The Great Lakeland Challenge
(The Longest, Steepest, Highest Challenge in England – Canoe the length of Windermere (10.5miles), Cycle 28miles incorporating Wrynose and Hardknott Pass, climb up Scarfell Pikes and into Langdale Valley, 8miles - all within 12 hours)
On Thursday 15th May I saw Ian off to work, Beth and George went off to ‘Mini Movers’ and I had an hour to pack all my kit before Pam came to pick me up in the team car. The weather had been so unsettled I didn’t know whether to pack for hot sunshine or cold and wet. In the end I opted for everything I possess (no change there then – says Ian!). I hadn’t seen the team car before so was very impressed when the Ford Galaxy rolled up, emblazoned with stickers from our sponsors and bearing our team name ‘Mid-Life Tri-Sis’ in big letters across the bonnet and the rear bumper. I was also very nervous, this was it, no going back, tomorrow I would be embarking on one of the most difficult challenges that I’ve faced.
It was actually a lovely day on Thursday, perfect conditions for the event, sunny, but not too hot and for the first time in weeks there was no noticeable wind. I’d seen the weather forecast for the next day (rain, 15mph winds and a wind chill below zero), but they always get it wrong and how could it change so quickly? Once we got up to the Lakes, we met up with Kath, the 3rd competing member of the team, and went for a nice lunch in Windermere to try and relax. We then did the final leg of the journey up to Elterwater and the Langdale hotel, which brought back lots of pleasant memories. As a child we had a caravan on the Langdale Estate, before it became a time share development All the things that signalled we were nearly there when I young were still there: the Squirrel Nutkin sign, Greg’s Gate (named after Harry’s son Greg said he liked it), Skelwith Bridge and finally the common above Elterwater.
We had hoped to get a massage when we arrived, but they were all booked up so we settled for the sauna and Jacuzzi. Our final team member, Fran arrived soon after so we had our team photos taken and got the bikes checked over. Then it was down to the serious business of loading up with food and a glass of wine (to help me sleep!) and attending the team briefing. By the time that was over and we’d picked a few brains for the best route up the lake, it was time to load up the team car ready for our early start in the morning, and get to bed (11.30pm as oppose to the 10pm early night I’d planned). The bed was very comfy, but I was far too wound up to sleep I was really worried that we’d be given a canoe with no middle seat and I’d have to do the whole canoe section on my knees.
I suppose I must have got some sleep because Kath’s alarm woke me at 4.45am. I looked out of the window and as predicted it was peeing down. I made up my drinks and labelled my bags for each leg of the event to make life easier for Fran, our driver.
Despite there being 24 teams and all the marshals at breakfast it was remarkably quiet, I was still worrying about the canoe and just wanted to get down to Fellfoot at the bottom of Windermere as soon as possible so I could see what canoe we’d been allocated.
We were very glad we’d been able to get all the bikes inside the car, at least they would stay dry until we needed them. The other teams were very impressed at how we’d managed to get all the team and the bikes inside. We only left 2 seats in the back of the car and had them down one side so that we could put all three bikes upright and side by side. On the drive down to Fellfoot we had the radio on to calm our nerves and were really chuffed when the event got a mention.
When we arrived at Fellfoot we got all our waterproofs on and went down to see the canoes, we were team number 1 so I could see straight away that we had a canoe with a middle seat. It was such a relief; I finally felt I could relax a bit. We went through the kit check and got onto the water. We were all lined up between 2 safety boats for the start so it was a bit chaotic when the whistle went. There was a fair bit of bumping into each other, but nobody ended up in the water. Based on our advice from the night before we hugged the right side of the lake so we could get shelter from the wind. It was excellent advise, we found our rhythm and got a good pace going, we were a fair bit back from the leaders, but there were still a few canoes behind us (including the other girls team who had chosen to go up the lake on the other side). We had a few jokes which kept us going when we were getting bored and did a lot of singing (no wonder it was raining!). There was a lot of water sloshing around in the bottom of the canoe and I was really glad I had a seat and didn’t have to kneel in it. When we reached the chain ferry we had to head over to the other side of the lake. It was quite choppy there and a lot more difficult to paddle, we were tiring, but it looked like everyone else was too. We counted our strokes aloud to keep the pace up and were quite surprised to reach the landing point in just over 2 hours.
The clock stops when the whole team and the canoe are over the line on the beach, so we had to jump out and drag the canoe off the water. We were greeted by the Border TV cameras, although I’m sure if they showed us they would have had to have had the bleeper on! The landing point was Low Wray campsite so being the first girl’s team in Fran had commandeered the ladies loos for us to get changed in. We quickly changed into dry clothes for the cycle section and retrieved our bikes. It was actually really nice to get on the bike after the canoe section, it was a welcome change in position and I was glad to be using a different set of muscles. As we set off I had to chuck one of my bottles as it was catching on my leg and Pam dropped one of hers. In hindsight it was probably a good thing, we didn’t run out of fluids and it saved us carrying the extra weight.
The cycle section was the big test for us; I was fairly confident as we’d done a dummy a run a couple of weeks earlier and I knew I could manage it well within the time limit. Pam and Kath on the other hand weren’t so confident. Neither had done a great deal of cycling in the past and both had come off their bikes during training, Kath came off in Hazel Grove and needed 4 stitches in her chin, whilst Pam had hurt her wrist whilst wrestling with her cleats. On the dummy run Pam was on some dodgy
painkillers and had ended up projectile vomiting on one of the first descents, so the rest of the training ride had been very slow with lots of stops. Still they had put the training in and Pam had stopped taking the pills that made her ill so I was pretty sure they would be OK. We were very fortunate in that the wind was behind over the passes. We stuck together to the bottom of Wrynose and then I rode up on my own passing quite a few teams walking up the steep bits, but they all gave me loads of encouragement. They did, however, question my sanity when I got to the top and turned round to go back. I cycled down the first bit and then dumped my bike at the steep bit so I could go and push Pam’s bike for her. It was great to see that the other 2 weren’t that far behind, they’d cycled a fair way up and we reached the top in less than half the time it took us in the practice ride.
The tailwind in the valley between the 2 passes was a welcome treat after the headwind we’d had on the training ride, we got the speed up to 30mph in places and it gave us time to recover before Hardknott. It was an amazing sight approaching Hardknott pass; you could see exactly where the road went because you could see the cyclists on every bend. I decided I was riding up this one as well and was really lucky because there was a big party of Dutch students walking the opposite way as I was doing the climb and they gave me so much encouragement, there was no way I was getting off. Again I reached the top and went back to give Pam a push, we’d passed quite a few other people so we must have made up some time on those who beat us in the canoe and we were feeling really pleased with ourselves.
The decent off Hardknott was horrendous, the road was more like a river so rather than chance an accident we got off the bikes and pushed them round the first couple of bends. We were very lucky that we didn’t puncture, because we passed 3 teams that had. Now we had the passes out of the way and had managed to keep the average speed high enough to get us through the cycle section in 3 hours we were storming down to Eskdale Green with the wind behind. The route from there to Wasdale Head was tough though, there are a couple of nasty climbs and we turned into the wind along the side of Wastwater. This took its toll on us and as the strongest cyclist I had to take up my position as windbreak on the front! We kept going though and got to Wasdale Head in less that 3 hours – nobody passed us.
It was still raining and hadn’t stopped all day, I had planned to change for the mountain leg, but I only had thin trousers or shorts left and I didn’t fancy putting my soaking waterproofs from the canoe on top, so I decided to stick with my warm cycling tights. When I took my shoes off to dry my feet and change into my hiking boots I discovered that they’d gone wrinkled through being soaked for so long. Still it was nice to get dry socks on and have warm feet, even though it would probably be short lived!
We started the last leg in fairly good spirits (it was the last leg after all). We set off at a jog for the cameras, but soon reverted to walking. As soon as we hit the steep climb, the earlier sections started taking their toll on Pam and Kath, so it was quite long trek to the top of Scafell. I was quite frustrated because I could see a couple of other teams up in front and would have liked to have caught them up, equally I didn’t want the 2 teams that we could see behind us to catch us. I was also cold and wet and wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible! The 2 teams behind did catch us, but we were into the fog by then so we couldn’t see anyone up in front anyway. The conditions up at the top were terrible. Visibility was very poor, it was still pouring down and it was also very cold and windy. We had done the route before during training in very similar weather condition, so we knew what bearing to take from the summit. We’d also got over the fear factor of getting lost in the fog up there and knew that as long as we followed the cairns we would be safe. The worse bit was the scramble down from the trig point, the way isn’t marked at all and even though we knew we were following the right direction the path was a long time in coming. One of the other teams was lost and we could here them shouting to us. We all stuck together from there and picked our way from cairn to cairn until we got as far as the shelter just up from Angle Tarn, the other team dumped us and went on ahead. It was still thick fog when we got to Angle Tarn and the top of Rosset’s Gill, but we didn’t care at that point we knew it wasn’t much further and one of the marshals told us we were lying in 15th position. The marshals were amazing, most of them were above the fog line and had been up the mountain most of the day; at least we were moving so we could keep warm. So next time you’re marshalling one of our events on Cheshire and it’s cold and wet, just be thankful you’re not stuck up Scafell in the fog for 8 hours.
We decided to finish the route by going straight down the Gill, rather that the path that takes you a lot further round. We clambered down, still in the fog, until suddenly we could see again. Langdale valley was stretching out in front of us and it felt great that it would soon be over. A quick time check suggested there was a chance we could finish in less than ten and half hours, we had nothing to lose so we marched on as quickly as we could. The finish was in sight, we walked through Stool End Farm and there was the finish banner about 75m ahead. We checked we were all up for it, held hands and ran for the line. We were greeted with champagne and lots of hugs and it felt fantastic!
The final result was an overall time of 10 hours 24 minutes, which included the changeovers. The times for the individual sections were:
Canoe 2hours 8mins
Cycle 2hours 54mins
Climb 4hours 43mins
We came 15th out of 24 teams, we were the first of the 2 ladies teams to finish and we raised the second most amount of money £11,612.
Overall the event raised over £145,000 for the Wooden Spoon Society who fund projects all over the UK to enhance the lives of disabled and disadvantaged children and young people.
Thank you to everyone who encouraged me, sponsored me, and supported my fundraising. For those who haven’t yet paid up, if you could let me have the money as soon as possible I’d be very grateful. Cheques should be made payable to the Wooden Spoon Society and can be sent to me at:
8 Adswood Grove
Edgeley
Stockport
SK3 9QU

If you can’t remember how much you sponsored, give me a ring on 0161 474 0635
and I’ll remind you
Thanks again Karen