Where was Bertie? On Saturday he was still on the field in Coniston.
Weather: After weeks and weeks of dry, hot weather, the Lake District finally saw some rain, starting about 1030 on Saturday morning and continuing on and off through the weekend, accompanied by 20-30mph winds (40-50 up high).
A necessarily early start, as Mick had a bus to catch at 7am. I was up early too, not just to be a good wife and make sure he was properly fed and watered, but because I was going to be heading out at the same time. I intend to take part in a different 50 mile event in the Lakes next year, also starting in Coniston, so it seemed sensible, whilst we were there, for me to go and recce some of the route. I know from past experience that I can't be out and about much whilst Mick is running this race, because the urge to dot-watch on the tracker is too great, but I reckoned I had a window from 7am to noon, which was the earliest time he would arrive at the first Check Point, where I would try to spot him on the live feed webcam, and try to discern from what I saw how he was doing.
I'd intended to see Mick onto a bus, but that plan changed when I saw the length of the queue (previous years we/he has just walked straight up to a bus and boarded), so I left him to it and headed off into the village. My recce went well, but could have been longer, if I hadn't had a failure of mathematical ability. Common sense was apparently also absent so I didn't pick up the distance calculation error until too late. The silver lining of the error was that whilst I arrived back at Bertie with 1.5 hours to spare, it was 5 minutes after the rain got heavy enough to warrant a waterproof.
I spent the whole of the rest of the day, and much of the night, dot-watching the race, and having an extensive race-related text chat with a friend (who was also entered in this event, but couldn't take part due to knee surgery a couple of weeks ago). We manged a WhatsApp PB of 263 messages between us over the course of 18 hours.
As for Mick's race, it turned out to be surprisingly exciting from my point of view. I'd seen when I got back from my outing that he was sitting in second position in his age category, which was a little bit of a concern that maybe he'd set out a bit fast. I was pleased when he dropped down to fourth, which seemed more appropriate.
It was about half way through the race when I saw he'd climbed back to third, at which point I started paying attention to the other people in his category, which is where it all got a bit exciting from a dot-watching point of view.
1490 people started the Lakeland 50 this year, with 94% completing. If I ignore the two categories with just one person each (because they would unduly skew the stats) there were 10 age categories (5 male, 5 female), so an average of ~150 people per category. However, this is a hard race and we can surmise that it's unusual for people to still be fit and able to complete it over the age of 70, as in Mick's category there were just 13 starters, of whom only 9 completed (69%).
So, it was a surprise, when I started to pay attention, to find that in amongst that sea of (relative) youngsters, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the MV70 category were all within a mile of each other. Between Check Points 4 and 5 (7 miles) I reckon there was never more than 400yards between 3rd and 5th.
They all entered the marquee at Check Point 5 within the space of a few minutes and with Mick at the head of that little pack (with lots of other participants in between them - it was busy out on those trails and I would have absolutely hated it ... which is why I no longer take part), and it looked likely that the order in which they left would dictate their positions at the next Check Point, as they'd been so consistent in their moving speeds, with the changes in position coming when they stopped.
It was raining by the time they left that Check Point (not the first rain of the day for them, but the first time waterproofs were definitely needed - it was now the middle of the night), and Mick emerged second, in fourth place in his category. That's where he remained for the rest of the race.
I was willing him to be speedy at the only other manned Check Point, but it was raining so hard at that point that I could only rely on his dot on the map - being able to see anyone on the camera was tricky (see photos at the end of this post).
The final 3 miles to Coniston saw him a mile behind 3rd, and a mile ahead of 5th, but as he started the descent I saw that his tracker speed had slowed to just 1km/h, with 5th closing on him fast and I had no idea whether he had a problem, was stuck in a queue, or whether it was just the terrain (which I know to be steep, eroded and slow). It turns out it was the latter, with the wind and rain not helping matters, as his headtorch beam was bounced back at him rather than lighting the way.
Talking of headtorches, it was late in the evening when it suddenly occurred to me that I was sitting on the far side of an unlit field in Coniston and would need to make my way to the school in the middle of the night, and thus would need a torch. I knew I didn't have one in my pack, because Mick had both of the ones that I would usually choose, but we do keep one in Bertie. It's batteries were low and it was barely giving out any light, but no worries, because we also have spare batteries. I changed the batteries and got no light at all. I searched for more batteries ... surely we had 3 AAA somewhere?! Eventually, after I'd dug out the multimeter and checked the voltage of all of the batteries I could find, I sorted out three good ones - phew. I know I could have used my phone torch, but it's hardly ideal for the purpose.
I was duly out in the street when Mick came down the road. I was next to the finish arch as he ran under it, and I was in the marquee when he was presented for a big cheer (every single finisher gets announced with their name and the number of finishes in their history in this race - the cheers went on the whole night through). The first I got to speak to him was as he queued for his finish photo (yes, another queue - there really were a lot of people in this race this year) and I was pleased to see that he was in a much better state than when he finished in 2022. Indeed, when I said something about next year, he didn't say 'never again' (as he did in 2022, only then to enter the 100 for 2023).
Admittedly, he was probably in a better state thanks to taking longer over the distance than in 2022 (when he'd completed a 'Couch to 80k in 8 weeks' programme due to an injury earlier in the year, then finished sub-16 hours to get a Lakeland 100 qualifying time), but he's also 4 years older. This year he finished in 17:36, 4th in his age category. The latter fact would be completely irrelevant, if it hadn't (probably unbeknownst to the three chaps involved) been such a tight race between them for so much of the distance.
His biggest frustration this year was his lack of speed uphill, which is usually a strength. He hadn't been helped by a chunk of missed training over the preceding six weeks due to a knee injury, but the real issue was the strong painkillers (for said knee injury) that hampered his speed and made him feel nauseous. This may all sound a bit irresponsible, but his physio had given him the go ahead that taking part was unlikely to lead to permanent injury, and at his age he can't afford to wait another year to give it another go - there's no guarantee that anyone will have the health next year, but in the 70+ age categories, the stats scream loud that it's worth a small gamble with a knee injury. He has, however, sworn off strong painkillers for future such endeavours.
Fingers crossed that next year his knee is well, his health is good, his training has gone well and that he gets a place in this hugely oversubscribed race to give it another go.
Let's have a game of spot Mick:
Check Point 1
He made himself easy to spot this year, with calf sleeves and a knee support on his right leg
(He's on the far right, next to the portaloos)
Check Point 2
It would have been too easy a game if I'd used the photo I took of my tablet screen, as he's standing in front of the camera on his way in. I didn't take a screenshot until he was on his way out.
Check Point 3
Easy one - a few moments earlier he'd been waving at the camera, exactly as I'd instructed, as there was a phone signal here and I was talking to him as he came into view
Check Point 7
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