The first midweek Lake District fell race of the summer took place on Wednesday evening. A beautifully typical Lakeland evening greeted runners with grey skies, torrential rain, howling wind and near 0% visibility – I felt like a true local.
The race itself starts from Rothey Park and heads straight up to the summit of Loughrigg Fell and straight back down. Two miles up, two miles down. I sampled the Lake Districts finest boggy mud on only one occasion when I stacked it at the summit cairn and slid belly first for about half the decent. Still, an enjoyable evening and nice to participate in a midweek Lake District race. Highlight of the evening definitely seeing the piles upon piles of muddy fell shoes outside the church with runners returning their dibbers and a strict ‘no muddy shoes’ policy – quite difficult to find your own shoes in a mountain of muddy Inov8s.
Having picked a fell race a near 400 mile round trip away from home I presumed I would be the first MAC home, alas, George Foster turned up and took an impressive second while I took a far less impressive 100ish out of about 180 runners.
