ST GEORGES
DAY 10K, GREAT LANGDALE
Saturday, 17th
April 2010
With the Lancaster 3
Bridges race ran, Team Colby moved their attention to the lovely
hills of
We decided to make a nice weekend away for this
race, so booked into the relaxing New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel. Well Great
Langdale is our favourite place on the planet, we like it even more than
the Maldives, even if the running isn’t as tough in the middle of the Indian
Ocean! I picked Angela up from work at 6pm on Friday teatime and headed straight for the Lakes. We had checked in and had headed for the bar
before 8pm, so things looked well on course for a great weekend.
We had a relaxing evening with a couple of beers and a decent meal
and felt happy we hadn’t gone and got stupidly drunk, not that we ever do. Bed
called us pretty early as well, so we really did get a good pre-race evening.
So at this point we really had no excuses to fall back on if either of us ran
like snails.
Saturday dawned nice
enough; well it did in our hotel room. The other Wesham runners may not
have been quite so warm in their tents down the road at the National Trust campsite;
they looked ok when we spotted them stood outside the pub later on though.
Next we popped down to the
dining room for a full English breakfast and soon after we went back up
to our room for another relaxing brew. Angela didn’t quite seem as
relaxed now though, her love of running in hilly areas was now kicking in. I
don’t suppose I helped much by being really excited about the race. I had been
looking forward to running it since we ran it last year though.
Finally we got kitted up and
did the usual pre-race trips to the toilet, at this point I could tell Angela was really getting nervous! I
think she had bought a season ticket to the toilet, she went that often. The
loo done with and trainers securely tied to our itchy feet, we went and handed
our room key in at reception. Off we went for a quick social interlude with the
other Wesham runners, then to the start line we headed.
I was hoping that the week we had spent in Langdale
a few weeks earlier, would have helped us run these hills better than last
year. We had run the course a couple of times and also done a couple of even
steeper runs, so our legs shouldn’t be too shocked by the pain. I had a funny
feeling my lady wife wasn’t quite as confident as I was about the good effects
of our holiday runs - bit late to worry now though, as we were under way.
The run is quite undulating,
all on winding roads with breathtaking views of the Langdale valley
and Pikes. The hills are mainly short and sharp, so take the breath away
a bit, well they did mine. You do get paid back with some cracking descents as
well, so it turns out a deceivingly fast course. I ran it as hard as I could
all the way but the last mile was really tough mentally. My lungs felt like they
would burst out of my mouth any moment, my brain got switched off though and I
let my legs go into auto run mode. This tactic obviously worked as I came in on
42:23, which is again a new PB
and it beat last year’s time by 9 minutes I think. I have never felt like
throwing up so much during a race though!
Angela cantered in looking
tired but much calmer, having smashed 4 minutes off her previous time here. She
wasn’t far off a PB either, so it
was certainly a race well ran. I certainly think getting a good rest the night
before and being well organised the day of the race is a big help to your
quality of run.
We will certainly do the race
again, it is well organised and nice and friendly. It was over two days again
this year but the organiser says he may change it to just one day next year.
The t-shirt was a bit of a letdown. It was the exact same one as last year. For
a tenner you would expect something different - it doesn’t even have the year
on it. Other than this we had a great weekend away in the most stunning
scenery, what more can you ask from a run?
Written
by: Charles Colby
Submitted:
29th April 2010
Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR
Editor