Langdale Horseshoe Report

Despite York Marathon taking place on the same weekend, myself, Tony Heron, Barry Atkinson and Anwen Darlington decided to head to the Lakes for the last big Lakeland race of the year. The Langdale Horseshoe is a 13 mile course which features around 4000ft of climbing.

After an early start and long drive we arrived in Langdale. There was a lot of clag about on tops and a few showers which made choice of clothing tricky, thermal or no thermal? In the end I opted for just a vest and it paid off as the first climb out of the valley was very sheltered and sweat was soon pouring from my brow.

Tony shot off into the distance up the climb to Stickle Tarn and I knew barring a navigational error he would not to be seen again until the finish. At the top of the climb we were now firmly in the mist and I made a concious effort to keep up with the group in front as we crossed the boggy land. Everyone was taking different lines hoping not to be the one who ended up chest deep in muddy water, I was one of the lucky ones and made it over to Esk Hause at the head of the valley unscathed.

What followed was a nervy 15 minutes of running along a trod interspersed with very slippy rocks. It was at this point that my inexperience in the Lakes and being able to deal with rocky terrain showed and I lost some time on the group I was with.

I climbed up to the top of Bowfell and began the decent which was probably my least favourite part of the course due to the slippy jagged rocks near the summit. Once these had been negotiated it was over to Crinkle Crags and the clag had well and truely set in now. I ended up following a guy who seemd to know where he was going but runners seemed to emerge from all directions on the accent to Long Top.

I knew the “bad step” decent was coming, a tricky climb down from the top, but the group I was in knew a way around so we shot off on a path to the right and came out around the side and finally there was some good running over towards the final climb.

I was really struggling now as I climbed the Pike of Blisco, my right leg was beginning to suffer from a touch of cramp and I was starting to lose places. The top finally arrived and a slippy slidey decent on muddy paths awaited, depsite a few rolls in the mud I managed to pick up a few places. Then came a quick dash through some kissing gates and through a campsite onto the last 100m of road to the finishing line for a time of 2:47 and 69th place.

Tony had already been finished 10 minutes in 26th place in 2:35 and was pretty happy with his performance having beaten Joe Blackett by a couple of minutes. Barry came in not long after in 103rd place and 4th V55 in 2:56, though 3 minutes or so of that were due to an unscheduled toilet stop halfway round the course. Hot on his heels was Anwen finishing an impressive 3rd Lady in 2:59.

By now the sun had come out and we headed to the pub for our free pasty, a couple of pints and the prize giving. After a few stories were shared in the beer garden we set off home after an enjoyable day in the Lakes.

Results

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