got on. As a mum to a young daughter I think she must be swapping notes with Jasmin Paris!! Here's her fab report:
As promised, since I survived I thought I’d send you a report! It’s a bit long but then so was the race!
At some point earlier this year I decided that the only way, post-baby, to get back into ultrarunning was to enter races with lots of elevation. In a piece of infallible logic, I figured really hilly races were more about walking than running, and how hard can walking be?
Fast forward to January and I’m realising that if I’m going to ‘run’ a 50 mile race in May, I’ll need a warm up event sometime in March. A quick internet search brought up the Lakes Mountain 42... 42 miles seemed a bit far, but I’d have done some training by the end of March right?
Yeh. Hmm. More on that later.
The Lakes42 is a self navigated race, covering 42ish miles, with 10,000ish feet, heading over High Street and Helvellyn in the Lake District. I rocked up in Askham on Friday night with my little and not so little supporters and headed into register. Everyone looked serious. Very serious. There was a lot of down. And maps. And no beer drinking. Hmm again. Grateful to not be sleeping on the community hall floor, I headed back to our van to await the 4.45am alarm.
Morning dawned with bright blue skies and a gentle frost, and I felt a lot more positive as I headed down to the start, which was typically understated. We gathered round a tree, the organiser whispered ‘off you go then’, and that was us, excitedly powering up the first hill out of Askham and onto the fell.
I got about 200m before the voice of reason kicked in, pointing out that this was an ultra, not a hill race, and I wasn’t fit, so what on earth was I doing running up a hill? I dropped back to a power walk, a good decision given I’d be climbing for the next 2 hours!
Out on the fell, the self navigation aspect came into play as the pack split in two taking different lines to gain the Roman road that would lead us to the first checkpoint on Loadpot Hill. I stuck with the route I’d planned in my head, which was flatter, but as it turned out boggier than the alternative and so probably a few minutes slower. It became a bit of a theme for the day - without ever getting lost, if there was a wrong line to take that’s where you’d find me!
No whinging to be done though, because as we climbed and climbed, the views were stunning. I was starting to really enjoy myself!
The summit of High Street was in the clag, but at least now it was time for some descending! A beautiful path led us down past Angle Tarn and into Patterdale. A twisted ankle two weeks prior and a lack of running technical trails this year showed in some slow descending, but it wasn’t long before I was at Side Farm checkpoint, grabbing a cup of tea and heading out to climb up to Grisedale Tarn.
It’s a long, steady slog up to the Tarn, so I got out my poles, stuck my head down and just focused on making forward progress. The top was thick pea soup, and it was hard to find the path out the other side to head down to Dunmail Raise. I even met one runner who’d run the whole way round the tarn without realising and wondered why I was going the opposite way to him...
The next descent was pretty tough, my ankles and knees were stiff, I fell twice, bashing my hand quite badly, and had to let a few people past which was frustrating. I was a bit grumpy by the time I got to the checkpoint, and that probably set the tone for the next few miles which were a huge climb up onto Helvellyn and then White Side, both shrouded in fog at the top. I could tell I wasn’t as fit as I’d like, but I knew I had plenty of experience to draw on, so I kept myself entertained with songs, counting steps and trying to catch up with people in front and eventually the climbing was done and I found the unmanned dibber at White Side summit. I was a bit shaky at this point and me and another runner had to help each other with the punching!
I was quite worried about the descending, as my knees and ankles were really stiff and I wasn’t sure I could get running again. I started slowly and warmed up as came down the hill, and was running quite well by the time I came down into Glenridding and then along the road to Patterdale to go back to the Side End checkpoint.
I got a lovely boost here as Craig, Iona and Craig’s parents were all waiting to give me the hugs and encouragement I needed for the final 10 mile push back to Askham.
I’d recced this part, so I knew there was another tough climb, but at this point I was starting to catch up with people I’d lost sight of on the technical descent earlier and this gave me a huge boost. Before long we were on the final climb out of Howtown, in the afternoon sun. This is a real happy place of mine, so I stuck on some power tunes and ran as much as possible back onto Askham fell. I was getting a real boost from being able to run well at this point, and knew it could keep pushing I could get back in under 11 hours. Before I knew it, I was flying down the last hill, back to the community centre and some very welcome hugs and cups of tea.
10:47, 91st I think? I’m delighted that I have enough experience and mental strength to get it done even if the legs weren’t quite ready! I clocked 42.6miles and 10,000ft of ascent. It’s a tough, beautiful race and definitely a good training run for anyone planning a long, hilly race.
