I took a weekend trip to the Lake District to participate in the first of this year’s Kong Mini Mountain Marathons, held on the Sunday in Kentmere. Leaving home on Saturday morning, I broke the journey with another parkrun just off the M6, this time Haigh Woodland, near Wigan. It was a lovely sunny morning for a run and the perfect time of year to visit this parkrun, with the bluebells in flower in the woods. Considering the course is a pretty accurate 5km distance and features around 80m of ascent, all in the second half, I was pleasantly surprised to reach the finish in 20:04, which seemed a little better than my recent form. I hoped I hadn’t tired out the legs excessively before the following day’s endurance race!
After parkrun, I pottered on to Arnside Knott, where I met the Patricks around midday in the upper car park. We spent a couple of hours pottering up to the summit at toddler pace, which gave a good opportunity to catch up for the first time this year. There were good views over the estuary into the Lake District, and inland towards the Howgill Fells.
I spent the rest of the day relaxing at Ruth’s house. In the evening, Andrena and Joe joined us for a chiminea barbecue – bonus opportunity to catch up with a couple more Old Duffers.
Sunday started fairly early as I had chosen a start time around 8:30am from Kentmere village, and the event parking was a mile down the valley from there. The day again dawned bright, clear and calm, but thankfully some high level cloud formed in the first hour of my run and prevented it getting too warm! My chosen route was up the Garburn Pass to the ridge then over Ill Bell to High Street, then down via Nan Bield to Mardale Head. From there, I reascended steeply to Gatesgarth Pass and a short way down the other side, then went over the ridge of Harter Fell and down to Kentmere Reservoir, and down the valley back to the village. A total of around 28km and 1600m ascent, and well-judged as I finished with just 29 seconds of the four-hour time limit to spare! A really enjoyable mountain run and excellent views throughout, but no time for photographs! I was pleased to finish in 10th place out of 129, my best result at a Kong event to date. You can see my route here: https://www.kongmmm.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#11&route=50010
My full photo album is available online here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hjDe2btz8BQenmZa8
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