Having relied on Billy’s navigation skills for years I decided I really needed to stand on my own 2 feet and at least learn how to take a bearing! So I signed up for the Scottish Hill Runners navigation course back in March which Steve Fallon led admirably (I also made Billy sign up too!) Suitably enthused and having survived a cold, snowy day in the Pentlands, as well as learning that there are things called re-entrants, we took the next step and entered our first “mountain marathon”, the Silva Great Lakeland 3 Day. I put mountain marathon in quotes as it is a very social event where your tent and other stuff you don’t need during the day is transported for you. Tea and cake is provided at the end of each day and we even got a bottle of beer after day 1. I also didn’t need to worry about re-entrants as the vast majority of the checkpoints were on summits.
So we set off for Pooley Bridge on the Friday of the May Day Bank Holiday weekend, pitched our new MSR tent (watched intently by the cows over the fence) and headed into the marquee to register. There were 3 classes to choose from – Café, Wainwright and Expert! We certainly had no intentions of entering the expert class but decided that we would start off with the Wainwrights and fully expected to drop down to the café class after day 1 (café class so called as each day included a café as a checkpoint). This is a great feature of the event. You pick and choose each day what route you want to follow dependent on your mood and legs!
We woke to a clear blue sky on the Saturday morning but also a frozen tent. It certainly wasn’t the same weather as we had had at Easter in the Cairngorms. However, it did prove better for running and when we did manage to get shelter from the bitter wind it actually felt quite pleasant. We set off shortly after 8am (this would prove to be our latest start of the weekend). There were no set start times, you could choose to leave anywhere between 7am and 9am but slower runners/walkers were encouraged to leave earlier.
Our map stated that the optimum route would see us cover 37km and 1800m of ascent on day 1. This would take us from Pooley Bridge to Patterdale via Kidsty Pike, Red Screes and Hart Crag. It was a very long descent into Patterdale from Hart Crag which we had only ever visited before as part of the Fairfield Horseshoe, and unfortunately one runner broke her arm on the way down and Keswick Mountain Rescue had to be called. We however made it safely to the bottom, ready to face the next day.
Day 2 wasn’t quite as cold and we soon warmed up as we headed straight up Gavel Pike from the camp site. It was then down and straight up to Helvellyn then onwards to Stybarrow Dodd, Hart Side and a lovely grassy descent into Dockray before a slog up Gowbarrow Fell alongwith the day-trippers. Another fast and fun descent followed along the side of Ullswater but there would be one last sting in the tail as we had to ascend and then descend Glenridding Dodd before reaching camp which at this point in the day was just plain cruel. With 34km covered and 2100m climbed a beer had definitely been earned as well as a pack of mini pork pies.
Day 3 dawned and being the true Carnethys that we are meant we had to continue the Wainwright class and forego the café stops! Although jogging down the road first thing saw our quads wonder if we had made the right decision. But at least we had a bit of a loosener before heading up Place Fell where the calves now started to make their presence known. Our furthest out Wainwright of the day was Brock Crags above Angle Tarn and then we could start to head for home but not before climbing Beda and Hallin Fell. The descent into Howtown saw us jog past the tea shop but with only 1 fell remaining there was no time to stop. Bonscale Pike saw us on our hands and knees but at last we dibbed in to the final checkpoint and as one runner said we only had a park run to go before we reached Pooley Bridge. Surprisingly we still had some energy left in our legs and the hail stones perhaps made us run that bit faster so soon the marquee was in sight and day 3 was over – only 25km and 1500m of ascent
We really enjoyed the event and would encourage others who aren’t quite so confident in their navigation skills to give it a go. We climbed at least 19 Wainwrights over the course of the weekend and took us 20 hours and 23 minutes to complete. We finished 61st and 62nd on day 3, having climbed 25 places over the weekend so we were pretty pleased with that and that we didn’t get lost! Results are here – http://www.greatlakeland3day.com/results/2019-results/ And this is a video by Steve Ashworth of the weekend – https://www.facebook.com/GreatLakeland3Day/videos/2327447617275807/
Dorothy Elliot