This weekend myself and Jack Cummins took on the Lakeland 100 and Lakeland 50, with what can only be described as variable levels of success.
The Lakeland Ultras are some of the most infamous Ultra Marathons in the UK, and the event definitely lived up to expectations. It all started for me at 6PM on Friday night, starting off under blue skies with an amazing atmosphere at the race village in Coniston. In what turned out to be a stupid decision, I had set my sights on a sub 24-hour finished, and therefore found myself worryingly close to the front through the first few checkpoints. As we passed through the western half of the Lakes and into the night I was still feeling ok, that was until the descent into Buttermere when I started to think, my Quads are feeling worryingly sore with over 60 miles still to go. I kept plugging away and despite a change in the weather, with heavy rain during the middle of the night and into the morning, my spirits were still pretty high until Dalemain at half way.
But after sitting down for 10 minutes and gathering my thoughts, as I tried to stand up my legs were not in a good way. I hoped a steady walk into Pooley Bridge might loosen them up, but I soon realised there was no chance I was making it another 40 miles back to Coniston and had to drop out at the Howtown Checkpoint.
Fortunately, we still had Jack to represent MAC and he had a fantastic run in the Lakeland 50. This race covers the second half of the 100 route, starting at 11.30AM from Dalemain, and passing through Kentmere, Ambleside and Elterwater on the way back to Coniston. Jack took nearly 45 minutes off his time from last year finishing in the early hours of the morning in just under 13 hours.
I like to think that as a club we can claim a Lakeland 100 finish, even though it did need two of us to finish the whole thing. A great weekend, and I am sure both of us will be there on the start line for the 100 next year, won’t we Jack!!
