That's Lyth 23.5 miler...... Powered by doughnuts.....

Early start - yuck!  Up at 5am, in the car on the road at 6.30am.  Both of us was waiting for the other to say "Shall we stay in bed instead?" but as neither of us did, we set off in the direction of Kendal.  Ball of my right foot still sore, blisters ok, muscles fine.



The reward that makes it all worth while!



Got to Kendal and the parking was horrendous.  Luckily we found some on-road parking without restrictions, and not too far from the Scout Hut.  The weather was about 0-1 degrees, so frosty, but nice...not too sunny.  We made our way to the hut for a biscuit, register and pick up our tally card.  The event today was organised by LDWA Westmorland and North Lancs, and is their regular January Event.  It gets pretty full, and today was  no exception with about 300 starters.

ONE.... yes you read it right.... ONE female toilet meant a HUGE queue and we got to the start of the run approximately 30 seconds before we set off.  We started out into the town of Kendal and immediately were running along the side of the river.  Flashbacks to the Grand Union Canal of last weekend crashed into my brain bringing on feelings of fear and nausea, but luckily we were soon onto the High Street and away from the offending waters. 


Rich on Whitbarrow Scar - Kendal down below us..... way down below us....


We climbed up quickly using a mixture of side streets and steep steps, and made our way up onto Hellsfell..... scarily named, but pretty tame.  It was a steady up, and after last weekend, I was happy for anything other than flat.  We kept climbing all the way up to Whitbarrow Scar where we posed for photos by the HUGE cairn.  It was a tad chilly up there, but some fab views that you can't see because I couldn't be bothered to keep getting the camera out.... sorry.....  The ground was very hard from the frost and littered with rocks.  Pretty heavy on the legs, and we would pay that price later.



Whitbarrow Scar Memorial Cairn

 We ran down then into a village where we stopped at the Hall for the first checkpoint.  OMG the best CP ever.  Neither of us was particularly hungry, but the CP was very well stocked.  Malt loaf, crisps, sandwiches and..... DOUGHNUTS!  Assorted flavours.... the possibilities were endless.  I dived straight in and hit the jackpot with a custard delight, whilst Rich lucked out with an apple one.  We grabbed the food and ran off down the road, eating as we went.  We garbled 'Morning' to the runners we were passing, spitting out bits of sugar and dough as we went.  Learning to eat on the run is a REAL bonus. 

We then ran through a mixture of road and woodlands which were fairly nondescript until we went hurtling (there wasn't a choice) down a really steep slope in the woods.  The rocks were pretty slippy, and this wasn't helped by the frozen ground.  I managed to 'knee' a stone wall in my attempt to get over a stile, which Rich found hilarious, and I notched up yet another bruise to add to the collection.

CP2 was in another Village Hall, and this time we were disappointed to find not a doughnut in sight.   I was gutted.  Rich, on the other hand, was in luck yet again.  As there are a large number of walkers on these LDWA events, the catering is sometimes more appropriate to walkers than runners.  An example of this is the hotdog in a bun with onions and tom sauce.  Not running food, obviously.  Rich thought different.... he polished off two hotdogs in buns (yes, complete with onions and tom sauce) as well as a mince pie and 4 Jaffa Cakes....... then ran back out.  Now, I know he is blessed with an iron constitution, but really?  Two hotdogs?  I've seen him eat 3/4 of a Pork Pie (the big ones) at a checkpoint before, but I was concerned that we would be seeing these hot dogs again at some point.....


Powered by Doughnuts....

 So, uphill for quite a while now, but only 4 miles to the next checkpoint.  We went wrong in our navigation at one point and had to cut across a bramble-strewn bank which left us with various cuts and scrapes on our legs, but we didn't have to retrace our steps... that was the important thing!!  We nearly went wrong again just minutes later and decided that we needed to pay more attention.  Rich had been MTBing the day before and was starting to feel the uphills in his quads, and my ankles were beginning to fill, mainly from the concussion of last weekend being compounded by the hard ground today.  However, we were feeling good and having fun.

CP3 was in a garage, and joy or joys, the assorted doughnuts were on offer again.  Rich went for jam this time and I stuck with the custard variety.  I cannot describe how heavenly these doughnuts were.  We set off through the garden and up up up towards Scout Scar.  We only had about 5.5 miles left and we were feeling pretty good still - concussive injuries (mainly on balls of feet) from the hard ground, but that's it.

A bit a 'fingers-crossed' navigation got us up onto Scout Scar and the subsequent downhills were fun, but painful due to the stones sticking up all over.  These were potential ankle-breakers, but we managed to take it steady and get down safely to the road.  There then ensued about 2 miles of downhill all the way into Kendal.  Although its great on your tiredness/fitness, these long downhills can be heavy on your legs, particularly as we were suffering concussion.  However, we ran all the way into the Scout Hut and felt really strong and able to go round again (although we didn't).

Personally, I'm pleased that my muscles held up so well throughout.  Everything felt fine.  Blisters gave me no trouble at all, and apart from the right ankle being pounded down constantly, I felt good.  Energy levels also good.... probably due to doughnut-power.  I drove us home, walked the dogs and got into the bath for a long soak.  Then into the recovery tights.  I have a feeling that my right ankle will fill up overnight, but all should be ok otherwise.

So - to sum up - a good day.  Great company, great laughs, ok navigation, below average route.... too much road and generally non-descript, perfect running weather, fab checkpoint food.

You can see the 'Scar' in the landscape... we're smiling, but it's not fun to run on!!