Old County Tops Fell Race

Saturday, 17th May 2008

The Old County Tops covers 37 miles and 10,000 feet of ascent over Hellvelyn, Scafell Pike and Coniston Old Man; the highest points in the old counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire before the boundary shake up of 1974.

This event, I will call it an event because I couldn’t ‘race’ it, is for pairs and my partner for the day was Stewart Forsyth of Bowland Fell Runners. Stewart and I regularly train together and get on well.

We sent off the entry form wondering if we would get in, you had to list recent long races that you had completed, had I done enough? And this was the 20^th Anniversary of the event would it be over subscribed? (Don’t be stupid!). A few weeks later Stewart rang me – “The cheque has been cashed”, that was it!

Training had not gone very well, Stewart had been injured for a couple of months and we were short of long runs, the longest we had managed was a 20 mile recce of part of the route over Scafell Pike in early May.

On Saturday morning after a nervous, fitful sleep my alarm woke me at 4:30am; Stewart was picking me up in an hour. I managed some breakfast and checked through my kit for the last time. The drive up to the Lakes was quiet both inside and outside the car; I think we were both contemplating what was ahead. We arrived in Langdale just before registration opened at 7am and got parked on the field in front of the Stickle Barn near the New Dungeon Ghyll. We registered and watched as the other runners arrived; most of them were new faces to us, not the usual crew that we see at fell races. Many seem to be regulars with an air of confidence, there must be something about this event that people come back for, Kerry Eccles’s husband Graham who gave us some route finding advice has done it 9 times.

Eight O’clock soon arrived, with bum bags packed with the minimum of gear we lined up for the start. The weather was ideal, cooler than it had been for the last week with a nice bit of cloud cover. The field set off in the direction of Chapel Stile, down a good track that runs parallel to the Langdale Valley road, the lads at the front went off at what seemed like 5K pace while the majority seemed content to take it a bit easier and chat as they went, Stewart and I were with the latter group!

We emerged onto the Langdale road to the sound of cow bells from a small group of supporters and soon left it by a path towards Grasmere at Harry Place farm, this path was narrow and quite congested with runners but it kept us at a steady pace. We were soon passing through Grasmere, looking through windows at people sat in hotel dining rooms and a tempting smell of ‘full English breakfast’ on the air!

Out of Grasmere along the main road for a while until we could turn up a track on the right, the cow bells were here again, everyone settled down into a fast walk, this was going to be the standard for the day, walk the hills, run the flat and downs. Stewart and I had decided we would make sure we kept up with the feeds and we both had a gel at this point. Part way up this track we were counted through the first checkpoint, as we climbed I was starting to get really warm and I worried if I was overdressed with a long sleeved Helly vest on. I need not have worried, we reached Grizedale tarn and the wind picked up accompanied by a fine mist of rain to cool us all down. At this point the field split into various lines across the fellside, everyone trying to find the best line to Hellvelyn while avoiding the unnecessary extra ascent to Dollywagon and Nethermost.

The summit of Hellvelyn was in cloud but we found the cheerful marshals wrapped up against the damp and cold. Stewart had recced this section the previous week and we set off down the hill on instinct, as we emerged from the cloud there were runners all over the place picking their way down Whelpside Gill towards the Wythburn checkpoint.

After grabbing a drink and some jam sandwiches at Wythburn car park we ran out onto the narrow road heading to the head of Thirlmere. The impatience of some motorists made this quite an unpleasant run and it was a relief to turn off onto the side road to Steel End and then onto the track up the Wythburn valley. This is one of the longest sections and we only resisted the temptation not to run up the slight gradient because we were following another two more experienced pairs who kept the pace down to a fast walk. At the head of the valley we climbed steeply to Greenup Edge and then contoured above Langstrath Valley but below High Raise and Thunacar Knott directly to Stake Pass. We were pleased with the line we got across here, an improvement on the one we had when we recced a couple of weeks before. From Stake Pass it was only a steady climb to Angle Tarn where we arrived at the checkpoint at about 12:30. There were drinks provided here, and plenty of water which you knew had just been collected from the stream.

Moving away from Angle Tarn the path became both steeper and busier with the usual ‘pilgrims’ heading for Scafell Pike. Stewart was struggling a bit at this stage, he was feeling very tired and a bit nauseous, he did well to keep going, but was fortified by another gel. Before long we were scrambling over the uneven rocks that make up the summit of the Pike.

As we passed a couple of walkers they asked us about the race, they had already found out where it went but wanted to know how we got between each of the three tops, “Did we drive?”. A car might be needed yet as we were getting to a distance neither of us had run before and everyone kept telling us the race really started after Cockley Beck checkpoint!

The summit was quite busy, very different to the last time we were there when it was covered in a thin layer of snow, we spotted the checkpoint with the marshals jumping about to keep warm in the cold wind and low cloud. We doubled back on ourselves as far as Little Narrowcove where we descended steeply down towards the Great Moss. I picked up a small stone in my shoe dropping down here but I decided to leave it alone as it seemed to keep my mind occupied and diverted thoughts from the aches that were beginning to creep in.

Skirting the Great Moss on feint paths we crossed Lingcove Beck at a series of waterfalls that would have made a nice picnic spot on another day before picking up the track down Mosedale. This track looked perfect from a distance but on the ground it was rough and full of boulders that made running quite difficult and very tiring. We made it to the Cockley Beck checkpoint where the ever cheerful marshals welcomed us as if we were the race leaders and fed us once again with more sandwiches and cake and plenty of drinks.

With a couple of handfuls of food we set off very steeply up aiming for the col between Grey Friar and Great Carrs where we picked up a contouring path below Swirl How and Brim Fell to Coniston Old Man. I had a couple of bouts of cramp at this stage but it soon passed. Along this path we were passed by a steady stream of runners going in the other direction on their way to the finish. Clearing the checkpoint on the Old Man we could turn round for the run, (and walk), towards the finish. The path down Wetside Edge took us to Three Shires stone and then steeply and a bit painfully down the road to the last checkpoint where the marshal was using a duck call to amuse us!

From here to Langdale was a bit of a struggle but we made it and were clapped onto the field after 10hrs and 4 mins by a small crowd. The memento was a good quality long sleeved technical top and there was of course more food and cups of spicy lentil soup which went down really well. This must rate highly in value for money terms all this for £14 entry / pair.

The result board showed that the winners completed the run in just under 7 hours, a fantastic run. I forgot to count how many teams finished in front of us but we were pleased with our time and there were still about 8 teams to finish after us, one team were timed out at Cockley Beck and seven teams had retired.

I am already looking forward to repeating this event next year, I only hope I can persuade Stewart that he wants to do it as well!

Written by: Richard Davies

Submitted: 10^th June 2008

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor