Tag: Race

Tuesday 20 August, 5 miles (ish), 801 feet (exactly)

Every summer, three Ward generations (myself, my Dad and my son) retreat to the Lake District and spend a few days together in Dad’s motorhome. This year we also convinced my brother to extract himself from the comfort of his home in Brighton to join us, with promises of refreshing dips in Blea Tarn under cloudless skies and jaw dropping views of the Milky Way at night. As we met up at the Great Langdale campsite on our first day it became apparent that rain-laden clouds would put an end to any of these plans. We squelched our way to the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel to make plans for our stay.

I always have a quick look on the Fellrunner website before a trip like this to see if anything is going on and found that the Hawkshead Show was on the following day and it had a fell race. Quick glance at the details: 5 miles or so, should be over and done with fairly quickly. I suggested this as an activity and there was agreement all round. I could get a run in and the rest of the gang could see me off, have a stroll around looking at the livestock and huge vegetables, then return and cheer me over the finish line.

As we approached the showground, it became clear that the rain from the previous day and night had turned the showground and the main car park into a quagmire. We had to turn around with all the other traffic and go to the alternative parking field in the village. Some conflicting information about the race start time meant I wasn’t sure whether I was actually going to be able to run or not, but it turned out I was just in time to register. After a quick change in a puddle behind one of the tents, I made my way to the start line.

Now the weather had been OK up until this point, but as the runners were gathering for the pre-race brief the heavens opened. This downpour was enough for a lot of the spectators (including my entourage) to decide to give the race start a miss and head for the main tent to see some prize-winning onions.

Final headcount, then we were off.

The course was composed of an initial trudge up the local lump that is Latterbarrow, then back down the other side towards the shores of Windermere before coming round in a big loop back to Hawkshead. There were a few fields to cross, nice bits of woodland trails and some wide tracks, so a bit of everything. There were also plenty of rock slabs and exposed tree roots slick with liquid mud to keep you concentrating.

Although I have only run in a couple, I do like show races. The show only seems to amplify those endearing elements of the fell race that we all love, the low-key-ness and local, small-scale feel. At the first show race I did (Ingleton Gala), the woman selling the tickets asked where we had come from. When I told her “Leeds” she was shocked. “Ooooh that’s a long way!” she exclaimed, and here was me thinking that Ingleton was fairly local! Similarly at Hawkshead, when registering, I overheard one of the race organisers saying what a great turnout it was this year (43 ran, although to be fair to them it looks like only 26 ran last year). Also, I think you get more first timers/people that don’t usually run on the fells getting involved. Lots of U/As on the results list suggested that this may be the case, and chatting to the guy that finished after me it turns out he is a mountain biker and this was his first fell race.

So race over, we went looking for something to eat and drink. This turned out to be a bit tricky for my (vegan) brother. The only place we could find was the chip van which had a huge seemingly static queue (possibly all vegans too).

Me: “I’m surprised they don’t have more vegan food at this.”

My brother: “Michael, agricultural shows like this are the antithesis of veganism.”

Me: “Oh, I suppose they are.”

So that was our cue to leave. My brother never did find a vegan lunch that day. He had to settle for a cheese and onion pasty from Coniston Co-Op.

Michael Ward