The Lowther Trail Race

There was some mid-week discussion as to whether the Lowther Trail Race was something that me and Speedy fancied. I remembered the castle, but couldn't remember the course. At 13 miles, I should have had. 

I had a vague notion of running along a slowly rising long draggy and wide gravel path and another mental snapshot of a section of wet reedy grass and a river crossing, but beyond that I was stumped. I checked the results and found my name down in a set of results from 2017. Surely I had blogged about it. However, on checking the blog, there was no mention. What did all this amnesia mean? Was it a good sign? 

There were no entries on the day, but the pre-entries were held open until the night before the event, so on Saturday lunchtime we committed the 13 quid each and checked the forecast. It looked like it could be a hot one. A quid a mile. Thats more like it.

My time in 2017 was just under the 2 hours so I had an idea that if I finished around 2 hours or so it would be acceptable. We left the house around 8am and drove to the Estate. Until recently the Castle facade and some low walls were all that remained of the buildings, but someone has recently put in a bit of money and its changed since I last didn't remember it. 

We got our numbers and used the communal cafe toilets. Very avant garde I must say. A set of non gender assigned cubicles. People were visibly confused. We initially had bumbags, but after checking that there were actually water-stops, we ditched these and decided to travel light. 

It was, after all, a trail race. There were around 150 or so present and I reminded Speedy to take the first 3 miles super steady what with the mercury rising and the skies clearing to reveal strong warm sunshine...who knew...summer!?  

We took off down the grassy slope heading away from the Castle onto a wide estate path and then past a church and old bridge. Half the congregation were peering over the low stone wall and the kids hanging off the iron gate in their best sunday gear, watching the stream of misfits take on the best the Lowther Estate could throw at us. We ran through Askham village and then the road began to rise - yes, here it was, the long draggy gravel path. 

The path rose for around 3 miles before we were confronted on the ridge with a stunning view of Pooley Bridge and the north end of Ullswater. It was awesome, and had I not been chewing on trying to track a spidery looking old gadgie 15 seconds ahead, I might have stopped and taken a photo. 

On the way down off the ridge it became grassier with more heather as we crossed the moor. I sat in with a high stepping tall runner who looked like he was out for a jog. Lolloping across the heather. Needless to say I wasn't lolloping and he soon lolloped his way ahead. After around 5 miles spidery gadgie had extended his lead on me and I relinquished any hope of catching him. This put me in a better mood and after a water stop at 6 mile and the river crossing at 8 miles (squelch, squelch) I took some comfort in there being less mileage ahead than there was behind. At around 9 mile, we came to a craggy outcrop and I decided to take a couple of snaps. I asked the runners behind to look lively and make it look like they were enjoying themselves: click. The wee group ahead fragmented over the next mile and toward the end there were a few runners caught and a few passed by. The ones that I caught were down to a shuffle and had clearly overcooked it in the early stages. It was 1:57 and 3rd M60 over the line. A short sprint was required when an Eden Runner had the temerity to try and pass me. I had to snap myself out of my dreamlike heat riven plod-bubble and he soon ate my shorts. 

Speedy did well for 2nd to Hannah Russell. We all collected a bottle of beer. The prize-winners collected a further 3 bottles - I commented that this was probably not something that should continue - giving alcohol out to athletes. What hope is there for the next olympics. A gold medal and a bottle of brown ale? Anyway, consider yourself updated.