Another week, another race. I almost didn’t sign up to the inaugural Tea & Trails ultra as I thought the cost of an entry was far too steep (I think it was about £150 for a 50km!!). However, after Jon got a discounted entry for a friend, I decided it was more reasonable and jumped on board, ready to explore a little more of the Lake District.
We travelled up on Friday morning along with Ilona and Phil and would meet Shirin and a few others in the lakes. As part of the event there was camping and various talks and stuff happening over the weekend. Thankfully though Jon isn’t fond of camping and neither am I (when running anyway!) so we dropped the others off in the field in the rain and made our way to the hotel to check in.
The next morning we arrived bright and early to register and spent a short while chatting with the others before deciding to just start. Yep, just start we did – the organisers had a rolling start for an hour before the mass start. We’d planned to join the mass start at 8:30 but thought there was no point hanging around for another 45 minutes when we could just get going. Besides, Jon had a plan to deviate from the course and ‘tag’ a few more Wrainwrights, so the extra time would be put to good use.
After a quick kit check and receiving our trackers, we spent a few mins explaining to the tracking/safety team our plan to go off route. It was better to let them know in advance rather than panic if they saw our trackers go ‘off route’. Then we casually walked over the start line and out of the field…
It started with a bit more faffing as I forgot to start my watch and didn’t have my heart rate strap on (great fun trying to get on without taking my jacket off in the rain) which I did as we slowly jogged along the country lane upon leaving the field. It was already wet and miserable as we slowly walked the long road and made our way up to the car park at the bottom of Skiddaw. Despite this, it was way too hot so I peeled my jacket off half way up. From the car park we had a nice gentle single track descent and, momentarily, the clag lifted and we could see a glimpse of a view back down through the valley.
We passed some Marshall’s before continuing down on a slippery and wet section before seeing some of Jon’s friends who were volunteering out on the course. Next up came a wide and gentle climb as we made our way along the other side of the valley and towards Blencathra. By now we’d passed a few others from the rolling start and could see the masses from the main start making their way along the other side of the valley we’d just traversed. The front runner already had a significant lead and we suspected he’d be passing us very quickly.
We had a short descent into another car park before heading onto some single track to begin the first of two big climbs on the route. It was straight up to Blencathra from here. We were on the gravel switch back climb when the first runner did indeed come speeding passed us, running the steep climb effortlessly. It is always so impressive to see lead runners running, not something I get to experience in a mass start!
As we reached the top the summit was completely covered in clag and visibility was just a few metres. It was windy, but a decent temperature and not cold at all. After a quick summit photo we made our way across Blencathra (I was trying, unsuccessfully, to see were Halls Fell ridge was, which we descended down on the Lakes In A Day last year) as we passed.
It wasn’t long before we were descending again with initially nice wide trails and a little bit of off-track running. It was enjoyable and the further down we went, the better the visibility became. Off in the distance we could see other runners and where the route would take us. It was probably about 45 mins since the lead runner went passed and now more and more runners were following in his footsteps.
We continued to descent in a lovely single track that very quickly became a stream. The relentless rain for a few days (whilst the rest of the UK was experiencing a heatwave, It had been pouring down in the Lake District!) meant there was a lot of water running off the mountains and temporary streams were forming as the water followed the shape of the footpath. We embraced it and the descent was still enjoyable even with cold and wet feet.
As we continued, so did the build up of water. There were puddles galore and some were quite deep. Despite mocking my choice of footwear (they were far from aggressive on the grip front) it was Jon who slipped and fell (not once, but twice) and had a small mud bath. I almost joined him when I stopped to take a photo and almost slipped whilst standing still!
We made it to the first aid station after about 20km and were glad for a quick fuel stop. The aid station was quiet but exceptionally prepared inside the Mungrisdale village hall. The lovely volunteers pandered to my constant requests for sandwiches (first jam and then cheese and pickle) and afterwards stocked me up with wonderful cakes (the salted caramel brownie was delicious) before we left. As we walked on, I tried to eat all the food I was carrying, but had to stash a bit of brownie in my soft cup which I was just to stuffed to finish. I forgot about it later and found it all mushed up in my cup after the race!
We started seeing more and more people now and Jon became more and more recognised too. Besides being recognised from his (brilliant!) adventure on the Northern Traverse (organised by the same race director), Jon is a bit of a Tea & Trails super fan and featured as a guest on one of the episodes. A handful of people recognised him along the day! Much to my amusement as I mocked him each time (think “oooh podcast friends” and “I’m kind of a big deal”).
In the midday rain we continued along the undulating road section to Mosedale (this was pretty dull and a little tiring with the small inclines and descents) before re-joining the trail that leads to Skiddaw House (the next aid station). From here I knew the next few kms as we’d run the same trail years back (with Jon!) on the Grand Tour of Skiddaw race. As we reminisced about previous races the Tea & Trail hosts popped up on course, much to Jon’s delight and my amusement. I said Jon was like Troy McClure from The Simpsons – “hi, I’m Jon Zincke, you might remember me from such adventures as the Northern Traverse and the Tea & Trails Podcast”). After a quick chat we carried on.
It wasn’t long before we reached Skiddaw House (the highest hostel in the UK) and stopped to refuel (or chat Northern Traverse with fellow runners/volunteers in Jon’s case!). As I mocked him a little more, I stuffed my face with more cheese and pickle sandwiches (Pickle me up!) in the rain. It was good proper soggy weather now!
From here we’d have our first course deviation to ‘bag a Wrainwright’. After a few kms of lovely runnable trails we left the trail and headed straight uphill on a vague track. It was steep and slippery and slow going. We added a few hundred extra meters of elevation here to see a pile of rocks before turning round and heading by back down to re-join the route. This was the biggest deviation we’d do and I was quite glad when it was over!
The trails took us along a gentle track back down through the valley and we joined a road we once again recognised from the Grand Tour (it was a different experience that day which was very hot and sweaty!). The next few kms took us through several fields and trails as we made our way to the bottom of Skiddaw. Here there was the final checkpoint (no more sandwiches as it was just a water stop) before we would start the biggest climb of the course.
And climb we did. We’d be climbing Skiddaw the way we descended on the Grand Tour up (along Ullock Pike I think). I thought I remembered it well, but clearly I didn’t. The initial part had a few longer and steeper climbs than I remembered. Nothing too bad but a few slightly technical sections and it was slow going on tired legs. Before we reached the steep ‘scree’ part of the climb we took another diversion. A very short one as we extended a corner to a tighter angle to bag another Wrainwright. Passing the pile of rocks (so memorable I can’t even recall its name) we re-joined the course and began the toughest part of the course.
Here you climb steeply along the side of the mountain with small loose rocks underfoot. By now the wind and rain was pummelling us. It was very much a case of head down, keep breathing and keep slowly moving forward. It was far longer than I remembered and the legs were screaming out for it to be over! We kept going and made it to the top where the wind really kicked in. Strong winds were blowing runners around and making it difficult to traverse the short out and back to the actual summit point where we’d turn around. We thanked the volunteers who were braving the elements for us and headed back. The mission now was to get down as quickly as possible to get out of the wind. We were cold and wet as we tried to run whilst holding our hoods and hats on our head and hold our race numbers to our shorts. I was leaning back into the wind as it pushed against me, pushing me upright and vertical. The whiplash of my hood flapping violently against my ear was annoying and I was so glad when we’d descended enough to get out of the wind and clag.
We made a decision to skip our planned, short detour to Skiddaw Little Man as we really just couldn’t be bothered now (it’s an easy one for Jon to access and tick off this Wrainwright another time) and kept with the momentum of running down the descent off Skiddaw. The descent was tiring. A quad buster for sure. I’d only ever ascended on this route before and once again had forgotten how long it was. Running down hill was quickly exhausting. The legs had had enough now!
Eventually we made it back to the car park (the one we’d passed first thing in the morning) and confused some spectators as we detoured again and left the route. We were off for the short detour to Lattrig. We took a slightly different path than we’d initially planned and it turned out to be much nicer (longer but less steep!). We had a brief chat with some hikers at the view point (not knowing that we hadn’t actually made it to the summit point!) and then turned around, ready for the last few kms to the finish line.
The descent was nice and gentle as we ran single tracks before joining some flatter fields that headed back to the country road we started on. It was a short few hundred meters back into the campsite and over the finish line, through the human tunnel the volunteers created as they cheered us in. We were given our finisher’s mugs and we played around as we had our photo taken. We then met up with the others and also cheered in Shirin who finished just behind us. After the finish we had a quick dry off and change in the car park before driving back to the hotel for a lovely warm shower and fish and chips. We later headed back down to the campsite to watch a live recording of the podcast.
It was a brilliant weekend and adventure with a great organisation of the first Tea & Trails ultra. It might have been typical to get blown about and soaked through in the Lake District. Certainly true that races in the Lake District always have the best aid stations and food!
Run With Dai 