LAKELAND 100 - 26th-28th JULY 2024

I will start this report with a warning: it is very long. But not quite as long as running 105 miles.

Lakeland 50 is a wonderful event. You’ll have heard a few of us at the club raving about how much fun we’ve had & what a great weekend it is. Its big sister, the Lakeland 100, is something else entirely. The "100" is actually 105 miles, starting in Coniston & doing a clockwise loop around the Lakes. It starts at 6pm on Friday, while the 50 starts in Dalemain at 11.30am Saturday & does the second half of the loop, with both races finishing in Coniston. This was my first 100-mile race, having done Lakeland 50 twice plus 4 other 50 mile races over the past 2 years. Given the 6pm start time & knowing the route I was expecting to take most of the allowed 40-hour time limit - going through 2 full nights, which was unknown territory for me.

FRIDAY
Paul & I went to registration as soon as it opened on Friday morning to get the dreaded kit-check out of the way before the queues got too long. The required kit is not as extensive as for events like the Spine Race but it is always a stressful process. The volunteers checked my ID, all my kit, handed over my race number, taped my tracker to my pack & took my photo for the tracking site. The last few years have had a theme & this year it was Top Gun, so there were lots of people in fancy dress & all the event crew had t-shirts printed with their call signs. We sat in the marquee for a while with Jo while Bryan & Simon had their kit checked, before we all went for breakfast (2nd breakfast for me, but fuelling is important) then back to the hotel. I repacked all my kit for the 500th time, had a rest, then back up to the Race HQ around 3pm, where we saw Janet, Lee, Carl & Anthony queuing for kit-check.

The 100 race briefing was at 4.30pm in the school hall. Race Director Marc Laithwaite gave his usual briefing, including talking about the completion rates – the highest it’s ever been is 64% of starters completing the race, could we break the record & get it to 65% this year? On this occasion he had help with the briefing from a local vicar, whose wife was in the 100, to read a blessing & end the briefing with the usual words, "So if you have nothing better to do, let’s meet outside at 6 o’clock & run 105 miles.”

After a photo with Team RRR I headed to the start about 5.45pm & found myself in the crowd next to John Cassidy from the Young Hearts Run Free podcast, so we got a selfie & chatted a bit while we waited for everyone to gather. Then an opera singer sang Nessun Dorma & it was time to start the race. (Much of this may seem strange to anyone not familiar with Lakeland…a few years ago a runner thought they hallucinated Paul Potts singing Nessun Dorma on the fells, but it turned out it really was him, & ever since then an opera singer has sung it at the start; the title translates as 'none shall sleep' so an appropriate choice.)

Paul & Team RRR had agreed to be in a designated spot under the tree on the right, so I knew where to look out for them on the way up the hill, but I still almost missed them in the crowd of runners & the crowds of spectators lining the streets all the way through Coniston & up to the start of the Miners track.

Early on there is a bit of a bottleneck where everyone has to get onto a narrow track. The fast people all race off to try to avoid this. It wasn’t too long a wait & then everyone is in single file up the 1st real climb, which goes on for a few miles. In this section I met a couple of runners I knew from other races, including Felicity who I ran the last 2 miles of the 50 with last year. After the long climb there is a descent of a couple of miles into the 1st checkpoint at Seathwaite. I tried not to go too fast on the downhill to not destroy my quads this early in the race & arrived at Seathwaite having completed the 7 miles in 1:43. 

Many of the checkpoints have their own theme & for Seathwaite it was Hogwarts. I only had a quick stop here to fill bottles & grab some biscuits, then I was on my way to Boot. This is a flatter section - though there is still a bit of climbing, it’s a bit more undulating rather than just 1 huge hill. The underfoot conditions began to have an impact here. It had been very wet over the last few weeks & even though we were in glorious sunshine, the ground here was very boggy. A few people sank up to their knees in this part & it was impossible to keep your feet dry. There is also 1 terrible section of almost vertical descent where you have to hang on to a wire fence & lower yourself down. The field had settled down more now so I found myself running with a small group.

I arrived at Boot checkpoint (14 miles) in daylight, slightly ahead of schedule, but I’d wanted to make the most of the light & get up onto the next section before I put my headtorch on. A quick water top-up & a bit of food from the Christmas-themed checkpoint (not Christmas food), then on my way. Immediately after the checkpoint I met another runner & we ran the whole way to Wasdale together. There are no real climbs in this section, you make your way onto a sort of open moor & past a tarn, then down slightly into Wasdale with a few turns & a bit of road. It's only 5.4 miles & it passed quickly with us chatting away.

Wasdale checkpoint (19.4 miles) was also Christmas-themed, with the Grinch waiting on the footbridge to show us the way. This checkpoint felt really busy but I noticed they had a big screen on the wall showing the tracking information, but the dots were all so close together at that point you couldn’t see much. Again a quick stop for me, then on to the beginning of the climb to Black Sail Pass. This is a huge climb but being in complete darkness you don’t know how far it is to go & you get an amazing view of the headtorches zigzagging up the climb. The top came as a bit of a surprise & a relief – there is an old metal gate at the top so you know that is definitely the top, not a false summit - then I set off down. This was where the rain started for me. I put up with it for a while then as it got heavier decided I needed to get my waterproof on. The descent off Black Sail is a bit treacherous in daylight & dry conditions so was pretty awful in the dark & wet. Ahead I could see the torches snaking across to the left & up the next climb, but I tried not to think about that. At the bottom of the hill there is a river crossing, currently without a bridge. It had a bridge when I 1st went that way in November but it has since vanished & you have to wade across the river. It’s not very deep & the volunteers had put up a rope to help us cross. Past the Black Sail YHA & on to the next climb up to Scarth Gap. It was still raining on & off at this point. Every so often it would stop & I’d consider taking off my waterproof, as it was very warm; then the rain would start again. Over Scarth Gap, then a long descent to Buttermere. A few people were struggling on the rocky muddy descent here & it was a relief to reach the nice path alongside Buttermere - until my headtorch died. I’d had to use a brighter setting on the descent & it had drained the battery, but it came back on at the lowest setting, which was just enough for the flat path & lane into Buttermere. 26.3 miles done.

SATURDAY
It was 1.45am when I got to Buttermere & suddenly 2 tractors came down the road towing enormous farm machinery, making all the runners jump out of the road in front of the tiny checkpoint. Again a quick stop for me & on my way up...yet another climb. This 1 was a real low point for me mentally. It’s 6.5 miles to Braithwaite, with the 1st few being the climb up to Sail Pass then down into Braithwaite. I think the time of night, combined with anxiety that my headtorch would die again, made this part a real struggle. There are also some turns which are easy to miss & at 1 point, in our eagerness not to miss the turn, a group of us turned too early but quickly realised our mistake. It is all single file path through high bracken, so you can’t see where you are putting your feet. I was in the middle of a train of 10-15 people, happy with the pace, but the whole way up I had the feeling that the people behind wanted to pass me - but there was nowhere to pass & no point as they’d just be behind the next person. Finally over the top then down to Braithwaite - 32.8 miles completed.

Braithwaite checkpoint was a shock. It’s in a small village hall & had a million people inside. It was raining again by now & the change from cold rain to hot crowded space with lots of light & noise was a bit disorientating. I squeezed my way through, got a coffee & some food, then straight back out. I was suddenly freezing & it took me a while to warm up again, walking along the road drinking my coffee. There are streetlights in Braithwaite & then you get on to the A66 - it was almost light enough to not need to put my headtorch back on, so I left it switched off as long as possible until I reached the road itself & had to put it on so the cars would see me. Here I met Stephen (callsign Tango) who was jogging along & I asked if I could tag along with him as I knew I’d be quicker with company. Somehow, despite knowing exactly what to look for, we both missed the turn off the A66 & went all the way up to the roundabout so got back on the route there. It was Stephen’s 9th Lakeland & he’d done almost every ultra there is, so we chatted away & stayed together most of the way to Blencathra. I was feeling better now it was light again, trying to run as much as possible on this section.

Blencathra is 41.3 miles, so over 1/3 of the way, but the next 2 sections are long & not particularly interesting. I saw from the tracking screen in the checkpoint that the race leaders were already through Howtown, 30 miles ahead of me! My strategy was just to focus on the next checkpoint & not think about the 105 miles, but by this point my optimistic plan to be at Dalemain for the start of the 50 was starting to slip away. After Blencathra there are a few flat miles of tarmac on an old railway line, then a boggy climb to the Old Coach Road, an undulating track which goes on forever. By this point the rain had been falling for a while, not heavy but unrelenting, creating deep puddles across the whole width of the track. Eventually I reached Dockray (49 miles). This checkpoint is run by the Hardmoors race team & is a tiny marquee in a car park. Coming in to the checkpoint they put out these horrible signs saying things like 'Not far now! HeHeHe', 'Don’t worry, you’re not even halfway yet!' & 'It could be worse, it could be raining'. I got some soup, food & topped up my water. The rain was really bothering me now but there was nowhere really dry & no point hanging around so I pushed on again.

The next section is the longest but I knew that at the end of it I had a drop bag with a set of dry clothes & also Paul & Frank would be waiting for me. The 1st part of this section joins the Ullswater Way route which I’ve done a few times, then climbs around the side of Gowbarrow. Somewhere here I met Paul, 1 of the GB Ultras ambassadors & we talked about their races for a bit, then met Jackie who holds the female record for the number of Lakeland 100 finishes (this was her 9th). I stayed with Jackie & her friend Colin for most of the way to Dalemain, which is a few miles of road, then a loooong track through the estate to the house itself where the 100 checkpoint is, next to the start of the 50. As I came round the back of the house, Paul & Frank were waiting for me. Poor Frank was sopping wet & muddy but dancing about on the end of his lead, excited to see me after over 17 hours. The 1st thing I said was, "I’ve got to Dalemain, I’m getting to the finish." It's 59 miles to Dalemain so only 46 to go. At this point I felt it was achievable as I had almost 22 hours remaining. Paul walked with me round to the checkpoint & said he'd meet me on the far side when I came out. It was 11:43am when I reached Dalemain - the start of the 50 had been delayed slightly by traffic problems but I’d still just missed it. I found a chair & sorted out my drop bag, changing into dry kit & shoes. I got some pasta & took my drop bag out for Paul to take home so I couldn’t forget to collect it at the finish. I got out there & found I’d just missed the RRRs as they passed the checkpoint on their way out of Dalemain estate 4 miles into the 50 mile race. Paul walked with me while I ate my pasta so he could take my bowl & then we said goodbye, see you at the finish.

This section was a real low point. I was so disappointed to have not made it in time to see our 50 runners. I’d hoped they would all pass me 1 by 1 & give me a bit of a boost, but now I was struggling & all these other annoyingly cheery 50 runners kept passing me. Most people put their race number on their pack so everyone coming up behind sees your name & which race you are in. They all kept saying, "Well done Trish, you’re doing amazing!" - I was just NOT in the mood for it!

Normally I enjoy the section to Howtown, as the terrain is pretty easy, but this time there wasn’t much running & I was really struggling mentally. I was mostly on my own as the last wave of the 50 were all overtaking me & not many people were moving at my pace. But at least it had stopped raining! Howtown is 66 miles & I was trying to console myself that I was almost 2/3 of the way round, but I knew I had the biggest climb of the race coming up – Fusedale (or F*%^dale as Bryan calls it). This is just a long slog of a climb, which felt much longer than normal in my tired state, but I wasn’t getting overtaken by runners doing the 50 here as everyone was moving equally slowly. This is also where the 1st real waves of tiredness set in - I felt like I could just lie down & sleep.

After the climb there seemed to be a new section that I’d never noticed when I did the 50, which went on for ages along the tops before the descent down to Haweswater. Everyone says Haweswater is the worst part of the whole Lakeland route as it is narrow, rocky & never-ending, but this time it wasn’t quite as bad as usual - I was so far back in the field that the crowds had thinned out. Along here I became aware that the tracker was digging into my shoulder & was getting quite painful. This & my increasing tiredness was making things really difficult, so it was such a relief to finally reach Mardale (75 miles). I knew I needed to rest at this point so decided to make this a longer stop. A volunteer asked what I wanted when I arrived & I asked for a chair, a coffee & something to eat. There were no chairs but he said I could sit on the tail lift of the truck they had parked next to the marquee. I couldn’t decide what to eat so he brought me a stack of sandwiches & a banana, then came back with a coffee & went off to fill my water bottles. 2 guys also doing the 100 were sat next to me now & they were laughing at my apparent VIP status - why was I getting all this special service? I’d obviously arrived at the perfect moment during a lull, as at some of the previous checkpoints the volunteers had been run off their feet & I’d had no help at all, but here I had all the help & made the most of it! The sun was out now & it was quite warm even sat still. There was a guy asleep against the wall opposite me, he’d asked them to wake him up after 10 minutes. He set off again, but there were a few people DNFing here. It’s a bad place to drop out as it is at the very end of a long single-track road & miles from anywhere. While I was there I saw the guy from Open Tracking & asked him to move the tracker to the other side of my pack. They had someone at all the checkpoints to keep an eye on the tracking & replace any faulty trackers on the way round. He moved it from my right shoulder to my left, which did mean it was slightly in the way of my poles, but that didn’t matter as my poles were out now & I didn’t expect to be putting them away again before the finish. It also meant that I ended up with matching chafing on both shoulders by the end of the race, but it did relieve the pain for a while.

Eventually I had to move from my spot in the sun & set off on the climb up Gatesgarth. It zigzags forever but is one of the last big climbs. I strategically caught up with another 100 runner here so I had someone to chat to, to distract me from the climb, then we both ran most of the way down the other side to Sadgill & the next little climb before Kentmere. Just here I felt a pain in my left foot so stopped to check on it. When I’d changed my socks & shoes at Dalemain my feet had been a bit wrinkly from the amount of water on the trail & I’d taped up bits on my left foot which looked like the beginning of blisters. The pain now seemed to be caused by the tape not the blisters, so I peeled it off & put my sock & shoe back on. While I was doing this, all the people I’d overtaken on the way down the hill had passed me, but it didn’t matter, I was still making progress towards the next checkpoint. I shuffled on with a group of runners in the 50, ran down the short road section & reached the dreaded wall stiles before Kentmere. There are 3 stiles here, high stone walls with a set of steps each side, they felt 100 feet high. I found myself at the back of a queue as everyone struggled over them. It was just beginning to get dark now & I reached Kentmere just before it was too dark to see without a headtorch. After another coffee here & something to eat, I refilled my water & got my headtorch out. I’d put brand new batteries in at Dalemain & had another spare set, but when I turned it on it just flashed & went out, presumably because it had got water inside it at some point. I put the other new batteries into my other headtorch, but now I was worrying about the battery life again. This torch had only lasted until 2am the 1st night, now it had to get me through the full night. I set off, delaying turning the torch on until the last possible moment to save a couple more minutes of battery.

Up Garburn Pass, which is terrible & rocky but slightly better in the dark as you can’t see how long it goes on for, then down the hill into Troutbeck. Here I overtook a few people with a fast walking pace, trying to shuffle on the downhills. I wasn’t exactly hallucinating but I was struggling with my vision & the rocky ground in my headtorch light kept morphing into different things. Ferns would look like solid objects until I looked at them directly & they were clearly ferns again. I tried to call Paul when I got phone signal in Troutbeck, but it was midnight now & he was having a brief nap between dot-checking. After Troutbeck there is a little wooded section that I remembered being a bit uneven underfoot with a few twists & turns. I caught up with some other runners here & we stayed together for a while. The navigation turned out to be much easier than any of us remembered & fairly soon we were coming down into Ambleside. On the way from Troutbeck we’d discussed the route through Ambleside - it can be overwhelming as there are people! Streetlights too! Plus noise! As soon as we got to the town we came to a large group of loud, drunken people in the road outside one of the bars - they tried to talk to us & we tried to shuffle past them as fast as we could. Then we found a very confused runner coming the wrong way & we pointed out the route - "Past the pub, across the road, through the archway, down the road, across the junction, to the checkpoint" - & finally we were there.

Ambleside is a great checkpoint but I think I missed most of it this year – I certainly didn’t see Aldo the Caveman or even really notice anyone in fancy dress (Jurassic Park theme). On the 50, you just go to a table outside for food & water but there is actually a semi-secret indoor part which I went into this year because it has…drumroll…real toilets! After 90 miles of portaloos this was quite exciting. There is also a room set up for 100 runners to sleep, plus hot food & drinks inside. From Ambleside there were only(!) 15 miles to go - I knew I could make it to the finish if I could just keep moving.

After topping up with food (including grapes labelled 'Solid Wine') I set off through the park & up another hill. Again I ended up in a group of runners, including Helen & Kim, & we stayed together most of the way to Chapel Stile. There’s a long flat section next to Elterwater & when we got here a group of 50 runners caught us up [think that's Lakeland 50 competitors rather than 50 people - ed]. After a bit they started singing & serenaded(?) us all the way to the bridge before eventually passing us. It's only 5 miles to Chapel Stile but felt like a long way, especially towards the end where you get on another flat track that goes in no time when running but took forever at the pace we were going. We finally made it to the Chapel Stile marquee at 3:44am.

The Chapel Stile theme was Star Wars but, like Ambleside, I was pretty much oblivious to the fancy dress & just confused when the guy cutting up watermelon was talking about Baby Yoda. There was also a guy in a Darth Vader costume who I didn’t notice at all. I was struggling to eat anything now but got a few snacks & was out the door again fairly quickly. It was very cold now & I wanted to keep moving. I left at the same time as 2 50 runners, 1 of whom was also called Trish - which I was finding a bit confusing as no-one else is called Trish. I checked the results later - she was a real person not a hallucination. Soon I caught up with Helen again, who I’d run with on & off since Ambleside. At this point we realised we had actually met before, on the official recce back in November. We stayed together almost until Tilberthwaite & caught up with Kim, who I stayed with almost to the finish. Soon after leaving Chapel Stile it got light & our headtorches were off by the time we climbed the zigzags at Side Pike, where we had beautiful misty dawn views. I was really struggling with tiredness now & it was a terrible slog around Blea Tarn & the bog at Blea Moss. Someone had put flags out to guide us across the bog, but we soon decided the flags were actually the bit to avoid & we needed to be a lot higher. Helen left us on the road as she felt able to run a bit, but Kim’s knee was hurting now so we were still going slow. I hate the last bit over the hill to Tilberthwaite at the best of times & now I was feeling dizzy & exhausted, this probably my lowest point of the race. At one point I had to sit down on a rock, which helped with the dizziness, but I got moving again when I heard more people behind me, as I felt too exhausted to explain why I was sat on a rock in the middle of the bracken. Finally, Tilberthwaite checkpoint was in sight.

At Tilberthwaite I had to sit down for a bit as I was so dizzy & couldn’t face the climb with the quarry on 1 side & the gully on the other. I don’t know how long we stopped for but I had a coffee & felt a bit better, then we started the final climb after putting our donations in the bucket for Jacob’s Ladder. It was getting warm now & we took off our jackets, then up up up past the lone tree & the little flat bit where you normally get a view of Coniston, but it was too cloudy. Everyone was talking about the terrible final descent into Coniston, but I love this part & once we got to it & started down the rocky bit I was pulling ahead of the rest of our group. I looked back & decided not to wait, then suddenly I was running. Once I started running, I just kept going, down the path to the track where some volunteers were explaining to passers-by that the 100 runners have until 10am & the 50 runners have until 11.30am. However, they don’t actually enforce the cut-off - so as long as you are through Tilberthwaite before those times they will let you finish & everyone who completes the course gets the medal. I was so happy, as I knew I was going to make it within the official cut-off – I had no idea what time it was, as my watch had died again, but I knew I was inside the time. The track turns into a gravel road & you pass the bridge where we turned off on the way up nearly 40 hours earlier. Now I was running past people. As I passed them, they would see my blue 100 number & there were lots of cheers of surprise in seeing someone actually running after 104 miles. I put away my poles as I reached the tarmac, then it is maybe half a mile through the village to the finish. The advantage of finishing in daylight was that there were people watching & cheering as the runners made their way through the village. I knew Paul & Janet would be waiting for me near the finish - after I turned the last corner to come down the hill, I heard Paul shout my name from the bottom of the hill. I could see a crowd of people but was still having to concentrate on not tripping over & not running into spectators or exhausted finishers making their way back up the hill. Then I could see Paul & Frank with Janet & Anthony; I was still running running running down the hill & under the finish arch at 38 hours, 40 minutes, 48 seconds.

A volunteer met me & asked, "Have you stopped your watch?" I cheerfully told him it had died hours ago & I didn’t care. He then asked if this was my 1st 100, so he’d have the right information when he led me into the marquee & announced to the crowd, "This is Trish, 3rd time Lakeland finisher & 1st time 100 finisher!!!"

They took my tracker off me & someone handed me a medal. I had my photo taken & was given my finisher’s t-shirt. Paul & Team RRR were waiting for me as I made my way round the barriers to them. I have no idea what I said at this point, it was all a total blur. We went back to the hotel (Paul had brought the car round to the finish for me) where I showered & slept. My feet weren’t really that bad, a few blisters & a bit wrinkly, but I knew from 2022 they’d recover quickly. Every muscle in my legs was hurting, so it took a while to get showered & then dressed again. I’d wanted to go to the presentation but none of the others were going & I needed the rest more, so I got a couple of hours sleep before we went to the pub & saw the rest of Team RRR. The walk to the Black Bull took a lot longer than the usual 10 minutes! Getting in & out of seats was extremely painful, plus there are 2 steps to go up & down inside the pub, which was agony.

Talking to everyone else it started to sink in what I had actually achieved. Even though I’d trained hard for this & prepared as well as I could, I hadn’t really known if it was possible. With over 1/3 of starters DNFing each year I knew it wouldn’t be easy & there is so much that could go wrong. My goal had been to just get round within the 40 hours & I’d done it with over an hour to spare, but it had taken so much mental strength to keep going through the painful 2nd half. Of the 735 starters, 457 (62%) finished. I was 347th finisher & 59th lady. 96 ladies finished out of 165 starters.

It was wonderful to have the 50 runners there & to hear how their races had gone. Not everyone had had the day they wanted, but to have all of us complete our races is a huge achievement for the club. We recreated our photo from last year outside the Black Bull (see below), now with 7 finisher shirts instead of 5. There was lots of talk of “Never again” but we all know how that turned out last year. I think we know what we’ll be doing when the ballot opens for 2025 on 1st September.  [Trish Callan]