Stubbington Green Runners

READERS of Richard Askwith's book "Feet in the Clouds" will be aware that the Borrowdale is considered one of the classics of the Lake District fell running calendar - 17 miles with 6500 feet of ascent, including England's highest mountain. This year's race conveniently coincided with James's summer holiday, and Graham James had no excuse not to do it. Here's Graham's tale of his adventures oop north!

Race day dawned with low cloud, and the weather forecast confirmed that this would persist. On arrival at the race start, we were informed that the organisers were insisting on runners carrying waterproof, rather than merely windproof, clothing.

The race starts from the Scafell hotel in Rosthwaite, with two miles on flat tracks. I had expected to need a degree of self-restraint here to avoid going off too fast, but found that the sheer number of runners on the narrow tracks restricted us to little more than a jog. Before too long we were off the track and onto the open fell, with a steepish climb to the first checkpoint on Bessyboot summit, reached in 45 minutes from the start.

The next part of the course takes a gradually rising line to the next checkpoint at Esk Hause, avoiding the unnecessary climb onto Glaramara summit. Fortunately there were plenty of runners to follow here, so my map could stay in my bumbag, and I felt that I was making fairly good progress until I found myself up to my waist in a bog. After a short struggle I extricated myself and pressed on to the Hause, where there was a good crowd of spectators, some offering water and jelly babies or flapjack to the runners. It was here that I had the first shout of "where on earth is Stubbington Green?" - I think the prize for most southerly runner must have been a toss-up between me and the guy from Axe Valley Runners.

Thus far the going had been mainly grassy, but the next section up to Scafell Pike is far rockier, although runnable at first. The boulders near the top were very slippery, slowing us all down and leading to a number of turned ankles and bruised shins. At last we reached the summit, and set off on the part of the race I had been dreading. The descent route is down a steep scree gully, which I took very slowly, as others bounded past me. It was a relief to be back on the easier ground of the corridor route, which we followed to Sty Head, where there was another large group of spectators.

The climb up to Great Gable seems to go on for ever, and the thought that the winners would by now be relaxing with a pint of beer didn't help! Eventually we were at the top, and then the steep rocky descent path to Windy Gap (apparently there is a grassy alternative, but the guys ahead were sticking to the path and I wasn't going to risk getting lost. I subsequently discovered that my wife, who had gone for a walk with the kids, re-directed a group who had taken a completely wrong line near here). The pace then picked up for the contour around Green Gable and Brandreth, until the cramp hit me. Fortunately I recovered quickly, and was even able to overtake a couple of runners on the grassy descent to Honister (plenty of practice on Butser means I can do the grassy descents - it's the rocky ones I can't handle).

If you know the area, you will be aware that from Honister it is only a 3 mile downhill road run to the Scafell Hotel, but of course that would be too easy. Instead we had another 400m climb up to Dale Head, followed by a grassy descent to the tarn and then the quarry track to the valley, splash through the stream and up the lane to the finish. During this section my lack of training, combined with a failure to eat or drink enough during the race, showed. I was unable to run even on the downhill sections, and finally staggered across the line in 4 hours 40 minutes, about 25 minutes more than I had hoped for.

Initial disappointment with my time was eased slightly when I discovered that times had been generally slow, with the winner taking 3:01 (the record is 2:35!). I was 181st out of 320 finishers, and at least 50 starters failed to make it round, so not too bad for my first attempt. I am determined to return another year, and improve on this time. Also, there are always the Ennerdale and Wasdale races, both longer than this one.