Firstly, apologies for the delay in submitting this, especially to Dorothy as I said I’d do the write up.
The Borrowdale Trail Run on the Saturday covered 5k, 13k and 21k and for those looking for a bigger challenge there was the Scafell Pike Trail Marathon on the Sunday. I’d opted for the 21k, as was not long back from recovering from a hamstring injury and also decided to make a weekend of it down in beautiful Keswick.
The race started from Lingholm Estate on the edge of Derwent Water opposite Keswick. I’d completed my warm up and ahead of the start was on the lookout for any Carnethy vests. It was at this point that Dorothy came up and introduced herself (we’d not met before). It was good to have a couple of runners from north of the Border in the field of 196.
After a short briefing at the start we were on our way. Then 100yds along the road we hit a bottleneck of a single gate and the runners politely filed through. As we made our way along the shoreline towards Borrowdale, it didn’t take long for the field to become strung out. I’d hung back at the start and knew that Dorothy would be well ahead of me, with my focus on taking a slowish pace.
The route is truly stunning, as we left Derwent Water the route made its way through mixed woodland to the picturesque village of Grange. This really is a place to enjoy the outdoors and all that is wonderful about the Lake District. The going was relatively flat but started to climb at Castle Crag at which point I was starting to pass other runners on the incline and the leg was feeling ok.
The route passed Castle Crag and headed down into the village of Rosthwaite. The going had been steady up to this point but took a dramatic turn as we left Rosthwaite and immediately started ascending. Underfoot was good and the path mainly dry so I was able to make good progress.
We made our way past Watendlath and the trail, which has been relatively open and on moor tracks, entered a wooded section before descending to Ashness Bridge. We were now back on the east side of Derwent Water with amazing views of Cat Bells to the west. The path at this point went into a singletrack, which was tricky at times, as we traversed passed the Falcon Crags. With the leg still holding up and making good progress up the field we descended into Great Wood and ahead was Dorothy.
Ordinarily I’d be thinking of sprint finishes, but being the only two Carnethites and with a couple of km to go, we decided to run in together. We joined the lakeshore, which was busy with people enjoying the scenery, and crossed the finish at Crow Park in Keswick in #125 and #126 respectively.
Race site: highterrainevents
Official times:
125 Dorothy Elliott 02:37:06
126 Kevin Hall 02:37:08
It was a really well organised race, well worth the effort to travel down to the Lakes. There was a boat regatta taking place as well as the usual Saturday Market, so there was lots to do after the finish in the stunning town of Keswick. Apologies again Dorothy, here are the pics of us at the finish and thanks for introducing yourself and being happy to ‘chum me’ to the finish.
Kevin Hall