Great Lakeland Challenge
The Great Lakeland Challenge is a kind of 3 person team Rowathlon but one of the toughest possible to be held in England.
This is how it went; I'm glad it's over so I can now concentrate on triathlons.
The three stages are: -
Canoe England's longest lake- Windermere, 16km!
Cycle England's steepest roads- Wrynose Pass and Hardknott Pass upto 1:3 gradient, 42km!
Climb and run England's highest peak- Scafell Pike and over to Langdale, 14km!
It was a steady start on the canoe, with 10 miles to travel up Windermere we kept a constant pace with little bursts of speed each time we swapped sides to paddle on, we hit dry land in ninth place so we had to push on the cycle stage! After a meat n potato pie, an energy gel (a toilet stop) and kitting out my bike with fluids and bananas, we did just that, taking over one team after the first of 26 miles! We passed more teams soon after plus those who were unlucky to suffer either punctures or chain problems, but we had looked after our bikes so they were in tip top condition!
The two passes, Wrynose and Hardknott are the steepest in England and everyone at some point has to get off and push the bikes up the hill. The grdient going up Wrynose is 25% / 1:4 and no amount of training can prepare you for it (the closest we have in close by is Appley Bridge at 12% and Higher Lane- Parbold about 10%, but that is over a kilometre long). The fun part was coming down the other side, faster than the cars could! In fact Nic, one of my other two team mates, misjudged a car slowing down in front of us and went into the back of it, but he and his bike were OK. My two team mates were quicker up the hills than I am because me and my long legs mean its relatively harder for me to push but I was a lot quicker down hill and just as good on the flat. After the two steep hills we had a couple more short stepp climbs and finally along the beauitul scenery of Wasdale (lake- the 'Lake' District has only one lake- Bassenthwaite, the rest are NAMEmere or NAMEwater e.g. Windermere or Coniston Water) up to the National Trust car park at the base of Scafell Pike. I passed our support driver on the way in had suffered a tyre blow out and was waiting for the AA (no spares in the Ford Galaxy to make room for storage), I didn't notice as I was flying past, I thought she'd got a phone signal and was making good use of it! Finally I missed the turn into the car park, instead of turning right onto the gravel path I carried straight on the road to the farm at the dead end!!! That lost us four minutes and two places that we had already gained...whoops! That put us in fourth but we didn't know then.
Due to the blow out our climbing kit had to be shipped over (we had specific items that had to be checked before we were allowed to start to each stage and for simplicity each stage was separated but my bag had been left behind so I wasn't happy! Nic had a spare camelpack (a small backpack with a 1.5 litre water bag that had a drinking tube attached to the shoulder strap so you can drink on the move) with a full bladder so after dismantling the bikes and putting our trainers on we were good to go!
The hike was up, up and up- all the way to the top of Scafell Pike, all 978 metres (3 210 feet) of it, passing a couple of teams on the way too! Again, once we hit a certain angle of gradient, I was slower going up due to my long legs- each step needed more effort. Going down I was in top gear! Passing marshalls on the way, who recorded our progress to make sure we weren't cheating (can't take many short cuts unless you've got three hand gliders) we ran on. As we passed one of the final marshalling points we asked what our position was- 3 minutes behind the team in front of us and about 18 minutes behind the leaders. I asked "Does that mean we're in third?" "No, you're fourth!" Terry (my other team mate) said to him "What did you tell him THAT for?" Terry, knowing my determination to win knew what was coming!!! I hit another gear and stepped up the pace; some parts of the pathways were large rocks and my long legs came into their own again, leaping from rock to rock at an amazing pace.
You need eyes like a hawk and 100% concentration at that speed to make sure every step is sure footed otherwise you can get a nasty injury! I came close a few times catching my toe behind the odd rock which slowed me in my tracks the odd time. On some of the descents we could run down the grass verges and be even faster! Unfortunately I caught my foot on a rock on one the paths and did a nice tumble, landing on my knee and ending up on my back with my legs facing uphill! With my left knee bleeding and in severe pain and a large graze on my right arm I dusted myself down, made sure I could walk, I could but with limited movement, and we carried on. I don't how many teams passed us during this but we couldn't waste any more time so off we went!
Going down past Angle Tarn I rushed passed a team and heard one of them muttering "Flaming heck didn't he fall? How come he's so fast? Cross country runners!" To me it sounded great because it demoralised them and spurred me on! It's all in the head- you can believe you are going to win and win well or you can convince yourself that you are struggling and slow down.
Eventually we were heading down the final descent into the valley on the final straight and we were neck and neck with one team. I was at the back of the pack struggling to keep pace due to my knee- I could run okay but I couldn't bend it fully which made it harder to negotiate the steeper steps on the way down. Eventually on the flat I picked up the pace again and I could see Terry and Nic in front and two members of the other team too. I soon blitzed past them two and kept pace with Terry and Nic who were about 800 yards in front. I could see the finish line on the other side of the Stool End Farm buildings and I pushed a bit harder, then as I turned the last corner I put in a final sprint finish to the cheers and the 'cow bell'. One guy from another team congratulated me and a hand slap from Terry and Nic and I sat down to check my leg.
It seemed OK but the pain would increase as the adreneline dropped- one of the medics came over and set about cleaning the wounds and did a great job. Then it was time for a warm down massage, a pinta stout and a burger!
I asked Terry what position we came in and he said "We came first!" Wow, I didn't relalise- we beat all the others! It turned out the team I thought had beaten us had split up and it was the last two I had overtaken, with just one of them crossing the line just in front of Terry and Nic!
A nice trophy, medal and a certificate did nicely thanks...plus the fact that over £78000 had been raised for disadvantaged children in the UK under Wooden Spoon projects.
My left calf is swollen and very sore but I'm walking okay and hope to be back running soon, I'll be in the pool much sooner hopefully.
