This was originally targeted as the Maryhill Harriers weekend away, but ultimately only two Harriers made the trip, Chris Hever and Caroline Hassan. The weather was forecast for rain for the weekend but turned out to be dry and sunny throughout.Cartmel is a small but beautiful Lakeland village with a racecourse situated just on the outskirts where the triage of races started and finished.
We turned up early to watch the start and finish of the 10k event and the start of the 18km Challenge, which was a forerunner for our event the 18k Trail Race, but with an extra hour in which to finish, the atmosphere was great with about 1000 spectators and runners mingling in the sunshine before the start of their respective races.
The 10k finishers were reporting very muddy and difficult conditions and the times were comparatively slow, but we didn’t take on severity of the conditions …. But soon found out.
The race started on time and we had an easy first mile jogging along thinking this was going to be an easy day at the office, but into the second mile the course took an upward turn which was to go on for 2miles and nearly 600ft.
At the ridge of the hill the course went on a rollercoaster of wet grassy ascents and descents strewn with rocks and knee-deep mud pools.
At the first hill I decided on a jog/walk routine and settled in to enjoy the experience as best I could, meanwhile Caroline plugged away to the top, running well but remained in view for the first 5k.As the race developed I settled in with a group of about five where they would overtake me on the ascents and I would bound by them on the descends, Caroline was settling in to her own nip and tuck battles about 200m ahead.
At this point I thought that the course was well marshalled with km signs posted and as I hit the 10k mark a table was set out with water and Kendal Mint Cake .But just after the water stop as we descended a hill the course took a sharp turn to the right just by an open gate, where I was to find out later, Caroline and about 40 others took a wrong turn and ended up off course. The runner in front of me hesitated then took the correct course or I would have followed suit. The rest of the course went through fields with sections of deep “MUD” where cows had been except for a section of road where I got a sense of normality back and overtook an old man and woman out for a stroll. I wonder what they thought of me shouting “In your face” as I ran by. After a 2km descend the last km had a sting in the tail with a 700m climb through a muddy forest trail then down to the finish.
At the end I was surprised to find, no Caroline but word soon got round about the Biblical 40 wandering in the wilderness. They all started arriving back about 20 minutes later none of them happy bunnies at all least of all Caroline who added 2/3 miles on to the 11.5 mile course, she had teamed up with a lady from Kelvinbridge and they made their way back together.
In summary the course was more of a Hill/Cross Country than what I think of as a Trail. Definitely harder than any section of WHW I have done, a great challenge but just too hilly for me to be “enjoyable”. Caroline was understandably annoyed at not finishing the course proper and getting a true result probably 5/10 mins in front of me.
The first male was Gareth Salaven –Sale Harriers-1hr 7m 5s
The first female was Lizzie Adams—Hallamshire Harriers 1hr 19m 34s (4th overall)
Chris Hever –2hrs 8m 43s —–246th
Caroline Hassan –2hr 36m 21s—276th (was in pos’n for 2hrs)
According to the start list posted there was 463 starters but only 301 finished?
