climber & runner

Tag: Fell Race

  • Saunders Lakeland MM: Seconds Matter

    After 2 days of hard, sometimes calf-sapping, sometimes fast running over some 40 odd miles of rough, boggy and trackless mountain terrain, just 15 minutes separated the top 3 places in the KLETS class of this years Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon. I was the person in 3rd, another twenty five seconds slower, a short pause…

  • Skiddaw Fell Race

    You have to have tired days sometimes and today was definitely one of those days, I just couldn’t get going. Its surprising how many fell runners don’t run this race that often, there were quite a few ‘names’ from the fell running world who were present and yet racing Skiddaw for the first time, considering…

  • Through the clag above Dockray

    Dockray-Great Dodd Fell Race It took some considerable motivation to race last night but I was glad I did. The weather has seemed eternally demotivating the past few weeks, with incessant low cloud, drizzle and heavy rain, midsummer has felt a long way off. I dithered beyond belief before race star started as I agonised…

  • Ennerdale Horseshoe Fell Race

    Ennerdale Horseshoe Fell Race 2012 Ennerdale, the longest of the Lakeland Classics, 23 miles of challenging, sometimes complex and certainly arduous fell running which over its length manages to ascend such peaks as High Stile, Green Gable and Pillar, with vertical height gain totalling well over 2000 metres. By anyone’s standards this is a tough…

  • Fairfield Horseshoe

    Fairfield Horseshoe 2012 This years run, my first ever Fairfield Horseshoe race was indifferent, I could hardly be unhappy with my time, but crossed the finishing line cursing myself for not being quicker, I had missed my informal goal of running the course in under one and a half hours, by a minute. On the…

  • Speed takes time

    Coniston Fell Race 2012 I raced through the grassy meadow towards the taped lines that marked the end of the Coniston Fell Race. I couldn’t quite believe it, the leagues of fast runners had not materialised, the agony of having kept ahead on the climbs, only to be overtaken on the flat had not materialised.…

  • Dockray – Hartside Fell Race

    Wednesday night saw my second mid-week fell race of the season. Dockray is a less well known and less frequented corner of the Lake District, lying on the A5091 just to the north of Ullswater between Glenridding and Troutbeck. I arrived with 5 minutes to spare following a spirited drive from Manchester where I had…

  • Two left feet on the Anniversary Waltz

    The official description says the Anniversary Waltz contains some of the best and worst elements of fell racing. After 15 minutes of pounding along Tarmac and undulating farm track, the worst was over, the best apparently yet to come. But I was knackered. The grassy track winding its way along Scope Beck is not particularly…

  • Causey Pike

    I’d not ran in many ‘short’ fell races before. I’m not really sure why. Perhaps the thought of an intense and furious sprint was off putting, maybe it was the thought of going to such effort for such little return in terms of time on your feet, maybe I’d just been scared of not being…