by Joanne Pickering

Do you ever get that feeling of wanting to up your game and push yourself further? Of course you do, you are an orienteer! Well this was the case with my 2015 challenge.

Last year I completed my first ever marathon distance (an off-road trail marathon with 1200m ascent) where I had agonising knee pain for the last 12 miles. I admitted the distance was tough so I laughed to myself when I decided that I wanted to do an ultra marathon distance! But having a tendency of throwing myself in the deep end, a normal ultra marathon just wouldn’t do. How about ‘Lakes in a Day’? This was a point to point navigational course the length of the Lake District, from North to South, with over 4000 metres of climb within a 24 hour time limit!! Yes that was the one! Luckily 2 of my colleagues, who were crazy enough to sign up to the challenge as well, gave me the motivation to train with them at lunchtimes and complete the course as a three.

So the training began and I took to the hills of the Brecons for most of my long training runs. This included the Rogue Runs Long O weekend for some navigational practice across the fells. The big day soon came about and I knew I definitely hadn’t done enough training but it would be a fun experience nonetheless!

We went to register the night before at Cartmel School, the finish location, and realisation soon hit us as to what we were in for. An early 5am start and a bumpy hour and half long car journey saw us standing on the start line at 8am and we were ready for the off. Looking around at the 300 other competitors on the start line, everyone seemed like they knew what they were in for so it was certainly going to be a challenge for me.

The buzzer went and we headed out of Caldbeck for a gentle 3km run to get us to the first climb of the day. Luckily the navigation wasn’t an issue yet as you could just follow the ant trail of people in the distance in front of you. I had already stopped to take a picture and knew the scenery would get me through this. First gentle climb over and down to a river crossing which meant wet feet within the first hour.  Great, this was going to be a long day! The next climb was tough due to the tussocky terrain and not knowing where your ankles would go with every step but the views from the top made it all worthwhile. We had perfect weather all day, cloudy but good visibility, no rain and good temperature which as all of you know is rare in the Lake District.

    

        Left: The boys on Blencathra                         Right: Relief off Blencathra just before Feed 1

Map 1 - Blencathra

We soon reached the top of Blencathra, the trickiest downhill section of the route with shear rock faces and three points of contact advised (see background picture). Although fun, I didn’t know rock climbing would be an element of the race! That brought us down into Threlkeld, the first feed station, marked at 16km. It was a quick stop and at this point I was feeling good after stuffing my face with fresh fruit. A nice 3km flat stretch out of the feed station let us stretch our legs, fooling us before the worse climb of the event. Up to Clough Head, part of the Bob Graham route saw a 2km, 700m uphill climb. Cramp set in here and this was the first time I thought ‘man this is really tough!’ After numerous false summits and climbing continuously for over an hour, I finally made it to the top and the first sense of achievement hit me. Still a long way to go, we continued along the ridge able to do some running again.

Above: Climbing up to Helvellyn         Below: A nice descent to Grisedale Tarn

Map 2 - Helvellyn

Another tough climb brought us up to the top of Helvellyn, where I was really feeling it here. As a surprise, one of our other colleagues, who was staying up in the Lakes with us, had walked up to the summit and been waiting 2 hours for us in the cold. A quick hello and picture put a smile back on my face. Then a long downhill slog section brought us all the way down into Ambleside, the second feed station, where Mum, Dad and my Grandad were patiently waiting for us and cheered us in. We hit this at 5.30pm so filled up on pasta, pizza and fruit while being able to change into new socks and shoes. This was by far the best feeling of the event after running in wet shoes for over 8 hours!

Feed station 2 at Ambleside

Feeling refreshed and with full bellies we realised we were only half way, however organisers had warned us the second half was much easier with nowhere near as much climb as the first half. We walked for the first 20 minutes to let our food settle before setting off into the woods alongside the length of Windermere to the third feed at Finishwaite. Although now dark and having to run by headtorches, all three of us continued to run 8km at a good pace. We were happy we were passing other runners and making good time and I was glad I was with the boys and not running in the dark by myself! A quick sit down and a cup of soup at the third feed station and after a motivational talk from mum and dad, we only had 7 miles to go. We were all pretty tired at this point and it seemed like the longest 7 miles of my life but we crossed that finish line just before 1am. What an amazing feeling! 52 miles, 4000m uphill, 17 hours and 2 very tired legs but another race ticked off my wish list. My 2016 challenge has already been decided - if you’re interested check out Breca swimrun!! 2017… maybe the Bob Graham??!

Finished just before 1:00 am

 

Background photo: Rock climbing on Blencathra