When Mick entered the Lakeland 100 last year we had good intentions for recceing the course. We would start in November with a short trip, then spend a couple of weeks up in the Lakes in April, and another couple of weeks in June, with perhaps another short trip on our way up to and/or back from Scotland for the TGO Challenge.
Flies have been landing in the ointment from all over the place. A micro-trip was tagged onto the end of a trip to see Ma-in-Law in December, but our extended April trip wasn’t able to happen.
On Saturday 15th, however, we concluded that we had a short window of opportunity. If we left home on Sunday afternoon, Mick could do Coniston to Wasdale on Monday, Wasdale to Braithwaite on Tuesday, then we could nip over to see Ma-in-Law Halifax and come home either Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.
It was around 1730 by the time we arrived in Coniston on Sunday, but by then most of the cars had departed from the road in which we intended to spend the night. Only about three van-lengths of the road in question are flat, and two of them were free, thus Erica got settled in for the night.
We were up at 0615 on Monday, by which time Sunday’s rain had abated, leaving behind low cloud and dripping trees, but an otherwise dry day. Mick trotted off into that cloud at just gone 0730, and not many minutes later I was on my way to Boot.
Having run 35k on Saturday and 12k on Sunday, I was having a well-deserved rest on Monday, so there was no trotting out to meet Mick this time. The extent of my activity was a gentle walk around Boot to see if I would be better moving to the station car park (on the plus side, it was only 150 double paces off Mick’s route, so he could detour to Erica for food and resupply, rather than me needing to loiter on the route for an unknown period of time to hand stuff over to him; on the downsides, it would cost £2.50 to park there (versus the free car park I was in) and there was no mobile phone signal, unlike in the free car park). Having managed to get a message through to Mick, I moved there about half an hour before he was expected.
After his pit stop, it was an easy drive from Boot around to Wasdale Head, where Mick duly arrived only about 10 minutes after I expected him.
Church Stile Holiday Park in Nether Wasdale (5 miles/20 minutes away) was our home for the night on Monday. £26 for a small square of hard-standing without electricity. I can’t call it good value for money, but the toilet block was immaculate and Mick was greatly in need of that shower (or maybe I mean that I was greatly in need of Mick having that shower?). A fantastically quiet night was had, but we reduced our value for money even further by leaving 4 hours before the 11am ‘you must vacate your pitch by’ time.
Mick was deposited just short of the road-end at Wasdale Head, to rejoin the route where he’d left it yesterday when he’d detoured to where I was parked on the green. He soon had second thoughts about the wisdom of following that bit of route when, within 150m of leaving Erica, a foot shot out from under him on the sodden ground and he covered himself in mud. I might have witnessed it if I hadn’t driven off the moment he got out the car. It’s a long old drive around to Braithwaite and the extent of my research into where I could park had been about two minutes whilst using the campsite wifi (only available at the reception building) on Monday evening.
Erica made like Goldilocks once she got to Braithwaite, after a lovely scenic drive. The first spot she tried was too busy with passing traffic, so I popped out for a walk around to check out if there was anywhere better. She then tried two spots in a nearby street (one of them twice), but not wanting to risk inconveniencing any residents, I wasn’t happy leaving her there. She eventually settled into the last remaining space by the Orthodox church.
After a couple of hours of tea-drinking, snacking and general faffing, I finally gave myself a motivational talking to, got my running gear on, and headed off to intercept Mick, on this occasion coming across him earlier than expected, even though he felt like he was moving slowly.
The wind that had pushed me up the hill was now against as we headed back down together, but it’s definitely better going downhill against the wind rather than up.
Walking from the location of the Braithwaite Check Point back to Erica, I gave Mick the option of extending his day after lunch, by continuing along the route into Keswick. Then we looked at the map and realised it was only a few kilometres, and they were along the pavement of the A66 and a cycle route. No real benefit in recceing that bit, so no point in putting more effort in on the back of what he’d already done.
Plans then needed to change. There was no extra night in the Lakes, and no visit to Halifax. Whilst sitting in the Boot car park on Monday (the one with phone signal!) I’d received a phone call that required us to be back home by Wednesday morning.
It feels like it was a long way to go for two days, but I suppose that many a person who works Monday to Friday thinks nothing of going away from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. It just feels short given the usual nature of our trips, and due to the inability to tag on other things we would have liked to have done (calling in on Conrad; seeing Ma-in-Law).
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