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Wasdale Race Report
 
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Wasdale
July 9th 2011

The Three Peaks has 3, Borrowdale has 3, this has 5 summits - So its going to be a hard one. 8500 feet of climb in the book, 9000 in popular accounts and as it turned out 9200 feet on my watch. Thats a lot of climb and a lot of descent. Bob Graham legs typically take in 10 or so summits, but they tend to be a succession of smaller reclimbs. Mind, there doesnt appear to be any Bessy Boot like climbs and a lot of the terrain Im familiar with from BG days so it doesnt seem too frightening, hopefully there will be some runnable bits - I kid myself. Its 21.5 miles, a misleading figure - it takes me over an hour longer to complete than Wuthering Hikes very hilly 31.5 miles.

Now the route is strange. After missing the summit of Illgill Head it heads north out of Wasdale right up to Pillar, going around the back of Wasdale peaks such as Yewbarrow and Kirkell to Great Gable. Yes, this is a Wasdale Peak, so now we skirt across the east side of Wasdale on the corridor route, just like Borrowdale fell race actually takes in Wasdale? No, We leave Wasdale to go around to Esk Hause for some reason, and then around the back of Scafell Pike to eventually head home. Horseshoe? Nope.

Adding to the hardness of this race is the hardness of getting there in the car, even from Eskdale is takes 45 minutes and Im late in the queue for registration. Its warm and sunny at 11am, with cloud over some of the tops, as 250 runners mill around next to some confused cows at the National Trust campsite in Wasdale.
 
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Theyre Off!
First Section

Off we go up the first climb, I try to take is steady but cockiness takes over towards the top where I feel quite good with things, this is much easier than Bessy Boot. Cockiness ends when the cloud comes in and the path becomes a faint dodgy line through tufty wilderness. I speed up to make sure I dont lose sight of the Clayton runner ahead, he unfortunately does the same to not lose sight of his guide so theres a bit of a tussle, and by the time I catch him the mist has improved. A convoy of runners materialises from the right on a different path, but they are moving faster so we must have got the right one. Anyway - One Down, at checkpoint 1 - Whin Rigg, justifiably a little visited summit.

I now follow my new orange man (Bowland) who seems quite a tough nut. There a lot of orange men out today and they form the bedrock of my navigation. Just before the decent back to Wasdale 2 runners behind me peel off the ridge and drop into the mist. So confident was their maneuver that I drop Orange and follow. Mistake#1, The terrible short cut over boulder ridden rough ground takes us out of the mist and back about 20 places. Orange man is almost a speck in the distance (although still clearly visible). A guy from Keswick seems to think we had found a neat shortcut and seems quite excited about it, but Im in no mood for chatting as a really difficult eroded descent saps my moral even further - I try to mentally regroup running through the woods and fields of the pleasant runnable interlude of Greendale.
 
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Joss
On To Seatallen

What could be better for Moral than Joss Naylor handing you a cup of water and asking you 'Hows it going lad?'. It doesnt get any better than that. Who have they got at Esk Hause handing out the water? Seb Coe? Moral is back up as we head up towards the Gill. Im behind a new orange man who is now forging up the hillside. Unfortunately its the wrong hillside, and I curse Bowland as I have to detour down thick gorse back to the stream, and another 20 places gone - Mistake#2, and the same old faces to pass again on the way up Seatallen, this time on the correct side of the gill. I chat to a guy from Calder Valley for a bit, the spongey trudge is reminiscent of Whernside ,and Seatallen is about the same size. Two Down, the none-descript grassy top of Seatallen is reached. At the top the mist kicks in again and theres about 5 of us running off, I look around, come on - one of these guys must know this inside out? No, all stop and the maps come out to my disgust. One bloke sounds serious but basically doesnt know which way to go, so we blunder down. The mist lifts and truth is revealed at Mistake#3. A very uncomrfotable contour traverse corrects the error, and so begins the slog up to Scoat Fell.

Its a grassy slog - but Im starting to think its not going to be all that bad, this is the last stetch of ground I dont know. And Im thinking how its lucky its not that boggy with all the rain yesterday, it must be the dry spring There is going to be nothing like the hideous Glaramara section to Esk in the Borrowdale fell race.

On cue, the path becomes boggy, rocky and assault course like just like that said section. On the plus side there is no mist and I get the racing line correct up to the Scoat - Red Pike saddle.
 
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Mosedale
On to Scafell Pike

A water shed has been reached, before the nature of the terrain was characterised by tufty wild grass, peat and scrub - now it becomes rock, rock and more rock. We are back in the mist as we run the ridge towards Pillar. As ever, Bolloc Crag is to be bypassed and I discuss the matter with my new Clayton guide that I caught climbing from Scoat Tarn. Its a crap scrappy path and I wonder whether its worth just going over the tourist route. We run together Up Pillar, thats 3 peaks complete, and then discuss the best route off the big pile of stones. Navigation is broadly successful and he races away from me down to Black Sail + the inevitable descender or two zooms past.

Now comes the contouring path around Kirk Fell - I looked at this on the map and, not knowing it, feared for its quality. Indeed, it was an awful scrappy affair with quite a descent to begin with. Several runners appear from behind and infront as we approach a gill, and everyone is milling about with water bottles and gels. Tempers are beginning to become frayed as a bloke loses it with his water bottle - 'Its f**king useless' he gestures at me, as if Im the slightest bit interested in the failings of his piece of plastic. Knowone seems to be budging so I climb out from the stream and press on along the rubbish path. It constantly peters out and reappears above or below, usually above. A race like this is not complete without a strange twinge from my knee as I stumble down a big piece of rock. Its not really possible to run on it at all, but there is not the usual queue of people gliding past to my left or right so everyone seems to be struggling with it. Gable suddenly comes into view with the way up marked by some orange men. This rocky climb seems to go on a bit as I pass the Dark Peak runner who flew past me coming off Pillar. Into the mist I toil with walkers everywhere up to peak number 4, one more to go.

The descent from Gable is ascent in the Borrowdale fell race, over loose boulders and a rock stepped tourist path. Its bloody horrible, and Dark Peak bloke is past me before Ive hardly started. Further down an orange man appears with a cheery 'Hows it going Dewsbury? Dont you just love scree? Blah blah...', he is so far ahead I miss the rest. I try and copy his line and do a small amount of reluctant scree surfing. To my left an Ambleside lady glides down some secret grassy descent, she has overtaken me for the third and final time. Needless to say Im rather irritated at Sty Head, but the next section to Sprinkling Tarn goes well and Im running nearly all of it, at Esk Hause Orange man and Ambleside woman are just a few metres infront after being dots in the distance. Here the friendly marshalls have bottled water which is pretty impressive, but no sign of the ice cream van I had always fantasized about though. Seb couldnt make it. I take my final gel and follow the duo up towards the Scafell Massif, since they have teamed together though they have improved their speed, and I desperately try to keep up as the mist comes in again on the plateau.

Sadly though, the mist becomes too soupy and even the orange wont penetrate it and I stumble over boulders vainly following the cairns. Inevitably I lose faith for mistake#4, convinced the cairns are going to Ill Crag as the path seems to have vanished. I head the wrong way, confer with some walkers, then eventually find the dip before the final ascent of Scafell Pike. Im definitely jaded now, and the happy marshals on Scafell Pike arnt helping. 'Whats the way?' I ask meekly as they point out into the soup. Thats it, All 5 peaks down, now its back to blighty.
 
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Finishing
To the Finish

The only way I get through the first section of rock is using the Jimmy technique e.g I swear quite a lot, as loose boulders constantly have me stuttering around. The suns comes out and is very strong, the views appear of Wasdale and they are very nice, but we are also very high.

The path opens out into an insane finish of steep grass versus exhausted quads. 3000 feet of lovely descent, if only I had a mountain bike. The race route veers across over onto Lingmells grassy flank. At a stream crossing I look down to just plough through it and make one of those last fraction of a second corrections as its over a metre deep! My last ditch leap is successful, but behind me a hear a yelp from red-lycra man as he takes a dip.

Red-lycra man seems invigorated by the cold water and storms past on the very steep grassy descent off Lingmell, that doesnt bother me anymore - I can see the carpark, although my quads are now on the point of complete failure. Im desperate to run with my legs straight, but after checkpoint 7 theres still one thunderous descent.

Just time to pass one poor bugger limping in and its a wrap at 5h 19m.

I need to be luckier, and much better at descending. Still, it beats the White Rose Centre or Golf.
 
Submitted by Andrew Cottier
 
 
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