Brathay Windermere marathon 2016

My tenth Windermere marathon. It was also my first marathon nine years ago and it is an event that pulls me back to do it again, mainly for sentimental reasons, each year. It is also great to be running in the Lake District which is spectacular at this time of year. I don't do many road marathons at the moment, the last one I did was this event in 2015. I just prefer off road, low key events where there are hills to get up and views to be seen. I am not aiming for fast times, just days out running in pretty places enjoying myself.

We got there in time to see the 10 marathons in 10 days runners come out of the Hall ready to start their last day (they start an hour before the marathon). It was also good to see some old friends from the fetcheveryone web site. I don't use that as much as I used to, but all my training and links to this blog go on there and I try and keep up with news on the site.

Melanie did have a place in the first running of the half marathon (an out and back along the marathon course), but her injury has meant she had to postpone her place until 2017. She did however go for a 7m run which started by going up the hill behind Brathay and getting some great photos of the runners coming down the hill to the start (preceded by the drumming band) - click for a larger picture

and the runners starting up the first hill.

The typical pattern for me in this event is to do the first undulating half in about two hours, then use lots of energy doing the very undulating third quarter. Then at 20m I am either in pretty good shape (when I have done 4hr 10min or 4hr 13m) or in pretty bad shape (when I have done just over 5hr) or somewhere in the middle (4hr 25min or 4hr 30min). As I have done very little road running recently and I did the Howgills trail marathon the previous Sunday, I decided that maybe I should take the first half a little easier, so I would have a bit more in reserve for the third quarter. Great plan, I thought, and I did manage to stick to it getting round to halfway in 2hr 13min. Hawkshead was as lovely as ever and there was great support there. Just before the 6.5m point the first half marathon runners zoomed past (they started an hour after the marathon start) and then turned back for home. As usual I walked the 7m hill with the usual bagpipe players playing away half way up.

Last year I was very pleased that more of the route seemed to be closed to traffic. I am not sure if it was different this year, but it did feel like there was more traffic coming in the opposite direction in the third quarter. Not too much of a problem, but I guess I am just not used to running near cars. In the fourth quarter the runners are normally on pavements with lots of traffic going in both directions and I enjoyed that less.

Not enjoying this last section so much might be partly associated with running out of energy in the fourth quarter (again). So my plan had not really helped, but that was probably more to do with not having done enough road training (i.e. none) for this sort of event.

I had passed Viv at some point and usually when this happens she catches me later and disappears into the distance. As usual she caught me up and went on ahead, but this time I managed to keep her pretty much in sight.

I passed Jumpy James who was taking photographs at about 24 and half miles

and I was trying hard to keep running this flat section. What sometimes keeps me going at this point is to try and get under a particular time which I choose when I start to struggle. In this case I chose 4hr 45min and it looked reasonable.

I managed to keep running through Ambleside and the gentle incline to Clappergate where I caught up with Viv. We ran together down to the river and had a quick chat about whether we would run the final hill. As I was still in with a chance of getting under my target, I said lets go for it and we both ran up together

I sprinted for the line, but missed out on 4hr 45min by 34 seconds. However setting that target and running with Viv had certainly helped me keep going.

It was great to relax and have a beer in the sunshine afterwards. The weather had been hot all of the day which may also have had an effect on my energy.

At the moment I am not sure I will do the marathon here next year, Apart from parkuns, I haven't done any other event more than ten times (the Great North Run is the only other one I have done ten times). I might do to the Brathay Windermere half marathon as there is only a short section which is not fully closed to cars and although it is an out and back, it is very scenic.

Howgills Trail marathon 2016

I last did this race with Melanie in 2013

It was tough, especially the first 5.5m climbing up from Sedburgh to the Calf. Sadly, Melanie wasn't able to run the half marathon as originally planned because of her injury. Jules and Jane from my club were running the marathon, but I didn't think I would be able to keep up with them as I had had a very tiring week and my intended plan to do lots of hills in training hadn't really worked out (code for not trying enough)

We started together, but Jane and Jules gradually disappeared into the distance. It was quite sunny at the start, but by the time we had got to a reasonable height it had clouded over and it was either sunny or cloudy for the rest of the day.

The climb was not as bad as I remembered. Maybe I am more experienced than I was three years ago or maybe I had built it up to be worse than it was. I had forgotten some of the small downhill dips on the way up that provide some relief. There were some fantastic views.

The descent down into Bowderdale I took a bit too quickly and lost my balance. I thought I had recovered, but I hadn't and I landed with my face very close to a rock. No damage though and I took the descent more slowly after that. It feels like the valley goes on and on and round a bend I met up with Jules and Jane who had stopped to get food out of their bags. We ran on passing close to the Kirby Stephen to Tebay road and past an encouraging sign

Then we turned south for a while, this section was quiet country roads and trails. A farmer was taking some cattle down one road and on to the road we were running along. The cattle were behind us and they were moving at some speed. The three of us and another runner ran up that particular incline pretty quickly, but luckily they were guided off into a field !

After 14m we finally got to the first checkpoint at Ravenstonedale. Jane and Jules had pulled ahead a little and they kindly offered to slow down and run with me but I said I was just tired and I didn't think it would make me run any faster. I decided to walk most of the climb out of Ravenstonedale. This was on quiet road and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the first 5m. I knew the last quarter was downhill and I decided to focus on running that section. I got to the top of the pass and there was another lovely view to the south.

The final quarter of the route is my favorite, gentle undulations along a trail but mainly downhill. We had a stream to cross (thanks to SportsSunday for this and the next photo)

and some lovely trails before we reached the second and last checkpoint.

We passed through some lovely bluebell woods

and wild garlic woods

We went through a farm and the farmer who had directed me to my parking place in Sedburgh was sitting out in the sunshine with his family encouraging us on.

We do a bit of a loop round Sedburgh which seemed to go on a bit more than I wanted - I was pleased to finish. Sadly they were no longer serving food when I got in which was disappointing. A time of 6hr 15min which was almost 30min faster than last time, but it was hotter and more muddy three years ago. I was happy with the time after a busy week. The route was superbly signed and the results came out quickly.