Lapping up the Lakeland Fells

Patrick Devine-Wright and Pat Kinsella both completed ultras in the Lake District this weekend. The Montane Lakeland 50 and 100 are described as the UK’s premier trail races.  The two events certainly take place over some of most challenging but most spectacular scenery in the country. The circular 100-mile route encompasses the whole of the Lakeland fells, and includes in the region of 6300m of ascent using public bridleways and footpaths. The route starts in Coniston and heads south before completing a clockwise loop which takes in the Dunnerdale fells, Eskdale, Wasdale and Buttermere before arriving in Keswick. From here the route heads to Matterdale and continues over to Haweswater before returning via Kentmere, Ambleside and Elterwater to the finish at Coniston.

The Lakeland 50 is run over the second half of the Lakeland 100 Ultra Tour of the Lake District, completing the final 50 miles of the 100-mile course so is still an incredibly tough ask.

Patrick Devine-Wright went large and tackled the 100-mile option. The distance is actually 105 miles and he finished in 26 hours, 6 minutes which placed him 32^nd and second M50 of some 750 who started out on the Friday evening.

Pat Kinsella went for the 50-mile option, which starts on the Saturday morning near Penrith.  It may be ‘half of the course’ but it’s still almost double the distance of a marathon and on rough terrain with approximately 3100m of ascent and Pat finished in just over 14 hours.

Four run five at the Flyer

On Saturday evening four AVRs ran the Haldon Forest Flyer. A five-mile run on the trails through Haldon Forest offering spectacular views across to Dartmoor and back to the city of Exeter, it is organised by Haldon Trail Runners.  There is a sting in the tail with just under a mile of steep climb to the finish line.

First AVR home was Kerry Board, 26^th in 37:35, followed by Cory Schultz in 63^rd in 44:02; Sarah Coates, 67^th in 44:15 and Jess Board, 80^th in 46:45.  A total of 140 completed the race.

Seaton parkrun and beyond

There was a huge turnout on a warm and sunny morning in Seaton with 341 finishers.  First to finish was Matt Clist in 17:01with Debbie Whiston second female in 20:54. Eleanor Wood was first on age-grade with a tremendous 89.7% for her 23:38.

Rupert Pady continues his fine streak of results with a PB of 20:16 and there were also PBs for David Long, 20:45 and Shirley Goy in 34:34.  Simon Freathy celebrated his 100^th milestone event while Liz Slade volunteered for the 150^th time.

Out on the road, Haydn Boehm and Louise Rawlins tackled the hill at Ashton Court parkrun; Susi and David Sadler enjoyed Nant y Pandy parkrun on Anglesey while Helen Boehm completed Poole parkrun and Jon Day and Paul Johns continued their tour of Devon parkrun events with Tamar Lakes.