Teenager With Altitude

15.4 mile 7600ft

Only entered this a week ago and thought it would help build up my fitness, later realising you had to be fit to do it, found it very tough at times.

The race sets off from stair and the first checkpoint is Causey Pike.
I felt quite comfortable at the start and the first climb went well. Once on the the top its fast running down to Outerside and  for the second checkpoint. I was in a group of a 4 at this point and with the cloud covering the tops navigating was going to be testing.
The run from Outerside to Coledale Hause I wasn't entirely sure on so I tucked  in behind Daniel Barton of Keswick ac and contoured some ground where I rolled my ankle but managed to run it off. The visibility was bad on Grasmoor and we were soon joined by Howard Seal and another runner and between us we all managed to find the checkpoint.

Checkpoint found and it was every man for himself again and it was good running down towards Whiteless Pike, where we were passing runners who were still looking for the Cairn on Grasmoor.

The descent down to Newlands Hause hurt me quite a lot but I managed to keep tabs on a few runners ahead.
Once at the Hause I had my first drink and then set of to climb up High Snokrigg with Howard, who its got to be said, was still very strong and said once he was  on the top he was going to start racing, I never seen Howard again, instead I tackled a much needed Eccles Cake.

Once on High Snokrigg it was good running again until the ascent of Robinson, which was very much in cloud.

I was caught up by a Dark Peak runner and soon found ourselves on the top where we only found the cairn when we heard shouting, at the time we were running away from it, so a stroke of luck there.

Not wanting to risk any nav errors we made our way to the fence and followed it until  we dropped out the cloud and could see Hindscarth and the Waltz runners. From now on route finding was easy and I started picking off lots of Anniversery Waltz runners. I made a slight error on Dale Head and found myself in some rocks but apart from that it went well til Catbells when I began to struggle but managed to hobble in to the finish in 3hr 30min and 21st position.
Bumped into Daniel Barton at the village hall where he told me he ended up in Grange from Robinson and had to hitch a lift back, a real shame too, has he was running strong.
Never seen Howard at the finish and can only presume he had a storming second half of the race.

Only one other Eden Runner in the race, Andy Thompson, who is flying at the moment with all his BG training paying off.

I could maybe do it faster next year if I recced but also realise I could do it a lot slower depending on conditions so overall very happy with my time.

Ankle swollen up today and the bruising is coming out but hoping its not too serious, I will take it easy this week as I have an entry for the Yorkshire three peaks fell race on Saturday, not 100% sure if I am running it yet though.
Not sure on winners, will update when results are through.