Wasdale Fell Race

Another Saturday…another long race, or so it seems to have been all summer. On Sat I completed the infamous Wasdale Horseshoe Fell Race, and in doing so managed to qualify for the Lakeland Classics Series, comprising the Super Long Races -Duddon Valley, Ennerdale Horseshoe, Wasdale and the Long Races – Borrowdale, Three Shires, Langdale Horseshoe – at least 3 of the SL or 2 SL and one L . Admittedly if I hope to actually place anywhere in this series (38/54 after 2 SL so far) then I think I would have to actually win the remaining 3 races, so I will just have to content myself with simply completing the series and maybe doing all 3 that are left, which I would be pleased with. Back to Wasdale, this is a race I had heard about many times and decided that after all my long races this summer that I should give it a bash. It starts in the tremendous setting of Wasdale Head in the South Lakes where you are surrounded by fantastic peaks, equal to the setting of, say, Glencoe. For a change the weather was cool and cloudy, just about right for what I expected to be about a 6hr day out on the hills. Approx 150 of us set off, including Luke and a few Carnethies, for the steady grind up to Illgill Head (609m) and the ridge to Whin Rigg (536m), which was very runnable. I was trying to settle into a nice steady pace at this stage knowing the many hours and thousands of feet of climb that lay ahead. From this 1st checkpoint we had a cracking flagged descent down a trod in the heather at the side of the Greathall Gill gorge to the other end of Wast Water where we had a mile or so of wooded trail before hitting some nice tracks up Greendale Gill and its waterfalls to Seatallan CP2 (693m). From here you can see miles and miles ahead and the field was well strung out by this point. There were some nice runnable trods in the heather down to the lovely Scoat Tarn before a steady climb up past Scoat Fell for a ridge run up the rocky summit of CP3, Pillar (892m). It was quite a rocky technical descent off down to Black Sail Pass and I was settling in to not a bad ploddy rhythm at this point as we skirted on a narrow contouring path under Kirk Fell to the col between it and Great Gable. Jane was here to provide moral support and water and to take the photo of me and the blonde woman, who proceeded to disappear up the steep rocky climb up to CP4, Great Gable (899m) never to be seen again. GG will be familiar to those having run Borrowdale where you come up nice rock steps which ease the big climb up from Styhead Pass, however we had to run down them, or should I say meander down them slowly as they were treacherous and irregularly spaced and would have resulted in serious damage had you slipped up. The slow pace did give a bit of a rest for the final climb up to Esk Hause, CP5, and then on to Scafell Pike, England’s highest peak at 977m. The fine weather deteriorated at this point and the last 15min or so to the top were wet and windy and with plenty of slippy rocks, really not a lot of fun. I wasn’t at all sure of the route off, as I had only ever been up here for the Borrowdale Race, where you head off in a completely different direction, so I sneakily let Wendy Dodds lead a group of us guys off into the clag hopefully in the direction of the last CP, Lingmell Nose. She did a fine job, and I managed to pull away from her when the clag cleared and I could see where I was going, shame on me! It got one back for me as she had hammered me at Ennerdale a few weeks earlier. The last descent was a grassy cracker and I even beat someone on the run in. It was a real pity that the weather had turned horrible by this point as no one was hanging around at the finish, as the attraction of a dry and warm car and fresh clothing proved too much and we all drifted away. I was really pleased with my time of 5hrs 40mins, being 15min faster than my time for the shorter Ennerdale race a few weeks ago!127 runners finished and winner was Lloyd Taggart in 3h 49m and Jackie Lee set a new course record for the women in 4h 19m (11th place) followed closely by former Westie Helene Diamantides in 4h 25m (15th). The stats are impressive = 22 miles and 9000 feet, i.e. twice Ben Nevis!! It deserves its legendary reputation in fell running circles and those who enjoy the likes of Jura, Glen Clova, Glen Rosa etc. should really make the effort to get down for this and the other classic long races down here, especially given the absence of boggy, heathery Scots terrain and the abundance of tracks and trods. Wasdale Race details here