While other Carnethies were on the water in the SIPR or slogging up Slioch in the rain I headed south to Keswick. The Keswick Mountain Festival has become a big event for the town and is held over 3 days with a variety of races on, triathlon, open water swims, a cycle sportive and 5, 10, 25 and 50k trail races. All of this plus a variety of talks by various outdoor types and rounded off with a music festival, Bjorn Again, Peatbog Faeries, Toploader and Scouting for Girls, it was all happening.
Eoin Lennon ran the 25k trail race on the Saturday and a had a great result winning it with a time of 1:51, the route making a circuit of Derwentwater. I just arrived to see Eoin atop the podium as I was registering for the 50k. A 6am start on a beautiful Sunday morning saw 200 or so set off down towards Borrowdale, over Honister then along the shores of Buttermere and Crummock Water before climbing over Newlands and so back to Keswick. A really nice route on some great trails and very little tarmac, it ended up being 53k and 1,800m ascent. I’d like to say I also got a podium place but had to make do with my normal mid pack mediocrity, finishing in 6:52 and 68th place. If your looking for an ultra with a decent amount of climbing and on good mountain trails with some live bands thrown in during the weekend you could do a lot worse.
Results – https://www.resultsbase.net/Results/IndividualResults.aspx?Id=3047&theme=keswick
Alan Renville