The Cumbria Grand Day Out was organised to raise money for the flood appeal and mountain rescue teams and over the day across Cumbria £20,450 was raised. I took part in the Askham “trail run” which was one of the events organised across the region. Not being from those parts I didn’t realise that trail run actually meant fell run!
Saturday 16th January was very cold and it was difficult to work out how many layers to wear. It was minus three at the bottom with estimates of minus seven to eight at the top. The hills around Askham were white with snow so it looked like we were set for a challenging race. The event was for runners, walkers and dogs with 372 humans and probably 20 or 30 dogs taking part. Waiting in the hall before the start I bumped into ex-MRR David Green who now runs with Eden Runners. He said that meeting a MRR at one of his local races had made his day and sends his best wishes to everyone.
The start was delayed half an hour to allow late comers to arrive (the roads were pretty bad and some bridges were missing necessitating major detours). We set off up the hill at 1130. The first mile was on a gritted icy road and track but we soon set off over the hill. There was heather sticking through in places but it was mostly fresh (knee deep in places) snow with little red flags every 25 metres to guide us. The gentle incline transformed into quite a steep gradient and I was glad I had been out the previous weekend at Monaughty for some training. I managed to “run” to 4 and a half miles then did fast walking up the steepest half mile to the summit and the dibbing point. The downhill section was great fun and mostly on soft snow though there were some icy bits where people went flying and some runs through streams. Hidden pools of water under the snow added to the wet feet experience but once they had warmed up they were fine.
I got to the top in just over an hour and came down in 40 mins giving me a time of 1:45 for the 10 miles. The winner ran it in 1:08. There were spot prizes for the best hat (a deer stalker), best makeup and first dog as well as medals for everyone and raffle prizes a plenty. The editor of Trail Running magazine ran in the race so it will probably be in the next issue.
It was an experience. I’m not sure I’d do it again but running down the hill in the snow was pretty amazing.