The Saunders mountain marathon started from Torver, just South of Coniston, on 4th July. Just before the start, the weather was horrendous, thunder and lightening with torrential rain. However, by the start, the rain was off, and the temperature was warm, but we were left with low cloud, which persisted for most of the morning. This made the navigation to the first few controls quite difficult, in the ‘lumpy’ landscape. By early afternoon, the cloud was lifting, and by the time we reached halfway camp at Tilberthwaite the sky was cloudless. This made for a great atmosphere, especially with the lack of midges! One of the nice things about the Saunders is the availability of milk, juice and beer at the half-way camp, making it feel very civilised.
For many of us, the first part of day 2 was a reverse of the last part of the previous day. Anyone within 45 minutes of the day 1 leaders took part in a chasing start, but given that the leaders in our category (Bedafell) were more than 1 hour ahead, so we all started within quite a tight, 25 minute window, making the first 40 minutes very crowded on a narrow path. The lack of cloud and the narrow start window made navigation much less of an issue, as it was essentially follow the crowds to the control points, especially if you’re not at the front!
The finish back at Torver was a real party atmosphere, with the provided meal enjoyed in the sunshine.
In our first mountain marathon, Euan and I finished a disappointing 29th out of 46, I found the navigation and terrain more difficult than we’d anticipated. The only other Carnethies I knew about – Lorna Ascroft and Sarah Warren did better, they were 4th Females in Carrock Fell – well done (obviously the pre-eminent Ascroft performance of the week!)
Paul Burns