a little bit of everything on a BH weekend

This weekend did feel like a little bit of everything. Run, walk, party, cake, dancing, cooked brekkie, village fete, more cake, mountain bike ride, house sorting. One thing there was no variation in was the weather - just a lot of rain!!

Friday night was a nice quiet one in. Saturday was the big day for the Fells Angels and Friends BG relay attempt to break Billy Bland's record of 13 hours, 53 minutes set in 1982. P and I were running back to back legs in the afternoon over Kirkfell, so we had a leisurely morning and trundled over to Honsiter Pass and had a cuppa in the van. WHile we were supping away another couple of fellow runners pulled up as well as the King himself - Billy. A very entetaining, funny and humble man!

We planned to walk into our positions, so set off fairly early to get to Black Sail pass at about 1:30pm. We dawdled in fairly slowly, in reasonable weather. It was cloudy and windy but the rain held off. We got to BS pass on time, and I hung around with P for a while, and then with about 50 minutes left before the baton was scheduled I decided to plod up to the summit and assume my position. No sooner had I left P and got to the bottom of Joss's gully, did I hear a feint shout from him, and turned round to see him pointing! Oh No!!! The last thing I wanted was a eyeballs out ascent of Kirkfell but it seemed like the baton was up on schedule so I got stuck in and pushed hard to the top expecting P to come tearing up behind me at any moment!!

I arrived on top just as the cloud and rain arrived, and hunkered down on the summit expecting a short wait. When 10 minutes had gone by I realsied P must have called a false alarm and the people he had seen running down Pillar were not 'our people'!! I then had confirmation that the baton was on schedule leaving Pillar Summit. So I relaxed a little having felt pretty worse for wear after my effort up. Then began 30 odd more minutes of waiting in the rain and wind for P to appear over the near horizon. I had very little time between when he would appear and when I actually had to set off, so couldn't put loads of layers on. Instead I sat there with what amounted to a few granny blankets covering my legs, to keep warm.

Then about 10 minutes up on schedule, P appeared flying up hill looking more than just a bit nauseas from the effort, handed me the 'baton' a small camelback rucksac with the gps and radio in and I was off!! I gave it everything I had down the descent to Beckhead, and managed to stay on my feet which was very pleasing after the last few weeks! As I came over the brow of the hillside I could see 2 small figures move into position by the tarns and was relieved to know I didn't have to do the next leg up Gable. So soon I was down at Beckhead, passing over the baton, and off it went with Chris and Andy, disappearing into the mist on Gable. I don't think I've ever felt physically sick from effort on a downhill before!

and that was that! P and I met up again behind Kirkfell and trundled off to the van. We then drove into Keswick to see if we could get there and meet the incoming hopefully triumphant runners! We made it to Moot Hall just as the baton had got to Portinscale, so pottled out towards Stormwater Bridge to meet them, and enjoyed the run in to a very busy market day Keswick. The baton reaching Moot Hall after 13 hours 17 minutes and 45 seconds!!

It was a great atmosphere as everyone milled around at the finish. So many people involved both runners and supporters, it was a great sight to see. The party in the evening was a good do, with a hog roast and large amounts of food!!! We kipped in the van overnight and headed to Keswick for a fry up in the morning! It was another wet day in Cumbria, so headed via a shop or two back home, to then go to Eskdale Fete in the afternoon.

We nearly bought Jonty out of plants at the plant stall and filled up on plums, apples and cakes from the other stalls. The numbers seemed down on last year again, but the weather was pretty abysmal so I guess it wasn't surprising!

Monday morning we headed out on a local mountain bike ride, my first since the crash back in June. I didn't want anything technical, but that meant a fairly flat and muddy ride. Still it was great to be out on the 'new' bike, which I enjoyed a lot, and the shoulder held out well. I think it would have struggled on steep technical stuff, seeing as it complained a bit when I bunny hopped some puddles near the end of the ride! We managed by shear luck to be out in the driest two hours of the day, and spent the afternoon doing housey stuff, while it got very dark outside and rained an awful lot more!!

Lost - one British summer...

I've ridden into work and back yesterday and today in the rain - all my kit seems to be permanently soaked at the moment.